When Hurricane Ian hit Florida last week, leaving neighborhoods in Naples as if they had been swallowed by a river, Johnny Lauder sank into the murky, debris-strewn waters that others were trying to escape.
The 49-year-old was on a mission to save his 84-year-old mother, who uses a wheelchair. He lives a few blocks away and made a panicked call on Wednesday when the water coming into his house reached his chest.
“If I had waited, she wouldn’t be here,” Lauder told The Washington Post. “And that’s my mom. I would have done that for anyone’s mom or anyone else in that situation. You know, that’s what you’re supposed to do.”
Forecasters had initially predicted the hurricane would hit the Tampa Bay area, but by Tuesday afternoon, its path had veered south. The next day, it became one of the most powerful hurricanes to hit the country in decades, making landfall in southwest Florida as a Category 4 storm.
Naples faced a ferocious storm surge that flooded homes, knocked down power lines and “left the downtown area looking like Atlantis,” Lauder said. In those conditions, the former Chicago police officer and rescue diver said he was willing to do anything to save his mother, Karen, whose legs were amputated.
Lauder, his mother and son own homes in the same Naples community. They had chosen not to evacuate and did their best to prepare before Ian arrived. Once she did, Lauder stayed at her son’s house. His mother stayed at home, as she had insisted.
“She’s a very stubborn 84-year-old woman,” Lauder said. “And she said, ‘You’re not going to take me anywhere.’ I will have no privacy. I stay at home. “
When Ian arrived, things didn’t seem so bad, he said. But then Lauder peeked through the windows and “it was like looking into an aquarium.” The water soon began to well up inside and rise rapidly. Lauder’s two children, his son’s girlfriend and their animals took refuge in the attic. Then he got the call from his mother.
“That’s when I knew I had to rebound,” Lauder said. “So I jumped out the window and started wading through the water.”
Outside, signs of destruction were everywhere: power lines were bent, cars were swept away, and a jumble of household items was washed away by the wave. But there were also signs that gave Lauder hope, like a caterpillar that managed to cling to his hat and a kneecap that seemed to appear out of nowhere.
“It was like an act of God when the knee was just floating in front of me,” he said. “There was nothing on the street and it was like, ‘Whoa, OK, somebody’s watching me.'”
He made the half-mile journey in neck-deep swift water until he finally reached his mother.
“She was the happiest she’s ever been to see me,” Lauder said.
The house looked like a fishbowl. The water was more than four feet deep, with furniture, papers and memorabilia floating around Lauder’s mother, who was soaked and “shaking like a chihuahua.” After Lauder wrapped her in a set of dry sheets, he stacked some tables on top of each other and the two waited inside for the water to recede; at that point, Lauder’s young son arrived to help pull Karen out of her flooded home.
The three started back to Lauder’s son’s house. But as they were about to leave their mother’s residence, they noticed that one of Karen’s neighbors needed help. As the sky began to darken, Lauder’s son pushed his grandmother’s wheelchair through the water, which was now below her waist, as Lauder took the other woman to a hotel.
Recovery operations continue in Florida, where state officials said Sunday that at least 58 people, many in their 60s, had died as a result of the storm. In Naples, Lauder’s family lost two houses, almost all the belongings they contained, and their cars. He lives with his son until he can find a new place. Their mother will join them when she leaves the hospital, where she is being treated for infected wounds she received from the bacteria-laden water.
But Lauder said everything that was lost could be replaced.
“I have my mother, my children and my job. So I still have my hope,” he said.
Community support also keeps it going. Her sister-in-law, who lives in Miami, organized one GoFundMe account that has raised over $3,400 to help the family start from scratch. Every day, people, many of whom are in equally devastating situations, show “all kinds of acts of kindness,” Lauder said.
“It’s a shame that sometimes it takes a natural disaster for us to start helping each other,” he said. “But I think these hard times sometimes bring out the best in people.”
During the next hurricane, however, he will not be about to dive into the water. “I’m leaving early and I’m going to spend a vacation with my family,” he said.
And for anyone who might be hesitant to evacuate, Lauder urges them to reconsider.
“Please heed the warnings,” he said. “I would still save my mother again, but it’s definitely better not to stay.”
