Saving our House After Hurricane Ian Hit South Florida

on September 28 2022 hurricane Ian made landfall in Florida causing more than 113 billion dollars in Damages it was the worst storm seen in Florida since 1935. and our little beach house just happened to be directly in its path okay we're packing up I got all kinds of supplies getting the uh the generator and some tools packed in there at the yeti bunch of screws all kinds of stuff getting things ready to go tomorrow morning leaving for Fort Myers Beach here we go all right it's 4 30 in the morning we are on our way and we've got two degrees Celsius outside well it's coming up to the floor now it was cool we're on our way Fort Myers Beach here we go in the days following the storm we were really desperate to find out any information scouring the internet we found a few aerial shots that showed us the house was indeed Still Standing we knew there was a roof and some walls but really we didn't know much else but from these photos we could really see the extent of the destruction in the area including what looked like an entire house that floated into our backyard [Music] Fort Myers Beach would be completely closed for about a week while search and rescue operations went into high gear and then finally we were on the road a 2 000 kilometer Journey from our home north of Toronto straight South to Fort Myers Beach [Music] just West Virginia and we are cruising pretty good [Applause] with Brian at the wheel it was great to have a buddy along for the trip it truly made it more of an adventure we had a lot of time to think about how it would be to see the host for the first time and to plan our attack decided early on to just look at this like a mission just concentrate on one small piece at a time and not the whole thing 45 p.m and we are just cruising along here Virginia and a good long day but been uh pretty pretty good driving [Music] to our destination [Music] about three hours to go I think we're in Florida we have uh Fuel and we're ready to interrupt that's our trusted who's that hey anything to say Ocala here we are yeah Chicago Florida almost there another few hours came we saw we're leaving yeah [Music] washrooms and supplies and damage mitigation electrical vehicles ambulance welcome to Fort Myers it's a little bit of a nasty arrival but we made it [Music] day one of our recovery operation day one prepared we got the you got the Triple Stacker and uh we're ready to go the only problem is there is probably a couple of hours of this yes or not even near the beach we're five kilometers from the bridge we have a move quite some time behind us but you know what we'll uh just sit here and have some muffins got some Florida water in the back if we need it and we're ready to go do some do some work oh we're moving [Music] thank you pictures and video just don't do it justice it's so surreal it's hard to understand what you're looking at [Music] getting back onto the island was no easy task only about 12 kilometers from our Airbnb to the house but the journey took three hours and another three to get back [Music] foreign [Music] [Music] just absolutely like a movie setting out here that's the only way you can really describe it it just doesn't it just doesn't seem real [Music] thank you [Music] [Music] we drove up to the house I was really ready for an emotional experience put in the end it just wasn't I think I'd already been through all that and was just glad to be there and ready to get to work and that's what we did one piece at a time remove it from the house get it to the curb and repeat [Music] [Music] so on day one it pretty much ran the entire day it was pretty sloppy but actually it kept us cool on a hot day which was just fine with us we basically started with the garage doors and worked our way to the back we'll use straps where we could and even drag some of the heavier items out with the truck and one thing we quickly Learned was just how heavy cement board with stucco really is [Music] it's hard to imagine that there was actually 10 feet of water here just another couple of inches and her house would likely have been washed away we were definitely one of the lucky ones [Music] so I was just digging through Rubble as yeah that's what we're going to be doing for days and uh in the sand I found buried somebody's trail cam so I'm very interested I see looks like it's got a little bit of water inside maybe but I'm sure I'll be able to salvage the card and maybe we can find out who's Cameron this is oh pretty nasty [Music] just like in the winter all the Neighbors come out and do some shoveling [Music] it's a little wet and nasty but uh you know wet and nasty look at that there's there's a drive whale concrete slab underneath there really hard to get anything out of here with wheels screw this because it's so three inches of sand or look over here for a second you might notice that somebody's bathtub just found its way all the way into the back bedroom it's just floated right in there through the back of the house pretty crazy well there's your problem right there just ripping at her oh yeah [Music] all right I'm probably done enough [Music] foreign [Music] [Music] what's the thread count on that I mean seriously just go peeing under the side of the fridge salt water from Mother Earth deposited in the fridge awesome we are getting Tiki table yeah we're getting to it now that's good we're gonna create our little got our tool kind of Command Center here with that in the truck and now we're gonna have like uh you know little patio action so that we can start mixing you know get back at it so we are at the end of day two and it has been a hell of a day um let me first bring you out here and show you the pile of debris which is significantly grown we have got a lot of stuff it is just unbelievable and then of course that's pile number two this is pile number one over here I'm gonna find some spray paint make my sign so then we go into the driveway still got a lot of sand but we got a special treat coming tomorrow to take deal with all that got a guy with a skid steer we're gonna make short work of it so we built a nice table that's sort of the command center we uh notice that this post that wall over there came and took out this post and so we removed that all that wall and brought it out to the curb and we uh kind of made a temporary support jacked that up a little bit so it's nice and level and we're good to go and then into the right side here what used to be the garage pretty much cleaned up except for the back quarter we did manage to salvage lots of uh chairs which are in pretty decent shape most of them surprisingly I mean they're all they are all rusted and stuff so they'll get replaced but and uh yeah into so this was our storage area and there was a wall here and we took down took down that wall gone rip that out and then this was the bedroom closet it's like the mud room now it's all the mud room and we had another wall across here with the door of the bedroom and then we only have one more mattress to go and that is really wedged in there and then there's somebody else's mattress sort of over in there um so yeah bed frame the sink and uh I'll start pitching stuff that way I think get some of this cleared up tomorrow with bobcat and uh we should be good to go my buddy bry right here all right he's the man he's the man right here we're doing I couldn't have done it without him [Music] as we entered day three of our recovery Mission I said goodbye to Brian who was flying back to Toronto for a wedding and I said hello to our new friend Chuck from Miami and Chuck came with a bobcat it was such a relief to see how fast the Bobcat could get things cleaned up literally tons of sand and debris and I wasn't even breaking a sweat and after two long days of manual labor this was just unbelievable okay I got all the drywall and insulation taken down this wall here on the side of the garage and absolutely killing it the driveway again pretty amazing next up this area after two very long days of manual labor this was just unbelievable and to see a house emerge out of the rubble was such a great feeling [Music] [Music] thank you [Music] one of our main goals is to remove all of the wet debris before mold literally took over there was soaking wet insulation trapping moisture against the walls bedding mattresses a fridge filled with salt water all the things that would cause mold growth very quickly so it was such a great feeling to see it get all cleaned up [Music] so good [Music] our Bobcat operator was a real surgeon with his machine clearance just to get in and out of the garage was incredibly tight he did a trip after trip without causing any further damage [Music] except of course from my GoPro which I left right in his path thank you that's a lot of debris in our backyard just on and on there's our beloved Tiki Bar see if I can salvage the sign out of there hopefully and so by the end of day three we had the lower level completely cleaned out all of the walls ceilings furniture and appliances along with other people's bathtubs and Roofing beds and other stuff removed and piled up out of the curb State and FEMA had massive trucks picking up debris but only from the roadside [Music] after a day off to resupply pick up my friend Tony from the airport and move into the house we finally found our solution to the art and his name was Malachi Malachi was in from Orlando and came with a talented hard-working crew and a boatload of heavy equipment we made a deal and they got right to it they worked long days and into the night stopping by occasionally for burgers and beers and some great stories and this guy was truly an artist on the excavator taking care around the pool and moving debris at Breakneck speed it was really impressive he even removed our neighbor's massive propane tank from the pool which had been leaking propane into the debris pile for more than a week now he chewed away at the house and floated into our property and slowly the pool and what was left of our yard emerged from the rubble and after another three days with Tony and I and Malachi's team our yard was finally clear of debris well that just about wraps up part one of our little Adventure down here to Fort Myers Beach Florida and uh the work on our house we've got a ton done with my buddy Brian and then Tony following up and it's just been a roller coaster of emotions and and really great to get great to get a bunch of work done I feel like we're we're ready to build now we're ready to renovate it's as much of a disaster although it still is and you know you're looking in this place the fan is still spinning around in their room and there's still stuff there but that house has gotta that's got to come down and it's all going to look basically like this right now so pool is uh a mess but that's going to get cleaned up and yeah we're uh I feel like we're in pretty good shape still some Fireball up by the hot tub a ton of work we got a couple of new windows in which is amazing another new window up there uh all this is scrubbed out it's just everywhere you look we've been kicking some butt the new Tiki Bar Tiki Bar two and another giant pile of uh debris out by the street this time it's from our neighbors uh yeah so that's it we're gonna get on a flight home tomorrow and uh yeah be home for a few weeks and then come back down and uh and then get started with the build and with um renovating and making it right [Music] [Music]

Channel: Make Adventure

Views: 19,323

Keywords: hurricane, florida, Fort Myers, Fort Myers Beach, South Florida, Disaster, storm, beach, beach house, house, house build

Id: QtqvO-fD-V4

Length: 23min 48sec (1428 seconds)

Published: Sat Mar 25 2023