On Friday, Rachel Jeter was slated to celebrate her 40th birthday.
Rather, she was staying at a hotel than she had intended to, traveling 2 hours across the state in an Uber to Fort Lauderdale, which was the only location where she could hire a vehicle to return to Tennessee.
Her family spent a few days taking advantage of the sun and beach after traveling to Fort Myers Beach on Saturday. However, as the days went on, state and municipal authorities started issuing hurricane warnings.
The hurricane first looked to be approaching Tampa. Fort Myers Beach would end up being among the areas that will be severely damaged.
Jeter found herself in the eye of the hurricane. She claimed to have lost her automobile close to a beach rental where she and her family were vacationing, beneath 13 feet of water. After the storm, they had to trek four kilometers to safety.
Jeter said that she and her family had remained inside the house since most residents had minimized the storm for days. However, on Tuesday night, the holiday home’s owner begged them to leave.
We didn’t want to travel since, according to the woman, “the winds were already severe and there were tornadoes.”
Water began rushing into the home while her family was deciding what to do the next morning.
She said that it reached a height of 4 to 5 feet in less than 30 minutes.
The water continued to rise as they observed from the second story of the home.
She remarked, “It was terrible. We just kept looking out the windows in the hopes that it wouldn’t get much higher.
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