A Florida man swam through the flooded streets of Naples following Hurricane Ian’s landfall to save his mother, who was trapped inside her home.
Johnny Lauder said by the time he got to his mother’s home, which is about half of a mile away from his, the water was at her chest.
“There was a van at the end of the street that floated past me,” Lauder told 10 Tampa Bay. “I have been in rough water before, and this was like a large body of water moving.”
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Lauder’s mother, who is 84 years old, is disabled and uses a wheelchair. He placed her on a table to rest and said that once the water lowered some, he pushed her out of the home in her wheelchair.
“The water was still up to her belly and then her chest at some parts of the street, but it was a lot less pushing against us,” Lauder said. “It took us almost an hour to get to where there’s a hotel on the corner to find a dry spot.”
Lauder’s mother is reportedly being treated at a local hospital for a skin condition that led to an infection from the storm’s water.
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Lauder and his mother say they lost everything inside their homes but are grateful to be alive.
“We are OK, a lost house and lost possessions, but we didn’t lose lives,” Lauder said.
