Hurricane Ian, the monstrous category 4 storm, crossed into Port Charlotte, Florida at 5:22 a.m. on September 28, 2022. My husband and I knew it was coming. When Port Charlotte issued a voluntary evacuation, we decided to ride the storm out. Why not evacuate? Well, we were largely caught off guard, in part because the storm was predicted to hit the Tampa metro area. By the time Ian’s direction unexpectedly changed its course we had no time to leave. Plus both of our vehicles had less than a half tank of gas left. Gasoline was scarce with ridiculously miles-long lines. We felt confident that our solid block home could weather a storm. Paul and I felt we had done everything right by putting up hurricane shutters. But the storm was relentless, and it kept coming for 8 plus hours.
When Hurricane Ian made landfall, it made American history. As it turned out, this hurricane became one of the most powerful storms to reach the United States mainland. Ian blasted through with frightening wind raging at speeds up to 150 mile per hour, snapping telephone and utility poles, ripping roofs from homes, and tumbling boats, mobile homes, and RVs like toys. It’s astounding when you see how several gas stations were refashioned by the twisting and turning of metal, in odd shapes like water slides and then wrapped the metal around gas pumps. Ian totally destroyed homes and shredded buildings, uprooted massive trees, and created catastrophic flooding by turning streets into makeshift rivers. We were among the millions of people in southwest Florida who endured a terrifying ordeal. Paul and I were left without power, internet, fuel, water, and little cellphone coverage for 13 days.
It wasn’t long before all the preparations that we had made became useless. We were in the eye of the hurricane. Paul and I sat in our home without any power and with windows darkened by the storm shutters, as Hurricane Ian roared around us. We heard debris thrashing against our roof and the storm shutters. Massive trees which surrounded our home swayed back and forth, back and forth for hours. They bounced hard against our home until two of them finally snapped and landed on our rooftop. One of those being 104-foot long with enormous branches still left intact.
Our home was built with a split bedroom floor plan. The main bedroom or master suite is separated from the rest of the rooms in the house. Our master bedroom is on one end of the house, the common living spaces in the middle, and the other bedrooms grouped together on the other side of the house. The branches from those trees trees that landed on our roof punctured huge holes in our roof and ceilings in the master bedroom and walk-in closet. Torrential rain gushed in through the gaping holes. There was an opening about 4-inches wide by 60-inch long letting a downpour come through like a waterfall. Before long the rooms were submerged with 3-4inches of dirty floodwater.
After a storm like this, there’s no getting around it, major flooding requires professional help. So, we hired Just Counters to remove the waterlogged wet carpet, baseboards, drywall and insulation.
After all the water soaked drywall was removed, I knew this was an opportunity to leave a plastic-wrapped time capsule between studs next to one of the bedroom windows.
Here’s what I hid away to be found years and years from now. Perhaps, decades from now! Maybe even centuries!! In the last slider below, look for the marked red circle next to a window. Do you see it? That’s where I hid the time capsule.
1. A story about our humble beginnings. Of when and why we fell in love with this house and where we came from.
2. I wrote stories about the renovations we did to the living room, dining room, and master bedroom after we purchased the home.
3. I wrote a blog about Hurricane Ian, and printed it.
4. I printed a bunch of “before” and “after” pictures. Maybe one day someone will look at them and be surprised with my design choices. I could have easily printed 100’s of photos, but limited myself.
5. An autographed copy of my published book.
If I would have had time, I could have put my website blogs on a flash drive. Since my blog may not be around and who knows if the internet as we know it will even exist decades from now, I decided not to take the time to make a flash drive.
Lastly, I included my email address just in case the future homeowners want to reach out to me when they find my time capsule. I’ll be a very old lady by then.
My heart goes out to the hundreds of thousands of others who have gone through this terrible disaster. My thoughts and prayers are for those that have lost their entire homes, their loved ones, and for all those who are still displaced by this devastating event.
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