Courtney Long, an Englewood resident her entire life, has battled a few storms in her life, but Hurricane Ian was different.
Long said she has been in Florida during Hurricane Irma, Andrew, and Hugo. But, what Long didn’t know at the time, like countless other Southwest Floridians, was how strong Hurricane Ian was.
Ian became a chaotic force of utter destruction, wreaking havoc and devasting nearly all of Southwest Florida.
“You look at the trailer park and it’s basically underwater,” Long said.
Courtney Long said the damage in Charlotte County is devastating. She lost everything and is worried about her neighbors and friends. @winknews #hurricaneian #ianflorida #ianaftermath #englewood pic.twitter.com/DIHwZtZ2F7
— Michelle Alvarez WINK News (@malvareztv) October 4, 2022
Long like so many others tried to flee before the ravaging and wrath of Ian reached full force.
“We were driving through the first probably hour and a half when it hit trying to get out of there,” Long said
Hurricane Ian was only beginning to slam into the Southwest coast of Florida and it became very clear to Long she had to leave.
“We barely got out of there, I don’t know how we got out of there,” Long said. “The grace of God we got out of there.”
Not holding words back about how she felt it was handled, Long put it very succinctly for everyone to hear.
“They evacuated us too late, bottom line,” Long said.