(NewsNation) — “We just prayed.” That’s how Dan Schuyler remembers the terrifying moments he and his wife had to swim from room to room throughout their Ft. Myers home during Hurricane Ian.
Schuyler is no stranger to hurricanes. Ian marked the fourth one he has experienced, but this treacherous storm destroyed both his home and business.
While appearing on “NewsNation Prime,” Schuyler walked through what happened during the deadly hurricane.
He remembered that he and his wife along with their two dogs were in the back bedroom when he says the eye of the storm was hovering above his community.
“It sounded like a freight train was going to take the roof off,” Schuyler said.
Soon, water reached the top of their bed, reaching about four feet high throughout the house. At that point, he told his wife they may need to ride out the storm in their SUV in the garage.
There was a moment Schuyler thought his family might not make it out alive, but he decided to keep it to himself.
“It literally sounded like a train was coming through the middle of the house. The water was coming up through the actual floor, coming in the ceiling, coming in all the windows, but I wanted to maintain my cool for my wife. So, you just react, and I said, ‘Let’s get to the garage.’”
From there, they grabbed their dogs and jumped into the SUV. Then the water began rising over the steering wheel of the vehicle.
They returned to the interior of the home and went to the back bedroom and huddled on the bed, waiting for the worst to be over. The eye of the hurricane eventually started to dissipate, and the winds dropped.
“The water came in just as fast as it went out. It blew it in and sucked it right out, extremely dangerous. There’s nothing left of the house, the boat or the cars. Everything is gone,” Schuyler said.
The Category 4 hurricane hit Florida the hardest. The storm ravaged Schuyler’s home of Ft. Myers, leaving behind swaths of damage in the area.