All language subtitles for Survival Mode S01E03_Subtitles01.ENG

We live in an era of
increased weather disaster.

Hurricanes are
getting bigger

and intensifying more quickly.

You just don't know when
it's going to be your turn.

It wasn't really until
24 hours before the storm

that we knew we were
in the dead center.

The fire chief
called me and said,

you know, Jackie,
this is the one.

This is it.
This is the catastrophic storm.

It's coming straight for us.
It's going to annihilate us.

A nightmare of
historic proportions

is unfolding in Florida
right now.

Entire neighborhoods
are underwater.

The church's roof is floating
by our house right now.

It was like someone
opened the floodgates.

The situation deteriorating,
I would say, by the second.

We knew we were in trouble.

And I had no way
to get to my parents.

Oh, gosh.

It is terrifying.

That's what these people
are going through right now.

You think you're
going to die.

Everything I did
was to stay alive.

There's no one that
can come save you.

This is survival mode.

Fort Myers Beach
before Hurricane Ian,

it's just a funky town.

People come from all
kinds of backgrounds,

and they're all there
for the same thing.

To hang out, see the sunset,
have a couple drinks,

and just relax.

At 10 o'clock at night,
if you want to hear music,

walk a few blocks.

There you are.

The excitement of new
neighbors every week

because they're coming from
Ohio, Minnesota, and Canada.

So we could argue sports
and have a beer together.

It was just an amazing life.

- It is a Tuesday morning.

Let's get right to
our news at 8 o'clock.

Hurricane Ian intensifies
to a major category 3 storm.

It started pummeling
Western Cuba overnight,

and it's expected
to grow even stronger

once it does hit
the United States.

Florida, ramping up
emergency preps.

We had heard this
all before,

actually, many times before.

Hurricane Irma,
they were calling for

14 to 16-foot storm surges.

And we did not get anything,

any damage on the island
at all.

So we felt like

that it was overkill again and
that we were going to be fine.

Fort Myers Beach has always
been very special to me.

We started coming here
when I was a young child.

My parents had a timeshare.

And every year, we came

until my parents had a crazy
notion to move down here.

And then I followed them
shortly after.

Now our houses are almost
exactly a mile door to door.

So we're pretty close
to each other.

It was wonderful
having my kids

so close to
their grandparents too.

They were able to spend
a lot of time with them.

My parents have always come
with us for most storms

because we have
a second story home.

Their home is one of
the older one-story homes

that Fort Myers Beach
was known for.

But for this storm, they
wanted to stay in their home.

My dad was very high spirited,
good mood.

He felt pretty confident
that they were OK.

- They told us, mandatory
evacuation on the beach.

But we're going to
ride this one out.

We got everything prepared
as good as we can.

I asked Mitch.

I said,
what do you want to do?

Do you want to stay?
Do you want to go?

It's up to you.

Mitch said, I guess we'll stay.

I've always wanted
to live on the beach.

And then when I met Mitch,
he wanted the same thing,

and it just all worked out.

We were on the beach
for almost 18 years.

We thought
we'd be there forever.

Boy, there's nobody
on the beach.

Oh, wait.
There's somebody.

Go get it, come on!

Come on, Lulu.

I told Mitch I wanted a dog.

And he goes, no.

I go, come on, you know.

Getting Lulu made me
a lot happier.

She was my little baby.

Hurricane force winds
will arrive on the coast

starting almost
at daybreak tomorrow.

That's why if anyone is
thinking about getting out,

you have until about
midnight tonight.

That's about it.

When we heard it was going
to get worse and worse

and worse, I said, Mitch,
we're going to go to Babs,

so we'd all be together.

His place was in
the back of ours.

So it wouldn't get
the direct hit.

We were the first home
off the beach there.

It's a duplex,
an old home built in 1941.

I elevated about 8 feet,
so we were safe.

They faced the ocean.

I was right behind them,

and my sister Marti lived
across the street.

She was intent on staying
because she's been through

so many false alarms
and would leave the island

and not be able to get back
for two or three days.

So she said, I'm staying.

And I didn't see
a problem with it.

I was going to stay regardless
because that's what I do.

I love storms and thought
I had a pretty good grip

on when to stay, when to go.

- The eye of Hurricane Ian

is on the verge
of making landfall

on the state's heavily
populated West Coast,

right around Fort Myers.

The impact--
expected to be catastrophic.

The rain started.
And it was minimal at first.

It wasn't until
the water was rushing in

and we could see it
rising quickly--

not just inches, but feet--

that we began to get
a little nervous.

Officials say that the storm
surge, coupled with the rain,

are the top safety concerns
for the millions of Floridians

who were in the storm's path.

Someone put a trail cam
on Fort Myers Beach

on a telephone pole.

I mean, you just see
crashing waves coming in.

And it is ominous,
and it is scary.

The water started
to rise mid-morning,

but the storm
didn't make landfall

until 3:00 in the afternoon.

This is five hours before
the storm making landfall,

and you're already getting
images of the water rising

in people's neighborhoods.

OK, OK, OK!

I'm thinking,
we still got hours.

This storm's not even here yet.

This is only going
to get worse.

- We're anticipating, within
the next three to four hours,

this is going to
be making landfall

just outside of Fort Myers.

I also want to note

that it's not until
the center of the eye

makes landfall that
we call it a landfall.

But, you know,
no bones about it,

we are already seeing
some very strong winds.

- We continue to run
to the front window

to see the levels of the house
across the street from us.

Look at all the wood
just floating down our street.

At one point,
an entire roof line

just floated down the road.

The whole roof is floating
by our house right now.

Huge pieces of homes.

And it just was flowing fast.

We had started to lose power.

So we weren't getting
anymore news on the TV.

So we were really
counting on people

we were talking to
on the phone.

I did talk to my neighbor,
Joanne,

a very dear friend of mine,
quite frequently.

She was up in Pennsylvania
at the time.

I was trying to get
any information I could

about how much longer the
storm was going to be on us.

It was horrifying to hear
the fear in Dayna's voice about

what potentially
could be happening

at her parent's house.

They live across from the
beach in a ground floor house.

I mean, obviously,
your mind thinks the worst.

They had told us that they
were just sitting on their bed

and then the bed
started to float.

And I was just--

the thoughts going through
my head were horrifying.

I had no way to get to them.

My dad just kept reassuring me
so I wouldn't worry.

I just kept saying,
we're going to be OK, Dayna.

We're safe.
We're floating on the mattress.

We're going to be OK.

That was about
the last thing he said.

And I love you.

That was the last
I heard from him.

- There's no doubt that
this is worst-case scenario.

There are a lot of people

who live year round
on houseboats.

They are a neighborhood
in a sense,

and they are starting
to feel the brunt of it.

My wife and I wanted
to buy a sailboat.

And eventually, we saw this
boat here in Fort Myers.

But the name was "Katrina."

Yeah, exactly.

So we changed the name,
"After-Ten,"

because for us,
after 10 years,

we finally bought a boat
and lived on it

to be able to travel
the world.

That was the intent.

If I would have known, probably
I would have kept "Katrina."

You know what I'm saying?

So Ian was coming,
and we said to ourselves,

well, you know what?

Boat floats.

If we do things right, we'll
be here after the hurricane.

So we did.

We took a mooring ball
a week prior.

We knew that
a mooring ball was secured,

well-secured.

The mooring ball is
attached to the sea floor

through a deep auger, which
goes down like 10 or 15 feet.

You're out in
the middle of the water.

There's nothing that
you can bang into.

And you're also able to
float up with the storm surge.

So I couldn't think of
a better spot to be

in that hurricane.

But then,
by the time they did say,

hey, you guys need to leave,
it was too late.

It started shaking.

It started blowing
like I never seen before.

The current was
just raging one way,

and the wind was blowing
the other way.

So all the boats were
spinning around in circles,

which is very unusual
in a hurricane.

Tracy was right
in front of me.

He was a big boat.

I think the biggest boat
on the mooring field.

My boat was a tank.
It's 85,000 pounds.

But the waves and the wind
was whipping us around.

We both heard a snap.

And we looked at each other,

and we just said,
well, we're loose.

We snapped the chain
right off the mooring wall.

It was kind of like,
here we go, you know?

Buckle up.
And we went into survival mode.

The wind pushed him.
He had no control.

He was quite close to me.

Not good.

I cannot move away.

I cannot do anything
because he was coming fast.

I was sure he was
going to hit us.

That's when I told my wife
that this is it.

There was nothing to do

except hope.

- The time for evacuating
is over.

- Those who have not evacuated
are being urged

to shelter in place
immediately.

This ain't letting up yet.

I think that's a little higher.

Now you have to go on the roof.

I was on Facebook.

I was watching what
everybody was saying.

At first,
it was kind of like

how we always post
about the storms.

OK, this is a good one.

I can feel the house rumbling
and that kind of thing.

And then you could
kind of hear, oh, no.

Oh, no. Oh, no.

Probably made a very
bad decision to stay.

You never really heard
worry out of Mitch.

It was something
that was definitely

out of character for him.

Oh, my God.

Wrong decision.

He was worried
about his bar.

He had a little man cave
under his house

with all of his paraphernalia
from all the years

that he had gone to the Cubs
games and the Bears games.

And he used to have potluck
dinners under there,

and everybody would come
and bring a dish

and share and hang out.

How sad to see the bar
going down the street.

Very, very sad.

I said, it's OK.
We'll get another bar.

We'll, you know,
figure it out.

And then it was shortly after
that that all hell broke loose.

The water just started
coming in so fast.

It was like someone
opened the floodgates.

Mitch and Mary kept asking,
do we need to get out of here?

And my comment
over and over to Mitch was,

Mitch, we got 100% chance
of being OK

if we stay in the house,

but we got about a 25% chance
if we jump into that.

And I truly believed that.

Up until the last minute,

I thought the house
is the best place to be.

Until it was
collapsing around us.

That's around the same time
that Mitch said,

OK, we're terrified.

My husband saw it.
And then he showed it to me.

He said, you know,
I think Mitch and Mary

are in some trouble.

That's when we both knew
this was gonna--

this was way worse than anybody
could have understood.

I've never seen a storm
surge like this in my life.

You're talking about
a 15-foot wall of water

with a storm surge.

There's nowhere to go.

They're going through
a hellacious tragedy.

Carry them in your heart.

- Breaking news--
a catastrophic direct hit.

Hurricane Ian slamming
into Florida's Gulf Coast

as a devastating
category 4 storm,

packing dangerous winds of
up to 155 miles per hour.

The wind sounded
like a freight train.

It was so loud and so strong,

the palm trees were bent over
completely sideways.

We had windows that
started busting out,

which sounded like gunfire.

And then we were terrified.

My son's bedroom ceiling

had already saturated
and had collapsed.

We have a video of actually

our entire kitchen ceiling
caving in.

We knew we were in trouble.

But our thoughts
never left my parents.

I was so scared that they were
completely underwater,

as I knew we had
9 feet of water,

and they lived closer to
the beach, a one-story home,

and we had lost contact
with them.

Obviously,
there are people who may not

have good cell phone
communication right now

on the West Coast of Florida.

The last text that I got from
Dayna said she was so scared.

I just kept sending texts,

but there was no reply.

I tried to tell myself that
they were going to be OK.

- Reports coming in of people
stranded due to storm surge.

- At this point,
we're somewhat paralyzed.

When I saw Tracy's boat

broke loose
of his mooring ball,

it took him
30 seconds to get to me,

to be close enough
to make us sink.

Yeah.

- We were just
fighting everything.

We had to have been within
10 feet of his boat.

I was sure he was
going to hit us.

I told my wife, this is it.

We were prepped to not die.

We were prepped to bail out
and hope for the best.

I had no visibility
whatsoever down below.

Basically,
it was just instinct.

It just takes over.

You don't think
of anything else

except trying not
to hit anything.

His boat almost went
straight into somebody's house,

and the person in the house
was videoing him

coming right at him.

It took us about three tries
to get turned around

because of the way
the wind was blowing

and the current was running.

Finally, we got turned
into the right direction,

and we got free of everything.

Then after a while,
couldn't see him.

We made it.

So we thought.

But that was
the first real trial

because the wind
is still blowing like crazy.

And the waves are still crazy.

And then, poof,

we lost our mooring ball.

Yeah.

So now,
we move through the field.

We hit that guy.

We moved this guy.

You know, we're a sailboat.

We have an engine
that's like a moped engine.

So, like, there was no way
for me to use the engine

to save my life.

There was no sails.
There was nothing I could do.

I'm monitoring
the Coast Guard station.

And I hear someone on the
radio, and they were like,

I'm on mooring ball number 3,
and I'm broken off.

I was like, OK, well,
I'm on mooring ball number 9.

He's right next to me.

I run upstairs and I look out,
and he's within 4 feet of me.

The wind would just
take his boat

and almost keel it
completely over,

and it would move down
the water,

and then it would do it again.

There's nothing I could do
besides just watch this man

and his family float by,
absolutely powerless.

You're at the mercy
of the storm at this point,

and I just lost him
out of sight.

We thought that
that day was our last day.

You think you're going to die.

You know, this is--
we're not meant to be on water.

We're land mammals.

So this is
out of your control.

We have people calling 911,
asking for rescue.

But officials are saying
it's still

far too dangerous
for first responders

to attempt any rescues.

When the water is
12 feet above ground level,

there's no one
that can come save you.

There's no boat
that can come save you.

There's no helicopter
that can save you.

You're on your own.

- Right now,
Hurricane Ian making landfall

in southwestern Florida

as an extremely dangerous
category 4 storm.

The fifth strongest ever
to hit the U.S.

This hurricane is
exceptionally dangerous,

even by the standards of
hurricane-battered Florida.

We were in trouble,

and we had no way out.

We had no way out at all.

The roof started buckling.

The floor started buckling.

Then part of the ceiling
fell on my head.

And I was telling Bob,
I think we better go.

Mitch, we got to go.

And Mitch didn't swim.

I was going to tie a sheet
around his waist

so I can hold on to him.

It was not an "I love you,
man," kind of moment.

It was more of a,
we're going to be OK.

Find something that floats
and don't let go.

At that point, we jumped
into 14 feet of water.

- I looked out the door, and
I saw our half of the house

fell off of the building.

I mean, literally fell off
of the building.

Just peeled away.

There was no decision
at that point.

I mean, we knew
this house is gone.

We had to jump.

I thought we would all find
something we could hold on to

that would get us
to something else

we could hold on to maybe.

Mitch was going to go first,

but he got knocked down
by water.

A wave came by that was
over the top of the door,

and it knocked him backwards,
and he slid across the floor.

So I went first,

and I had Lulu in my arms.

And Lulu jumped out
of my arms.

She was gone.

There was no way she was
going to survive this.

When Mary jumped in,
I got washed away.

So I was immediately whitewater
rafting down the street.

She was behind me.

I looked back,
and I saw Mitch jump

but immediately turned around

because I had things
to deal with.

All you think about
is survival.

And I told myself, I'm not
letting this hurricane kill me.

I'm not dying like this.

First plan in my mind
was to grab on to a tree.

I saw a branch sticking up
out of the water,

and I grabbed onto it,
and it was strong.

And as I held on to it,
I looked over,

and there was
a second branch of a tree

sticking maybe 2 feet out of
the water, and it was strong.

This is where I lose it.

And I swear to God,
this tree hugged me.

It had everything
in the right place.

It had a place for my foot,

a place I could
wrap my leg around.

Gosh, in an instant,
I went from,

you're probably dead,
to, this is OK.

And I looked up.

And the first thing I saw
was Mary's arm

holding onto
a railing of a house.

I just knew
I had to survive.

And as long as I saw Bob,

as long as I knew
he was there,

then I felt safe.

And we just sit and wait

and watch things go by me,
things I own,

things I love dearly,
paintings and furniture, go by.

My life kind of
washed it away here.

I kept watching
my sister's house.

I could see it,

the side of it
across the street,

and they looked good.

After about 15 or 20 minutes,

I looked back over
at my sister's house.

It wasn't there.

The surge finally won,

and it collapsed.

So I kept watching it, looking
for any sign of her or Mitch

and saw nothing.

We just kept looking
at each other,

just thinking,
when is it going to end?

Now, two of
the big problems here

are the size and the speed
of this hurricane.

Not only is it
600 miles across,

it's moving at less than
10 miles per hour

and is expected
to slow to 3 or 4.

That's roughly walking speed.

It was like
the never-ending hurricane.

Most of the hurricanes
I've been through,

they've been, you know,
2 hours, 3 hours,

and they're all over.

But this one just
seemed to last forever.

Everything I did
was to stay alive.

Once you're in
a life or death situation,

you don't have
any feeling anymore.

You got to do
what you got to do.

So I dropped my anchor,

and now I'm spinning
on 200 feet of chain.

There was one boat in my way,

and my chain
got entangled with him.

Now we're fighting.

We're spinning around.

He was coming. Boom.

Hitting us everywhere.

Backside, everywhere.

And I knew every hit,
something's going to happen.

We might punch a hole.

So my wife says,

you got to cut him loose.

We knew there was
nobody on the boat

because all the hit
we were having,

he would have been out saying,

hey, bro, what's up with you,
you know?

There was nobody there.

It was a boat or us.

So I decided us.

One of the toughest decisions
I had to make in my life

is taking somebody else's stuff
and let it loose,

knowing that it's
going to be damaged.

We thought that the boat would
have crashed and everything,

but we had to be separated.

There was no question
about that

because, eventually,
one of us would have sunk.

I really just wanted
the storm to be over,

but it didn't stop.

And it was just relentless.

At some point,
there was relief when

I could tell that the sky is
getting a little bit lighter.

But I looked around
at that point,

and I saw that, oh, my God,
like, where'd all the boats go?

- I'm really concerned
about what we're

going to find out tomorrow.

I mean, this whole community,

we're going to be
in this together.

By the evening hours,
the mood just was somber.

I felt defeated.

After my shift,
I mean, I just--

I just went into my car,
and I cried.

I bawled for like two hours.

Because I knew
that people had died.

Like, I knew it.

We were probably
in the water,

I don't know,
maybe 5, 6 hours.

The water subsided
a little bit.

The wind died down
a little bit.

And then Bob made
his way over by me

and told me we had
to make our way over

to the house across the way.

It was still standing.

We climbed the steps.

I tried to break into the
kitchen door and could not.

So we stayed on the landing
that night.

We just kept next to
each other to stay warm.

I did not think about Mitch.

I didn't want to.

I blocked it all out.

And I think that's
maybe why I made it.

Because if you dwell
on what's going on...

I-I don't know if I'd be here.

The wind did not stop
all night.

I couldn't find sleep.

I was too scared
that the ceilings

were going to fall in on us.

As my husband finally
found sleep and my daughter

was sleeping and I sat
wide awake all night,

I thought about what the next
morning was going to bring.

My thoughts never
left my parents.

I thought things like,

we should have made them
come to our house.

Things that I should have
done differently for sure.

The next morning,
when the sun came up,

it was just kind of surreal.

You looked around,
and birds are chirping,

and the sun's out.

But we saw destruction
everywhere.

The sand on the roads were
about a foot on the road.

It looked like basically
we had a blizzard.

And I said, I got to see
if Mitch is OK.

I haven't heard from him.

As I walked towards the house,

I couldn't even tell if that
was really his road or not.

You really couldn't tell
where you were.

It wasn't until
I got down closer,

and I'm like, oh, my God,
the house isn't even there.

It was like it had just broken
apart and disintegrated.

And then I saw the pilings.

The only thing left on
the pilings of his bar

was that Chicago Cubs pennant.

Everything else
was just wiped out, gone.

My sister Marti was
so strong and such a fighter.

She was smart.

There's no way this storm
was going to get her.

I held out hope until
they found her body

in the mangroves
across the bay

about probably
a half mile away.

Marti was amazing.

After I lost my mother,
she was--

she was the mother figure
in my life.

I appreciated Marti every day.

Ironically, Mitch always said,

I'm going to die on this beach.

And he did.

He was found about
halfway down the block.

That's all I know.

He was my everything.

And...

I cannot accept the fact
I'll never see him again.

As soon as the sun came up,
I woke up my husband

and daughter and said,
we need to go.

We need to walk to
my parent's house.

We left the house at 7:00.

It was eerily quiet.

It was a very strange feeling.

There were other people out,
and they were walking around

with just a complete look
of shock.

They were like zombies.

We just couldn't imagine
what we were going to come upon

when we got to
my parents' house.

Especially as
we walked down the beach

and continued to see houses

that were newer, bigger,
and completely destroyed.

As we got closer to the house,
we realized that

there literally was
nothing left of their home

except the exterior
concrete walls.

There was no doors,
no windows, no furniture.

My heart started racing.

My husband and
my daughter and I

started running as fast
as we could to the door,

praying that my parents
were still alive.

- We were running as fast as
we could through the door.

As soon as I walked through,
I called my dad's name.

And in the shakiest voice,

he said, oh, thank God, Dayna.

I saw my parents
sitting over here.

They both were sitting on
the ground, unable to move.

Very unwell and beaten up.

My mom was bleeding.

And we all just
burst into tears

knowing that they were alive.

She thought we were going
to be dead, and we weren't.

So it was--oh, I'm sorry.

We lost contact with Dayna

just before it all
broke loose at our house.

And I told her we are OK.
We're on the bed.

This is our situation.

We're just going
to ride it out.

It wasn't too long after that
that the mattress started

to float off of the bed,

and water kept rising
and kept rising,

and we were just
bobbing up and down.

And before it was over,
the waves were cresting

at the eave of the house.

When those waves came, I just
held onto Lee and I said,

it's going to be a tough one,
hang on.

Don't let go.

We're going to
get through this.

And then we just both
bobbed up in the water

and bobbed back down.

Poor little Lee--
she's up off of the floor,

and her legs are swinging
back and forth every time

the wave came in,
and she turned to me and said,

Tom, are we going
to die tonight?

And I said, no,
not tonight, sweetie.

That's not going
to happen tonight.

My parents were
severely dehydrated.

They were both
shaking severely,

and it was at that time

firefighters had walked up
the driveway.

Within a 5-second
glance at them,

we knew they had to leave

or they weren't going
to make it very long,

especially her mom.

So I called on the radio
a few times.

20, 25 minutes went by.

And about that time, we heard
a helicopter overhead.

I just sat there and cried
as they flew away.

Hey, how are you?

Good to see you. Mm-hmm.
- Good to see you.

How are we doing?
Give me a hug, buddy.

Yeah.
It's so good to see you.

Good to see you
in a good time, you know?

Good to see you doing well.

It took, I have to say,
probably 9 months to a year

for me to stop having dreams
that had something

to do with the destruction
or what happened

to Fort Myers Beach.

All of us that stayed
are going through

the same thoughts
in our heads, you know?

We should have gone.
We shouldn't have stayed.

We made a mistake.

It was as extreme as they said
it possibly could be.

The death toll
from Hurricane Ian

has made it the deadliest
storm to hit that state

in nearly nine decades.

It claimed more than
150 lives directly

and indirectly and left
a trail of destruction.

For millions here,

this will be a very long
road to recovery.

These things
are going to happen

more frequently in the future.

Our water
is consistently warm.

It's been consistently
higher than average.

It's well over kind of that
threshold of 80 degrees.

Unless there's
a drastic change

in the water temperature,

you're always going to have
that fuel to give these storms.

Take the warning seriously.

Just because one storm didn't
affect the way they said,

it doesn't mean
the next one won't.

Three storms in a row
could cry wolf,

and the one that doesn't
is the one that kills you.

Cheers, guys.

To surviving Hurricane Ian
and to being together again

and having a chance.
- Yes. Thank you.

- Nice to see you.
- Hope it never happens again.

The hurricane
really changed my life,

to be honest with you.

So much so that
we sold the boat.

I cannot do that anymore.

The emotion was so extreme

that I hear wind,
I'm scared of a branch falling.

So I'm still not healed.

We are not able
to enjoy it anymore.

The experience changed me more

in how I enjoy this moment.

Eat dessert first
kind of concept

is what I'm going to spend
the rest of my life doing.

I'm the luckiest guy on Earth.

It's just pure luck that
that tree was there.

No one have seen this,
actually, until this morning.

I got my tree.

The tree that saved my life.

The morning after
the hurricane,

Bob came and got me and said,
Mary, you got to come with me.

And I walked down there,

and there's Lulu,

covered with wet sand.

Come on.
Come on, my baby.

Oh.

Hey.
Hey.

She survived,
and I have no idea how.

She was 17 hours in the water.

I just cried, and I
didn't want to let her go.

I think that Mitch

told Lulu
to take care of mommy.

I honestly believe that.

If it wasn't for Lulu, I don't
even know if I'd be this far.

She's my baby.

And she--I don't know
what I'd do without her.

OK, so what are you going
to do the next time

a hurricane comes?

You know, I'm inland now.

And the water won't reach us
there, I don't think.

Why don't you come over
to our house?

Oh, I could do that.

OK.

OK. I'll go to your house.
Hurricane party.