The Memories of Pacyna Schuline, Mayor of Fort Myers Beach, Fla, During the Precipitation of Hurricane Ian
His daughter said that he earned the nickname The Mayor of Fort Myers Beach because of his welcoming nature.
Pacyna, 74, died in Fort Myers Beach while he and his wife were trying to get to higher ground during Hurricane Ian, his daughter Michelle Schuline told CNN. Now his wife Mary Wojciechowski and family are coping with the loss of their beloved husband, father and grandfather.
Schuline said that when someone new would come to town, he would welcome them with a drink and sit down. He was the life of the party. He enjoyed his friends and spending time with them and celebrating their successes.”
CNN has calculated that there were more than 100 deaths in the Southeast from Hurricane Ian, but they are unsure of the true death toll. Many people in hard-hit areas of Florida are still dealing with power and water shortages even tho they lost their homes.
Source: https://www.cnn.com/2022/10/04/us/victims-hurricane-ian/index.html
When Mark Graff and Nishelle Harris-Miles discovered their home state of Florida, he was found in a boat by a hurricane
“I understand they were trying to leave the house as it was collapsing and he didn’t make it out of there,” Schuline said. She said the couple were trying to get into a shelter.
“[She’s] obviously in shock, devastated. They were together for 30 years, so losing somebody like that and being there when it happened is really hard on her,” Schuline said. She is having difficulty coming to grips with what is going on.
A Cubs fan, Pacyna was a die hard fan of the Bears and the Hawks. He visited his home state in May to celebrate his granddaughters’ graduations from high school and college, Schuline said.
The Hardee County Sheriff’s Office confirmed that Markgraff, who lived in Zolfo Springs, Florida, died after Hurricane Ian flooded parts of the state last week.
A detective told Verdream on Tuesday that he found the man in the canal. She was told the condition of his body was consistent with what had happened to other victims.
He built a lot of houses and buildings on Sanibel Island, so I am sure a lot of his work was destroyed by the storm.
Mother of four, Nishelle Harris-Miles, traveled to Fort Myers, Florida, to celebrate her 40th birthday – now her family is preparing to lay her to rest after she was identified as one of the victims of Hurricane Ian, her mother said.
The group of friends quickly realized it was not safe to be in Fort Myers, but could not find anyone willing to pick them up from where they were staying, Harris-Miles’ mother said.
“They were on top of a mattress and two of the girls couldn’t swim, so they tied themselves together with a sheet to try to keep each other safe,” she said. They kicked and begged for help. They had the ceiling collapse.
Harris said Nishelle stopped moving when her sister held her hand. “They stayed in a makeshift shelter with Nishelle’s body for 16 hours until the shelter started to crack …” The neighbor told them to leave for safety reasons, so they left her body there, Harris said.
Harris-Miles leaves behind two daughters and two sons, her mother said. A family friend created a GoFundMe campaign to raise money for her funeral expenses.
“She was always the life of the party,” Harris said. “She was a caregiver and a loving person. She enjoyed life. Many people loved my daughter.
On Monday, the sheriff’s office informed her brother that Verdream had died in Matlacha, Florida. The sudden loss of her uncle after he tried to ride out Hurricane Ian is what is weighing on her family now, she said.
She said that her father taught her how to drive and take her to the fair. The uncle bought the Jet Ski and dirt bike for us so we could go out on the lake. He loved us so much.
Stacy Verdream said she spoke with her uncle briefly on Wednesday. She was told that he had to go by her cousin, who said that the water was four feet deep.
“It was a very brief call because he said he was very scared and she’d never heard him like that, because he wasn’t that type of person,” Verdream said. He is always put on a brave face.
The family kept calling but the phone went straight to voice mail, Verdream said. They put his picture and information on their Facebook page to see if they saw him.
The family was told that her uncle was helping people after the storm. He was unable to call because of his phone getting wet.
Source: https://www.cnn.com/2022/10/04/us/victims-hurricane-ian/index.html
Ian Conway and the Lee County Sheriff’s Office – Two strangers hugged and told me about him in the aftermath of a hurricane
Verdream said that, if someone in need, the last dime he had, he would give the shirt off his back. Always worried about helping other people and not himself.
Ian Conway migrated to the US from Australia in the 1980s and lived in Florida ever since, his daughter said.
He was brilliant. His whole world was flying,” his daughter said. He has traveled all over the world. It was his whole world until he got too sick to fly.”
He was found wrapped up on a bench near the shuffleboard court. He told me to go to a shelter if there was a storm. I don’t know why he didn’t go.
Her neighbor phoned her on Thursday, September 29 to tell her that her father had died in the storm. The Lee County Sheriff’s Office later told her that her father had drowned.
“The community around him has been the most beautiful thing I have ever seen,” Conway said. These strangers hugged me and told me stories about him.
Source: https://www.cnn.com/2022/10/04/us/victims-hurricane-ian/index.html
Andrew’s Mother, Susan, was killed in her house after Hurricane Irma-Ian: ‘Keep your head up, you’ll be alright’
Andrew knew his mother was dead in her home after Hurricane Ian tore through the area. Chedester said police told him that his mother died in her bed holding her cell phone and that it looked like she died instantly.
Her family had last spoken to McGuire on Wednesday and had trouble reaching her since then, Chedester said. When no one heard from her, neighbors called for a wellness check.
He said he heard a detective from the Cape Coral Police Department knock on his door and tell him his mother had died. He said he had already received a call from his mother’s ex-boyfriend just before that.
He talked about how the two would always laugh at something. ‘ Keep your head up, you’ll be alright’ When times were bad, he said his mom would tell him.
CNN spoke to her mother, Susan McGuire, who learned of her daughter’s death through her grandson, Chedester. She said her daughter had been suffering from blood clots from deep vein thrombosis and was on disability.
She was stranded in Bokeelia, Florida, after the storm, as she had limited cell phone service. She worried the worst about her daughter, especially with her medical condition, she said.
One hundred storms won’t cost you much, even if you get hit by a Category 1 Hurricane, said Susan McGuire, who moved to the area from Maryland several years ago. “My husband’s business is wiped out, my daughter is dead. The destruction is large. I never had a blizzard take anything away from me.”
Source: https://www.cnn.com/2022/10/04/us/victims-hurricane-ian/index.html
Three people died in vehicular incidents during a massive tornado in Silver City, Miss., on the weekend of August 12. More than 21 people died
A spokesman for the North Carolina Department of Public Safety told CNN that a man drowned after his truck left the road and into a swamp during the storm.
Three people died in separate vehicle-related incidents on Friday, according to a release from Gov. Roy Cooper’s Office. Another person died from carbon monoxide poisoning after running a generator in a closed garage. No information was given about the other death.
When she left her daughter with her parents, Green didn’t know she would lose another child and give birth to a son within 24 hours.
While Jessica Drain was at work, her mother was watching three other granddaughters, including 8-year-old Kaleb.
Green and Drain could not know that a powerful tornado would soon hit the Silver City neighborhood. Their parents and all of their children were in the mobile home when the tornado hit.
The mobile home was torn apart. Aubrey died from the impact and Kaleb sustained a severe brain injury. He is on a ventilator in an intensive care unit, his mother said.
They were among the many victims of a deadly outbreak of storms and tornadoes that over the weekend left a trail of destruction and killed at least 21 people in Mississippi alone.
She woke up to find Kaleb and his brother, Green, who had died of a heart attack in an anesthesia induced autopsy
She said that she felt pain and frustration for not being able to bring her son or niece to her, but that they told her that he had a seizure and was bleeding from his head.
My son was telling me to get down on the floor because I heard something like a train. Winston said when she went to check on her sister’s mobile home there was nothing there.
She played on the horse that was eventually found lying in the debris. Green had a baby in the hospital and was still there, according to Drain.
The family of Winston’s brother discovered on Sunday that they had died from a heart attack unrelated to the storm. Now they will prepare for two funerals while waiting for little Kaleb to wake up.
“I’m praying, I’m praying for day, at night every hour every minute every second,” Drain said. “They’re going to try to eventually wake him up to see what his brain does. They can’t tell right now because he is under anesthesia.