Shaken but resilient, Florida residents move forward together after Ian
For Mindy Liepitz, it was just stuff in the end.
A two-inch layer of black mud lies between the bottom of her shoes and the floor of her modest two-bedroom rental home in North Fort Myers. Her furniture is waterlogged, ruined. The electronics throughout her home are lost – the computer, the refrigerator, the microwave, a funny Tyrannosaurus rex-shaped lamp she bought last week. Her car floated into the neighbor’s yard.
It can all be replaced, Ms. Liepitz says.
It didn’t feel like that last week, before Hurricane Ian, a Category 4, and its 150 mph winds veered south from its initial arc toward Tampa and made landfall in southwest Florida on Wednesday. Her possessions had helped define her. Just two months ago, Ms. Liepitz hauled everything she owned from Colorado to Fort Myers, following the same path as her
