The elderly woman is now being treated at NCH Hospital in Naples.
NAPLES, Fla. — Johnny Lauder hunkered down inside his Naples home during Hurricane Ian. His home quickly began to take on water.
Lauder’s son called his 84-year-old grandmother who was staying inside her home nearby. She is disabled and is in a wheelchair.
When he was finally able to get a hold of her, she said water was starting to fill up her house. At that point, the water was at her chest.
Lauder ended up swimming through the flooded streets to get to his mom’s house.
“There was a van at the end of the street that floated past me,” Lauder said. “I have been in rough water before and this was like a large body of water moving.”
When he got there, he wrapped his mom up in sheets and rested her on a table. They both waited for the water to lower before they trekked outside to find a safer spot.
“It took us almost an hour to get to where there’s a hotel on the corner to find a dry spot,” he said.
Johnny Lauder said his mother who is disabled told him water was starting to fill up her house before he began swimming through flooded streets to rescue the 84-year-old woman.
His mom is now being treated at NCH Hospital in Naples. Along with missing a leg, she has a skin condition that led to an infection from the storm water.
Both Lauder and his mom lost everything inside their homes due to flooding. Yet the two are still so thankful they have each other.
“We are OK, a lost house and lost possessions but we didn’t lose lives,” Lauder said.