Man Swims Half Mile To Save His Mom From Hurricane Ian In Florida

As the water from Hurricane Ian began to rise in Naples, Florida, Johnny Lauder knew he had to make a mad dash to save his mother.

When he found her, she was in water up to her chin.

“My mom is 84 years old, she’s in a wheelchair, she’s an amputee. She only has one leg and she is, stubborn, would be to say it lightly,” Lauder said in a video interview Tuesday. “She refused to leave. She said she’d fight me kicking or screaming. She wasn’t going to leave the house.”

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Lauder launched his rescue mission from his son’s house nearby, where he and others were riding out the storm.

“I told everybody, ‘get ready for the water.’ And a few minutes later my son went to one of the windows and said it’s three feet on the side of the house,” Lauder said. “We went into serious mode. The switch was flipped and it was time to go into action.”

H​is mom was on the phone. Water was touching her ankles. Then it rose against the outside of the sliding glass doors. Then it was at her belly button.

A​ storm surge gauge in Naples fell over and broke when the water hit 6 feet. Winds there gusted up to 105 mph.

Lauder’s two sons, a girlfriend and a cat, bird and rabbit retreated to the crawl space of their home, with tools to break out if necessary.

Lauder set out on foot toward his mom’s, making his way through about a half mile of deep water.

“It was surreal. The water was rising. It was getting above the cars. Some spots I was tippy-toeing, other spots I had to swim,” Lauder said.

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Cars floated by. He checked to see if anyone was inside. Lauder is a former police officer and trained rescue diver.

“So I knew the dangers but you don’t think about that at the time and I just pushed forward,” he said.

“Your head’s on a swivel, you’re looking for debris, you’re looking for power lines …You just don’t think, you do.”

“It was just to send to them to let them know I was OK,” Lauder said. “I didn’t realize I was documenting the whole thing.”

H​is images are included in the video at the top of this article.

Lauder pushed forward. Along the way, a wake board drifted to him. He found a flotation device in a boat. The boat itself was tied up in a way that he couldn’t get it loose.

W​hen he got to his mom’s house, Lauder could hear her screaming. She was talking on the phone to one of his sons.

“That’s when an overwhelming feeling of terror and relief hit me,” Lauder said. “Terror thinking maybe that she’s trapped or hurt or something fell on her. The relief knowing that there was still air in her lungs.”

W​ater pushing against the front door kept him from opening it, so he went around back to a window.

“She’s never been happier to see me,” Lauder said of his mom.

T​wenty minutes later, and he thinks she wouldn’t have survived.

H​e found the only dry thing in the house – a set of sheets on a top shelf. Lauder stacked two tables on top of each other and placed his mom on top, wrapped in the dry bedding. He was worried about hypothermia and infection from the cold, dirty water.

W​hen the water receded enough, one of his son’s came to help. They pushed her wheelchair through the water, still a few feet deep in some places. They picked up an elderly neighbor along the way, and carried her to safety, too.

“What we had is gone. But that’s OK. I haven’t lost my family. I lost house, possessions, but not my job, not hope not anything. We’re just pushing on,” Lauder said.

H​e told his story as a cautionary tale for others.

“I hope if anybody learns anything from this, is that there’s still hope in humanity. But heed the warnings from Mother Nature … We had time to get out … learn from other people’s mistakes,” Lauder said.

“The next time there’s an evac, we’re gone.”

Damaged homes and debris are shown in the aftermath of Hurricane Ian, Thursday, Sept. 29, 2022, in Fort Myers, Fla. (AP Photo/Wilfredo Lee)