WARREN, Mich. (WXYZ) — Roy McDonald and his wife said they're snowbirds. They live in Warren in the summer, and they escape to their home in Fort Myers, Florida in the winter.
However, McDonald said he’s been glued to weather coverage since Thursday after learning of Hurricane Ian.
"Holy crap — not again," McDonald recalled what went through his mind.
McDonald said he's stayed in that home less than two months. Now, he’s watching and waiting to see where the storm is headed. The couple is hoping to escape the worst of it.
“Florida, in general, you always know there’s going to be hurricanes. That’s the chance you take, and is it going to happen? Well, it did," he said. “It’s doing exactly what they said."
It’s not the first time the McDonalds have faced a severe weather threat in Florida. McDonald said he lost his first winter home, also in Fort Myers, in January because of a tornado.
“Total destruction," he described.
McDonald said he lived there a total of four months.
“When it hit us, it was probably 120 miles an hour. It was an F2," he recalled.
He explained, “I tell people it was like the 'Wizard of Oz.' I mean, you see that scene all of a sudden, ya know, and whoosh. Short of the house going up in the air, it was like, ‘Wow, I was just in a tornado? Are you kidding me?’”
He said he ended up looking up the odds of getting hit by a tornado.
“And they were approximately 1 in 4,500,000," he explained.
Recently, McDonald said he looked up the odds of getting hit by a tornado and a hurricane.
“And I haven’t found that yet," he said.
“If it’s a complete loss, I think the Florida dream for now will be on hold. It’s shaken me to the core a little bit. I mean, it’s just crazy," McDonald explained.
With no flood coverage, he said he's unsure how insurance will play out. However, he said he'll be doing lots of praying as he watches the forecast.
