MIAMI – In all the devastation and suffering that Hurricane Ian left behind, CBS4 is also mastering about stories of triumph.
A single week back, Michael Friedopfer and Eduardo Andreu ended up strangers and now they consider of just about every other like brothers.
“It was unbelievable, simply because of the reality that I have by no means satisfied somebody, and for them to say, ‘hey I am gassing up the boat,'” mentioned Andreu.
Eduardo has a residence in an region of Southwest Florida devastated by Ian. A lot of of his neighbors were being trapped in their houses right after the storm hit.
Andreu discovered Friedopfer of Epic Airboat Excursions by means of a Google lookup and gave him a connect with. He requested if they would use their boat to rescue folks in his local community trapped in their households.
“I jumped to it, me and my very best close friend Matt, a single of the house owners of Rockin Footwear. We jumped in my truck and loaded up what we had and really drove straight down. We identified a marina nearby to place the boat in and it was a 12-mile shot to the island,” reported Friedopfer.
They captured online video of the rescues and instructed CBS4 a story of a person named Bob.
“I received tears in my eyes ideal now that I just saved Bob. Bob is severely a distinctive dude. We couldn’t be much more pleased that we bought him out,” explained Friedopfer all through movie taken of the rescue.
“Bob’s 85 decades previous. We identified Bob, who was truly sitting on his couch. We had been contacting out for people today, he yelled, we arrived in and his spouse had just passed absent a pair of months right before. She in fact experienced stepped above the dock he had in the property and drowned. So, he was tremendous emotional and failed to want to leave,” he Friedopfer.
They certain Bob to go with them to basic safety.
Rescue right after rescue, “They had been so thankful. So appreciative. I indicate, each single man or woman we rescued was crying and hugging us and thanking us,” said Andreu.
“It was sad. We experienced some moments when we cried, and we experienced some moments when we laughed, but at the stop of the working day, it was all value it. A lot of smiles out of folks and people today had been just grateful to be taken out of the island,” he ongoing.
Authorities say at this place, they have searched much more than 90,000 buildings searching for survivors of the hurricane.
