7:00 p.m. ET, October 5, 2022
Couple used plastic storage tubs as rafts to float their baby (and cat) to safety during storm
From CNN’s David Williams and Sharif Paget
Callie Brown recorded a video showing her home taken from a neighbors house.
(Courtesy Callie Brown)
A Fort Myers couple had to abandon their flooded home and swim to their neighbors’ house during Hurricane Ian — and used plastic storage tubs as makeshift rafts to float their 3-month-old son and their cat to safety.
Callie Brown and Chad Duckwall decided to shelter in place because they thought the storm was heading toward Tampa.
“It shows how unpredictable the track was. We expected it to be so much further north of us,” Duckwall said.
They thought they were going to be OK as the winds raged around them last Wednesday, but then saw water seeping in under their door.
“I mean right away we knew we are in trouble, because it was a matter of minutes that it went from an inch of water on our house floors to two feet. It was very fast,” Brown said.
As the water rose, they grabbed everything they could carry – mostly things that baby Charlie would need — and shifted to the attic.
Duckwall said he brought some tools and his chainsaw in case they needed to cut through the roof.
The water was 4 or 5 feet deep within 30 minutes and reached the top of Brown’s SUV, which was parked in the garage and which they could see from the attic.
Charlie was sleeping in his car seat during this part of their ordeal and Tucker, the cat, was in a mesh backpack.
They weren’t sure how high the water would get and a friend called and said neighbors were able to get to a nearby house on higher ground.
They decided to swim for it.
The plastic bins held the family’s Christmas ornaments and were big enough to hold Charlie and his car seat after they were emptied out. Brown covered Charlie with a baby blanket to protect him from the wind and rain.
Brown said the water was over her head as they swam and the current pushed them away from the home they were aiming for.
“It happened so fast and I think our adrenaline and just like survival kind of instinct kicked in. It was scary,” she said. “Once we got out our front door, the current was so strong, we didn't really have a choice on where we were going.”
They only went a few houses down the street, but it felt like forever.
“We had our baby Charlie in a storage bin, a Tupperware bin, we had the cat and another one and we were just holding onto each other and holding onto those bins and just kicking as hard as we could.”
Callie Brown and Chad Duckwall pose with their baby Charlie.
(Courtesy Callie Brown and Chad Duckwall)
They wound up in a neighbor’s backyard near and were able to go up the stairs to the second level of their porch, which was still a few inches above the water.
Duckwall punched a hole in the screen so they could get into the porch.
Brian Yount was inside the house with his wife and twin daughters and was surprised to hear a man’s voice outside.
“You know, they had a 3-month-old in one bin and a cat in the other bin. It was just wild.”
Yount and his family had just moved to the area from Colorado, and he said he’d met Duckwall that day. “I instantly recognized him and said ‘Holy cow, Chad, get inside you guys,” Yount said.
Duckwall and Brown spent the night there with the baby and cat and three other neighbors who came to the Yount’s house for shelter.
Duckwall and Brown said Charlie was unfazed by the experience.
“When we actually floated down the road he was awake but he never cried. He just kind of looked around, you know, a little kind of wide-eyed like ‘What is happening, Mom. What's happening, Dad? What are we doing?'”
Tucker the cat was less happy about getting so wet.
“He spent the next 24 hours licking himself and mad at us,” Brown said. "But he's alive.”
CNN’s Hayley Wilson and Toby Lyles contributed to this story.