Help Verna and Dave recover from Ian

Hi everyone,

1. I am Verna Blaine.

2. My husband Dave Alexander and I are from North Port, Florida. Our property is called Salmista Sanctuary for the beautiful tropical gardens and retreat like setting in the forest. We were hit hard by Hurricane Ian.

3. We are fundraising for ourselves.

4. Funds will be delivered directly to us.

5. Funds received will go towards:

Insurance deductible = $3,800

Tree removal to make the property safe = $20,000

As you may have seen or heard, on September 28 Hurricane Ian ground up the entire coast of SW Florida causing widespread destruction. Dave and I live in North Port which is situated between Ft. Myers and Sarasota just inland from the Gulf Coast. Here is our story that leads up to our GoFundMe request.

In the days leading up to Ian's arrival we kept a close eye on the news and monitored the path. Always the projections had the storm making landfall to the north of us. Dave and I were prepared to wait it out at home due to not being directly in the path and being above the flood zones. Basically, our area is "Green / D" and the recommendation for that zone is to shelter in place. But Ian didn't do what was predicted. With a last minute adjustment landfall was on the coastal communities from Punta Gorda to Venice. I'll never forget the last comments by the weather folks before we lost power. 'If you live in North Port we have some bad news for you. You're going to get the worst of the northwest eyewall and it's going to be a rough ride for a long time. The storm will arrive in 20 minutes so now is the time to get into your safe room.' So we did and OMG!

For 6-1/2 hours the wind howled and tore, at least 3 tornadoes came through, pine trees crashed down, the house groaned and shook. There is discussion out there of whether it was a high Cat 4 or low Cat 5, we only know it was unimaginable. After that 6-1/2 hours the intensity lessened to Cat 3, which lasted another 4 hours. When we finally crawled out of our closet we were torn between praising God for sparing our lives and downright shock and horror over the destruction that we saw.

There is a lot of damage to our home and once beautiful property. We are truly blessed to be alive and for our 3 dogs (Buffy, Xena and Hodie) and 2 cats (Spike and Oshi) to all be alive and recovering from the traumatic experienced. Now we move forward one step at a time.

The house needs a total new roof including the trusses that were crushed by 5 falling 60 to 80-foot pine trees. There was also some flooding as the water rose to historic levels and swamped the lower level of the house. Water poured in through the 7 holes in our roof and so in the least we need new drywall and flooring. We have insurance and already have contractors lined up. The inspection will determine whether the house is sound for repairing or structurally a lost cause. Before anything can be done to repair or rebuild the house we have to do tree removal of 30 downed or damaged mature pine trees.

We are putting this GoFundMe page out there to try and get help with the $3,800 insurance deductible as well as our share of the tree removal. Our share will be about $20,000. Our GoFundMe is to raise $15,000 to get the work started. We will be so grateful for anything you are moved to give.

If we raise more than we specifically need for these basics we will donate the remainder to the Myakka Elephant Ranch and the Chase Sanctuary for lemurs. These animal sanctuaries near us were very hard hit and need help as well. Thank you ahead of time for anything you contribute.