In the midst of Hurricane Ian, with flood waters rising, a man braved the treacherous conditions to swim a half-mile to reach his 84-year-old mother. Shockingly, she was in water up to her chin when he arrived.
Hurricane Ian: Elderly woman wouldn’t leave her home
There are always people during weather disasters who don’t want to leave their homes, and often these are older people. Such was the case with Karen Lauder, who refused to go to a shelter.
“You’d have to pull me out kicking and screaming,” Karen told People Magazine.
But as Hurricane Ian dumped massive amounts of water in Naples, Florida, the woman’s son, 49-year-old Johnny Lauder, kept trying to convince her.
“My mom is 84 years old, she’s in a wheelchair, she’s an amputee,” Johnny explained later, the Weather Channel reported. “She only has one leg, and she is stubborn, would be to say it lightly.”
Luckily, Johnny, his sons, and his mother live about four blocks apart. His wife was with in-laws in Las Vegas, and Johnny decided to weather the storm at his son’s home. But his mother was all alone.
She called to tell her son that the water was touching her ankles. Then it rose against the outside of the sliding glass doors.
Finally, Karen called again and told Johnny the water had reached her belly button. Johnny jumped out the window and into the waters surrounding his home and turning streets into rivers.
Son braves life-threatening conditions to rescue his mom
Johnny Lauder is a delivery truck driver, but back in the 90s, he was a Chicago police officer and trained rescue diver. This time, the person he had to rescue was his own mother.
At Johnny’s son’s house, with the water rising. His children, one son’s girlfriend, and a cat, bird, and rabbit went up into the crawl space of the home, bringing tools to break out through the roof if necessary.
Johnny Lauder set out on a mission toward his mom’s house, making his way through about a half mile of deep water.
“It was surreal,” Johnny said. “The water was rising. It was getting above the cars.”
He saw cars float by, and he checked to see if anyone was inside.
“Some spots I was tippy-toeing,” Lauder said. “Other spots I had to swim.”
From his training, Lauder was well aware of how risky it was to head into floodwater during a storm.
“So I knew the dangers but you don’t think about that at the time and I just pushed forward,” Johnny 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.”
Terrifying moment
As Johnny neared his mom’s house, he could hear her screaming.
“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.”
He arrived to find his mom with water up to her chin. He believes if he had been twenty minutes later, she wouldn’t have survived.
“She’s never been happier to see me,” Lauder said.
Johnny stacked two tables on top of each other and placed his mom on top, up out of the water. He was able to find some dry bedding on a high shelf to wrap her in to prevent hypothermia.
“I hope if anybody learns anything from this,” Lauder said, “The next time there’s an evac, we’re gone.”
