Help Marcy Shortuse with Hurricane Ian recovery
Donation protected
Hi everyone,
Having know. Marcy most of our lives I am fundraising to help Marcy (Russell) Shortuse recover from the devastating damage of Hurricane Ian. We need to support her family as they repair/rebuild their home in Englewood, FL. These funds will be used for repair and rebuild and replacing items lost in the storm as well as anything they might need in the meantime like groceries, bills, temporary housing, etc.
Marcy (Russell) Shortuse; her husband, Jason; and their four kids who still live at home – Keagan, Rory, Eirinn and Piper – had severe damage to their home and lost most of their belongings in Hurricane Ian (9/28/22). They live on the outskirts of Englewood, FL. in a neighborhood that experienced not only hurricane force winds of between 150-190 mph for almost 12 hours, but many tornadoes as well. They are currently living in a borrowed RV and a travel trailer on their property, waiting for some word from their insurance company as to how to proceed. It has been five weeks since the storm. The estimated time it will take to repair the house from start to finish (and it hasn’t been started yet … nowhere close to started), is eight months to a year. In the interim they must continue to pay the mortgage and utilities on the damaged home, find a small apartment or house to rent in an area where rentals were quickly snatched up by others who had damage to their homes, buy household necessities, clothes and other items that were destroyed and, quite possibly, have to finish teardown and start rebuilding their home on their own, as their insurance company declared insolvency the day before the storm and is not responding to them. FEMA denied their claims as well, as they did so many others in Southwest Florida who are in the same boat. Here is how Marcy explained what happened: The day before the storm I was at work in Boca Grande, on Gasparilla Island, when I saw University of Florida Storm Researcher trucks lined up in front of our library with multiple towers on trailers. The guy I spoke with said they were there from Gainesville to place the towers, then expediently leave the area. I thought it was odd they were there, as the island is a tiny dot on the map. He said by noon the next day no one should be anywhere near there, as “hurricane force” winds were going to occur. When Jim Cantore showed up in a hotel in Punta Gorda in the late morning hours, we knew there was going to be trouble. Yet the meteorologists were still talking about the storm hitting Tampa. Very curious. The next day the weather started at about 11:30 a.m. and we were experiencing Cat 1 or 2 wind already. Forecasters were calling for the eye to pass over Cayo Costa, which is a ½ mile from Gasparilla Island, and right down the road from our house. By 3 p.m. the wind was a sustained Cat 3 range and the little arched window above the big window over our front door started raining down, little bits at a time, even with metal shutters covering it. We could see our neighbors’ roof shingles flying off … at first my youngest thought they were black birds in the sky. Still, the kids played cards and joked about having glass in their hair. By 5:30 p.m. the wind made it impossible to even try to crack the front door and look outside. I would say it was a mid-range Cat 4 by that time. The wind was just screaming. The trap door to the crawl space was starting to bang. Maybe an hour after that my ears started popping so bad, it hurt. My girls were holding their ears, so I knew they felt it, too. No more than 15 minutes later, the first window on the second floor, north-facing, blew out. Almost immediately after that the ceiling over that room caved in. We have a loft house, so everything on the second floor is open to the first floor, and the ceiling started coming down everywhere. The first round of it fell on one of my daughters, but it was so waterlogged the drywall easily broke over her head and shoulder (still not a sight I will forget for a very long time). A short time later the winds increased even more. In the front entryway on the first floor and in the great room on the second floor there was a huge collapse of the ceiling and everything was covered in blown-in cellulose insulation and drywall. It was almost up to my knees in the foyer, as I had to keep walking back and forth through it to take our supplies from the study to the kitchen and living room in the back of the house, where we still had a ceiling. It was pouring rain inside and the wind noise was so loud, we couldn’t hear each other speak from a foot away. The words were taken away by the wind. A couple of times during the worst of it I had to go upstairs to retrieve things (one “thing” was the hamster that was sitting in the great room) and pushing the thought out of my head that plywood was the only thing between myself and the hurricane was not easy. The second time I went up, the other north-facing windows upstairs blew in. It was uncool. It went on for hours. We never got the eye: We were consistently in the eyewall as it rolled around us and sat on top of us. We just sat there in the dark, waiting for the entire roof to just sail away. It didn’t. I think it was about 11:30 p.m. or so that we thought we noticed a decrease in the wind. By 12:30 it was noticeable. I think it was around 2 a.m. when I laid down in a wet bed, in wet clothes, and just before falling asleep I recognized that it was soundless outside. I will continue to love storms, as I always have. But I will never forget the look on my kids’ faces, or hearing them screaming like they did, just intermittently, during the worst of it.
Having know. Marcy most of our lives I am fundraising to help Marcy (Russell) Shortuse recover from the devastating damage of Hurricane Ian. We need to support her family as they repair/rebuild their home in Englewood, FL. These funds will be used for repair and rebuild and replacing items lost in the storm as well as anything they might need in the meantime like groceries, bills, temporary housing, etc.
Marcy (Russell) Shortuse; her husband, Jason; and their four kids who still live at home – Keagan, Rory, Eirinn and Piper – had severe damage to their home and lost most of their belongings in Hurricane Ian (9/28/22). They live on the outskirts of Englewood, FL. in a neighborhood that experienced not only hurricane force winds of between 150-190 mph for almost 12 hours, but many tornadoes as well. They are currently living in a borrowed RV and a travel trailer on their property, waiting for some word from their insurance company as to how to proceed. It has been five weeks since the storm. The estimated time it will take to repair the house from start to finish (and it hasn’t been started yet … nowhere close to started), is eight months to a year. In the interim they must continue to pay the mortgage and utilities on the damaged home, find a small apartment or house to rent in an area where rentals were quickly snatched up by others who had damage to their homes, buy household necessities, clothes and other items that were destroyed and, quite possibly, have to finish teardown and start rebuilding their home on their own, as their insurance company declared insolvency the day before the storm and is not responding to them. FEMA denied their claims as well, as they did so many others in Southwest Florida who are in the same boat. Here is how Marcy explained what happened: The day before the storm I was at work in Boca Grande, on Gasparilla Island, when I saw University of Florida Storm Researcher trucks lined up in front of our library with multiple towers on trailers. The guy I spoke with said they were there from Gainesville to place the towers, then expediently leave the area. I thought it was odd they were there, as the island is a tiny dot on the map. He said by noon the next day no one should be anywhere near there, as “hurricane force” winds were going to occur. When Jim Cantore showed up in a hotel in Punta Gorda in the late morning hours, we knew there was going to be trouble. Yet the meteorologists were still talking about the storm hitting Tampa. Very curious. The next day the weather started at about 11:30 a.m. and we were experiencing Cat 1 or 2 wind already. Forecasters were calling for the eye to pass over Cayo Costa, which is a ½ mile from Gasparilla Island, and right down the road from our house. By 3 p.m. the wind was a sustained Cat 3 range and the little arched window above the big window over our front door started raining down, little bits at a time, even with metal shutters covering it. We could see our neighbors’ roof shingles flying off … at first my youngest thought they were black birds in the sky. Still, the kids played cards and joked about having glass in their hair. By 5:30 p.m. the wind made it impossible to even try to crack the front door and look outside. I would say it was a mid-range Cat 4 by that time. The wind was just screaming. The trap door to the crawl space was starting to bang. Maybe an hour after that my ears started popping so bad, it hurt. My girls were holding their ears, so I knew they felt it, too. No more than 15 minutes later, the first window on the second floor, north-facing, blew out. Almost immediately after that the ceiling over that room caved in. We have a loft house, so everything on the second floor is open to the first floor, and the ceiling started coming down everywhere. The first round of it fell on one of my daughters, but it was so waterlogged the drywall easily broke over her head and shoulder (still not a sight I will forget for a very long time). A short time later the winds increased even more. In the front entryway on the first floor and in the great room on the second floor there was a huge collapse of the ceiling and everything was covered in blown-in cellulose insulation and drywall. It was almost up to my knees in the foyer, as I had to keep walking back and forth through it to take our supplies from the study to the kitchen and living room in the back of the house, where we still had a ceiling. It was pouring rain inside and the wind noise was so loud, we couldn’t hear each other speak from a foot away. The words were taken away by the wind. A couple of times during the worst of it I had to go upstairs to retrieve things (one “thing” was the hamster that was sitting in the great room) and pushing the thought out of my head that plywood was the only thing between myself and the hurricane was not easy. The second time I went up, the other north-facing windows upstairs blew in. It was uncool. It went on for hours. We never got the eye: We were consistently in the eyewall as it rolled around us and sat on top of us. We just sat there in the dark, waiting for the entire roof to just sail away. It didn’t. I think it was about 11:30 p.m. or so that we thought we noticed a decrease in the wind. By 12:30 it was noticeable. I think it was around 2 a.m. when I laid down in a wet bed, in wet clothes, and just before falling asleep I recognized that it was soundless outside. I will continue to love storms, as I always have. But I will never forget the look on my kids’ faces, or hearing them screaming like they did, just intermittently, during the worst of it.
Organizer and beneficiary
Amy Chura Mosher
Organizer
Port Charlotte, FL
Marcy Shortuse
Beneficiary
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