I took some blankets and put some holes in them with scissors and I zip-taped them to the hospital bed and then I put pillows and plastic bags on him to the top of the sideboard because I didn't want him to get cut up to death if the water came in, so he wouldn't drown. After ensuring her husband's safety, Smith hid under the kitchen table and made a fort with pillows and blankets. Hurricane Ian was unlike anything they had ever experienced before. Smith lived through Hurricane Charley in 2004 and said Ian was much more powerful.
She said that Charley was less than an hour, the sun came out afterwards, there was no torrential rain.
Smith said Ian was awful and long-lasting, with the back end of the hurricane as powerful as the front end. She remembered hearing torrential rain but was too afraid to look through the windows into the darkness outside.
She said it got dark in the middle of the day. It was almost like nighttime and when the rain started it was like snow. Smith remained in the kitchen, hiding in her fort and waiting for the storm to pass.