When Amy Welsh begins to describe her horrifying ordeal, the waves of grief overwhelm her. Her breathing becomes strained, tears rush down her face, and she speaks slowly as she recounts every agonizing detail.
Her father, Joseph Murray, 61, a paraplegic with severe health issues, died in his home during Hurricane Milton. She knew he was in trouble and needed help, but raging floodwaters kept her from getting to his home.
Welsh got within three metres of his door, standing in the hurricane-strength winds and heavy bands of rain, but she could not go any further or risk drowning in the rising floodwaters.
“I didn’t know what to do, I was helpless,” she sobbed as she stood on the now soaked ground in front of her father’s mobile home.
Welsh and her father lived in neighbouring trailers, in the central Florida city of Lakeland. It’s about 150 kilometres northeast of Siesta Key, where Milton made landfall as a Category 3 hurricane on Wednesday night.
No mandatory evacuation orders
Lakeland is not a Gulf Coast community, and there were no mandatory evacuation orders for residents here.
Welsh and her partner, Matthew Snyder, had spent much of Wednesday preparing for the storm. They helped her father, who is immobile, with his dinner — bacon, eggs, and toast — before getting him ready for bed.
Murray was diagnosed with terminal cancer earlier this year and had been receiving hospice care at home. Welsh says it was challenging to physically move her father around his home without any additional help.
When the storm began, Welsh frequently made the short walk over to her Dad’s home to make sure he was OK. And everything was fine, until their street was hit by flash floods.
“I tried to get to my dad, but I couldn’t get to him,” she said, her voice breaking. “There was too much water to get through to him.”
“I called 911, and I asked if they can come and help us rescue my dad,” but she says she was told that first responders were unavailable.
“They said they can’t send nobody right now.”
Daughter desperately sought help
Welsh says she spent the rest of the night desperately seeking help. Asking neigbours if they knew anyone who might be able to assist with a rescue. She made a similar request of strangers in a post on a local Facebook page.
“I’m begging and pleading to 911 to please send somebody; I call them back like five times over, like every half hour,” she said.
At the same time, her own home was flooding. She says the floor started getting soggy and water crept up past the electrical sockets.
“My house is starting to smell like smoke, like burning,” she said.
Welsh and her partner were forced outside, and sheltered a front porch. Freezing, soaking, and scared, they made the painful decision to leave for safer ground.
They would return at first light, flagging down some Good Samaritans on their way back, to help get into her dad’s trailer.
Dad found after floodwaters subsided
The waters had subsided enough for Welsh’s partner to get into the home, where they found Murray’s lifeless body being guarded by the family dog.
It appears Murray did not drown as they had feared — his body was dry.
“I honestly think what probably took him was the stress,” Welsh said. “Thinking that he was going to drown because he was unable to walk and get out, and I couldn’t get to him.”
As Welsh tells this story, her 11-year-old daughter Jocelyn rubs her back and gives her a hug. Welsh’s kids were with their father in another part of town when the storm hit.
She is grateful they are OK, and is trying to remember happier memories of her father. She says in his healthier days, he loved to ride his bike. And he would help kids in the neigbourhood get bikes of their own.
“There’s going to be better days ahead,” she says as she embraces her daughter.
“I trust and believe that it’s all going to be OK in the end.”