Cleanup was underway Friday in St. Augustine for homes and businesses affected by Ian.
She evacuated with her daughter and dog before high tide Thursday night. She talked with News4JAX about what it was like going back the next day.
“I guess I just felt sick to my stomach as we were approaching, even going across the Bridge of Lions, and I thought, ‘OK. I know what to expect. I know it’s going to be messy. It’s going to be flooding,” Fernandez said. “But I literally I thought I was going to throw up. But then walking in, of course, there are flies starting to accumulate. There are smells.”“It’s like you work really hard to have the things that you’ve earned and then to see them just kind of floating away,” she said.
She said she expects to deal with the fallout of this flooding from Ian for the next year, and although she’s lost a lot, she has her family and insurance. And even as she comes to terms with the consequences of Ian that she wasn’t expecting, she knows others in south Florida have it worse and she’s trying to find a silver lining.
“I’m a person of prayer and God first, you know, so I know the most difficult times of my life God has been there and I know that I have a choice to become a victim or victorious situation and this was just another situation of a trial, another opportunity where I can learn from it and I’ll be a better person for it, I’ll be a better Realtor for it,” she said. “This will help me in so many ways for people moving here.
She said everyone has been wonderful in reaching out to help. She is a single mother of six, and she said it’s hard for her to be in a position where she’s the one in need since she is used to taking care of everyone else.
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