Barbara Bauer is upbeat, though there’s a lot she could be upset about.
When Hurricane Ian ripped through St. James City on Pine Island, Florida, the 73-year-old lost her mobile home and everything in it. This on the heels of losing almost all her close relatives and several friends in the past few years.
She is now in her second week of living in a Red Cross shelter at the Hertz Arena in Estero, along with hundreds of others.
But Bauer remains so cheerful and optimistic that Frances Walker, a Red Cross disaster mental health volunteer from Highland, Texas, visits the evacuee and her dog Dilly whenever she needs cheering up.
“The thing is, I look at it as the experience of a lifetime, and maybe even an adventure,” Bauer said, comfortable in a nest-like area she has set up with bedding and other supplies she’s received from the Red Cross.
“I’ve got to change the story and go on with life as a 73-year-old woman with her pets,” she said. Friends have invited her to live with them and she feels she has lots of options, including going back to making pottery, which she gave up decades ago.
Besides, she no longer has to live among all the things her relatives left to her when they died. “It’s a clean slate,” she said with a smile.
Bauer has been inspired by the Red Crossers staffing the hockey rink-turned-shelter. Volunteers are there from all 50 states, as well as locals whose own homes were damaged.
“The Red Cross has been unbelievably compassionate, helpful, empathetic…every good quality a person could have,” she said.
“I tear up every time I see a volunteer helping a person,” she said. “The disabled they treat especially with kid gloves.”
Bauer’s dog Dilly and two of her four cats are with her; she feels sure the two still-missing felines are being cared for.
Bauer had lived in St. James City for 18 years, pouring money and creativity into remodeling her 41-year-old mobile home from the ground up.
When she first saw her home after the storm, it appeared fine. But inside, evidence of the storm’s power was everywhere. “The washer/dryer was floating out the back lanai,” she said.
“They said the water went up 12 to 15 feet,” she said. “I kind of climbed over things with this gooey slime on everything.” Even dresser drawers were full of water.
Bauer has registered with FEMA for relief assistance and is waiting for a new cell phone to be delivered; hers died after the boat ride off the island.
Now that a bridge to Pine Island has reopened, a friend has offered to take Bauer to pick up her car at the local Moose Lodge, where she rode out the storm.
“I will probably come right back here (to the shelter) because there’s no way I can stay” on the island, she said. “After (Hurricane) Charlie, I got pneumonia from the black mold.”
Determinedly optimistic, she sees the silver lining in the hurricane’s black cloud. “I don’t have to organize my lanai,” Bauer said, smiling.
American Red Cross relief, free to anyone with disaster-caused needs, is made possible by the generosity of the American people. To support this humanitarian effort for Hurricane Ian survivors, visit redcross.org/donate; call 1-800 HELP NOW (1-800-435-7669) or text REDCROSS to 90999 to make a $10 donation.