Minnesota natives in hurricane's path

The owners of the Minneota Mascot, Jeff and Julie Meyer, who live in Lee County in Florida, experienced the wrath of Hurricane Ian last week.
"It was like a tornado on steroids," said Julie about the Category-4 hurricane. "The winds just kept going and going."
The Meyers live in Cape Coral, FL and also own and operate Stillwater Grille in nearby Fort Myers, FL.
"We expect to be without power for a month at our house and the restaurant," Julie said. "We will lose all of the food in the restaurant and be shut down until power is restored. There are a half of a million people here without power."
The Meyers sustained some wind damage to their home but eluded the major flooding in the hurricane-ravaged areas.
"We lost shingles on the roof and we lost our dock, but we were fortunate that the flooding stopped about 12 to 16 inches from going in the house, and also about that much from going into the restaurant," said Julie. "We had a beautiful patio at the restaurant and we lost that. We did lose some trees, too."The Meyers are former residents of Cottonwood and their son, Jason, used to participate in youth wrestling with several Minneota kids. They moved to Florida in June of 2013.
At least 40 people were killed in Lee County, which absorbed the most direct hit from Hurricane Ian, according to Sheriff Carmine Marceno. There were also several deaths in other parts of the state. Also, there were around 600 to 700 rescues of people on Wednesday, the sheriff's report said.
The hurricane was downgraded to a post-tropical cyclone late Friday as it crossed from South Carolina into North Carolina. It dissipated later Saturday over southern Virginia.
"I've always loved it here, but when people say it's devastating when a hurricane hits, it really is devastating," Julie said. "There is debris everywhere. It's just nuts how wide this (hurricane) was."
When Hurricane Irma hit in 2017, the Meyers were visiting in Minneota at the time, so this is their first experience of being in the heart of a storm of this magnitude.
Bruce Vogel, a Tracy High School classmate of this reporter, moved to Bonita Springs, FL with his wife, Jeanne, this past January after living in Willmar for several years. Bonita Springs is also in Lee County and approximately four miles from the coast.
"We knew there was a possibility of a hurricane hitting when we moved here," said Vogel. "It was quite an experience going through this. When the governor gave the evacuation notice, we went to stay at a friend's house in Naples."
The Vogels' home did not sustain a lot of damage, but they were unable to return for several days because of the flooded roads.
"There were cars stalled in the roads when we tried to get back home and we didn't want that to happen to us, so we turned around and went back to Naples until we were able to go back home," Vogel said. "We saw a lot of trees down and buildings damaged."
Vogel found a way to make a negative into a positive, though.
"We have hurricanes here, but at least we don't we don't have blizzards," he said.