Amid Idalia, attention key to survival for boat dwellers
- Hurricane Idalia made landfall as a Category 3 hurricane
- Some boat owners ignored evacuation warnings and stayed with their ships
- Boat owner: "When you get scared that’s when your life is in danger"
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(NewsNation) — For sailors that ignored the evacuation warnings, Hurricane Idalia presented a life or death challenge.
The powerful storm surge left Gulfport, Florida’s beach littered with sailboats. Residents say Idalia ripped more than a dozen of them off their lines.
“People live on them and they don’t always have the resources to evacuate on shore,” said Art Rodriquez, a commercial driver.
It’s one of several factors that led to people like Joe Piotrowski to ride out the storm on their boats. His ship, Mina, is also his home.
As the storm rolled in his boat rocked with the waves. Piotrowski said Idalia was worse than Hurricane Ian, which struck with devastating force nearly a year ago. He says he still wasn’t rattled.
“When you get scared that’s when your life is in danger,” he said. “You have to react.”
He was not able to hunker down in the vessel, though. “I’m in the cockpit watching. Watching other boats break loose making sure they don’t hit me or tangle with me.”
In Gulfport, at least 14 boats washed ashore during Idalia. Piotrowski’s wasn’t one of them.
“It’s very dangerous out here. You live out here you live in a hostile environment,” he said. “I had to go on the bow. I had to take my backup equipment and use it to save my boat.”
