On the evening of September 28th, Nelson, his wife, his 6-year old daugther, and elderly mother-in-law had decided to ride out Hurricane Ian at home.  They were watching TV when Nelson’s daughter ran to him after looking out the window and said, “Daddy, the water is up to to our road!”  In minutes, the water went from the road up to their doorstep.  At that point Nelson realized that the time was of the essence, and he needed to get to higher ground with his family. So at that point, with the waters quickly rising (in places the storm surge during Hurricane Ian was 12-15 feet!), they escaped through a window and decided to go to the Harlem Heights Community Center next door. After swimming over a fence with his mother in law wrapped around his neck because she couldn’t swim, they took refuge at the community center.

Once there, he heard voices, shouting, “Help! Is anyone there? I need some help.”   So Nelson left his family on the third floor of the community center and went back into the water, swam across the street from his house to his neighbor, who had a rowboat in his front yard.   It was now 9 o’clock at night, and darkness was descending.