The first sign of daylight is a chance for families on Marco Island to see what Hurricane Irma did to their paradise.
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We learned more about what neighbors and visitors believed was a storm surge that washed up on Marco Island when Hurricane Irma made landfall.
Fox 4’s Tony Russell spoke with some survivors who showed us the video they captured outside their condo.
Marg Gagliostro, hurricane survivor, “it was surreal just looked like a war zone walking down here with all the palm trees down and other trees snapped just like toothpicks,” the Gagliostro family rode out Hurricane Irma from their fourth floor condo.
They, like other families locked themselves in with hurricane shutters and hurricane-rated windows.
Michael Gagliostro states, “so we figured you know, let’s ride it out, we had neighbors and friends that stayed for Hurricane Wilma and everything was ok so said, ‘you know let’s give it a shot hopefully everything is ok and here we are now so…we’d ride it out.
The surge video was what son Michael captures when he stepped outside their fourth-floor condo on Marco Island. Joe Gagliostro, Michael’s father, says a storm surge from the hurricane washed into their condo parking lot.
Joe Gagliostro said, “soon as the eye went through we came out and looked and it was fine and soon as the wind started up again the water just surged right through from where we are now four blocks back and we measured. It was at least a foot deep. We figured we’re not going to be out of here for a couple of days or be able to you know go down here or around the city,” with the flooding gone, the family got a chance to see their beach after a weekend of high winds and waves.
