FORT MYERS, Fla. — Former KSL NewsRadio talk show host Drew Steele, who now lives in Florida along with his family, is riding out Hurricane Ian.

Steele tells KSL NewsRadio that he and his family are in a community called Babcock Ranch, which is 30 miles northeast of Fort Myers. However, they are in the path of the storm.

“At the moment, we’re getting hit with the eyewall of the hurricane that is going to be coming directly over us,” he said. “We’ve got a six-hour window slot to make this thing go through because it’s moving really slow.”

He says water has been coming under their front door and described the wind as “pretty scary.”

Former KSL talk show host says he still has power

While roughly 1.8 million people in Florida are without power, Steele is not one of them. He says the area he is in is new and all the infrastructure is underground. 

Steele says he has a friend that owns a restaurant in Fort Myers Beach. His friend described his business as “unrecognizable” after the storm had arrived. 

“The big thing here, not only the winds, but it’s the storm surge,” he said.  “The problem is the high tide matched with the surge with the water from the storm, so it’s pushing all the water inland. So, there is flooding like we haven’t had.”

Hurricane Ian reached landfall Wednesday afternoon near Cayo Costa, Fla., as a Category 4 storm with wind gusts of up to 155 miles per hour.

“We are really anxious to get this out of here,” he said. 

Steele says being prepared for emergencies such as this makes all the difference.

“You know where you live,” the former KSL NewsRadio talk show host said. “You know you have to be prepared. Utah, you know you have to be prepared for earthquakes in Salt Lake City. You just have to be aware there is a possibility.”

Read more:

• Airports and airlines brace for a major impact from Hurricane Ian

 

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