Gainesville man saves grandmother from path of Hurricane Ian with 'Operation Rescue Mimi'

Less than 20 hours before Hurricane Ian made landfall, one Gainesville man set out on a 400-mile mission and drove directly into the path of the storm to save his grandmother.

"Operation Rescue Mimi" had begun.

Harrison Hove, a University of Florida journalism faculty member, cranked up his Volkswagen Jetta Tuesday and began his trek to Venice, Florida, to rescue his 88-year-old grandmother, Denise Pirhalla — aka "Mimi" — from the impending destruction that the Category 4 storm would ultimately cause.

Pirhalla would be among the tens of thousands of Floridians seeking refuge elsewhere, some of whom would end up in Alachua County.

"These big storms can get scary," Hove said. "And I just feel like when bad things happen or disaster is on the doorstep, it really comes down to family and I wasn't about to let her be by herself in that dangerous situation."

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Logging the entire journey on Twitter — like any other true journalist would — Hove hit the road around 7:20 p.m. and planned the trip to Venice, where his grandmother had lived for about 25 years.

Sarasota County had already issued an evacuation order, but Pirhalla had never run from a storm before despite living in a manufactured home and losing a portion of her porch previously. She was in no hurry to get out.

But this was no ordinary storm. Hurricane Ian brought sustained winds of 150 mph, pulling up trees, ripping off roofs and causing mass flooding to Florida's coastal regions.

Hove wasn't taking any chances.

"I didn't want luck to be the saving grace," he said, fearing her roof could possibly be torn off.

The trip had some challenges. Gas was scarce, but Hove found luck as he neared his destination.

"My gut just told me to get off at an exit in Sumter County to top off my gas tank. My Jetta can go far, but not 400 miles roundtrip on reg unleaded," he wrote to his Twitter followers.

Around 10 p.m., Hove arrived at his mimi's home. Wind can be heard bustling in his video recorded as the two greeted each other.

"You ready to come back with me?" he asked his grandmother. "Yeah," she replied.

Within the hour, the two were ready to drive back north to Gainesville.

"Mimi is ready to roll," Hove tweeted. "She is concerned about sticking to her diet. I’m told we must bring all of her special food on this evacuation from Sarasota County. This appears to include cookies and red wine. She’s 88, but still has great taste."

The duo arrived in Gainesville by 2 a.m. with time to spare before Ian made landfall just south of Mimi's home, which sits about 3 miles off the Gulf Coast.

The National Hurricane Center reported landfall as made at 3:05 p.m. near Cayo Costa, just north of Fort Myers.

Several homes in Venice similar to Pirhalla's were torn to shreds. Severe damage to businesses and flooding was also reported, including the destruction of the historic Venice Theater.

"Just like they say, it was like listening to a train coming your way," Venice resident Bruno Mollica told ABC7.

"I had no idea what was going to happen, nobody did," Pirhalla said. "We were told because it was so close to the coast that anything could happen. We've never had one like this ever."

Despite her town and neighbors' homes getting slammed — some of whom lost their roofs — Pirhalla said her home remained unscathed, though without power.

"It was a huge relief to me, her, our entire family," Hove said. "But I wouldn't change anything we did in the days leading up to this. Getting her was still the right decision."

Escaping Hurricane Ian in Alachua County

Pirhalla was luckier than most.

Roughly 33,000 people stayed in shelters around the Sunshine State, according to American Red Cross. Many more — either due to stubbornness or having limited options — stayed in their homes.

Alachua County, known for often being spared from natural disasters due to its central inland location, opened four shelters to help more than 100 people with homes that likely wouldn't weather the storm.

One of the more densely populated shelters was Meadowbrook Elementary School where an estimated 42 people stayed.

Rhonda Nelson and her three kids — Michelle, Kyle and Melissa — have only lived in Gainesville for a month, making Ian their first hurricane experience.

Projections earlier in the week showed Ian hitting the region as a Category 1 hurricane before turning into a tropical storm. The strong winds would have caused widespread outages and uprooted trees, officials feared.

The family, which migrated from Cleveland, Ohio, was sent into a panic.

"I was getting nervous, scared. I kept calling my parents and then we called 311 at one point to find out if we should we leave," Nelson said.

After a night in the shelter, Nelson realized the region was spared and prepared to head back home.

"When I woke up this morning, it wasn't bad," she said. "But when you hear about all the stuff that happened further down, that is terrible."

Gershon Harrell is an education reporter at The Gainesville Sun. He can be reached by phone at (352) 338-3166, by email at Gharrell@gannett.com or on Twitter at @GershonReports.

This article originally appeared on The Gainesville Sun: UF lecturer drives into Hurricane Ian path to save grandmother