"I just want to be home:" Lee County high school senior unable to live in Hurricane Ian-damaged home

Bailey Spotz, 17, just wants to go back to school.

The high school senior hasn't slept in her own bed since Sept. 26, the day before Hurricane Ian made landfall in Lee County. The hurricane made her family's Cape Coral home temporarily unlivable.

Since then, she's slept on the hard concrete floors of three shelters over the course of a week and finally a hotel bed.

The Fort Myers hotel she's currently staying in with her parents still doesn't have internet access and didn't have water until four days into their stay.

This week, she found out the remainder of her semester at Florida SouthWestern State College, where she's dual enrolled, will be finished with virtual classes. She no longer takes classes at her high school.

"I feel like I'm having a mental breakdown," Spotz said. "I fill up my day. I have school and then I work a lot and I volunteer and there's nothing right now. I don't know what to do. I feel like I'm wasting away."

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Bailey Spotz, 17, and her mother Jade gather necessities at the Foundation for Lee County Schools. Their house in Cape Coral is temporarily unlivable after Hurricane Ian.
Bailey Spotz, 17, and her mother Jade gather necessities at the Foundation for Lee County Schools. Their house in Cape Coral is temporarily unlivable after Hurricane Ian.

A return to virtual learning

FSW announced this week that the remainder of the fall semester at its Lee Campus will be virtual. Classes resumed on Wednesday, Oct. 12.

Since Spotz does not have internet access at her hotel and can't return home, she's trying to figure out how she'll attend virtual classes and complete her assignments every day.

For Spotz, transitioning back to online learning feels like a step back into her freshman and sophomore years of high school, which was primarily virtual due to COVID-19.

"I hated COVID. I could not stand COVID," Spotz said. "I don't like online classes. I don't want to do this. I'm really upset about this. I want to go back. I love the campus."

When she's not in school, Spotz works at Valerie's House, a nonprofit organization that provides grief support for children and families. She leads kids groups and occasionally helps out with the teen groups.

She also works childcare at her church every weekend and babysits.

In her limited free time, she enjoys reading, sewing, thrifting for unique clothing items, drawing, painting and cooking, pasta specifically.

Spotz is also in the process of applying for and deciding on which college to attend. At the moment, her plan is to major in education.

Bailey Spotz, 17, and her mother Jade gather necessities at the Foundation for Lee County Schools. Their house in Cape Coral is temporarily unlivable after Hurricane Ian.
Bailey Spotz, 17, and her mother Jade gather necessities at the Foundation for Lee County Schools. Their house in Cape Coral is temporarily unlivable after Hurricane Ian.

Not their first tragedy

In 2018, Spotz's oldest brother Chris passed away. Following his death, the family made the move to Cape Coral in July of that year.

"The kids needed a change," her mother Jade Spotz said. "We were from a small town and we've been contemplating it. This house was a good opportunity and so we thought now might be a good time to make the change."

Then in 2020, when wildfires ripped through Colorado, their family's home in the mountains was lost.

Then there was the COVID-19 pandemic.

Spotz has two more older brothers who no longer live at home.

Despite Hurricane Ian, Spotz said she loves her home here in Florida.

"I just love Cape Coral and I love the beaches and Fort Myers and all that," Spotz said. "I'd go to the beach like every single weekend. I love the schools and everything. Ten out of 10."

Riding out the storm

Initially, the Spotz's weren't going to evacuate. They planned to ride out the storm in their house off Del Prado Boulevard near Cape Coral Hospital.

But her father works for the county and was asked to work at Tortuga Elementary, which had been converted into a hurricane shelter. So the three of them packed their blankets, pillows, important documents, a few novels to pass the time, and enough clothes and food for three days.

Three days of supplies were not enough.

"We went to Walmart before and got PB&J ingredients and granola bars because they said you only need three days for food," Spotz said. "So we really took that seriously."

The school didn't have a good generator since it was not a primary shelter location, according to Spotz. It was only opened because the other shelters had filled up. There was no power, no AC and no refrigeration for food.

The first three days the family hunkered down at the elementary school. Both her parents were volunteering and she sat in the dark of the volunteer room alone for most of the storm.

"It was a little scary, there was no power for awhile," Spotz said. "It was really boring. Nothing to do. No beds, no internet, no power, can't charge your phones. It was just like really anxious waiting for the hurricane to pass."

Overall, Spotz said it was very isolated and depressing.

For the first few hours, the news played in the school's library. But then the power went out... and with it the internet, cell phone service and the news.

"For the next like, maybe 12 hours, we didn't really get any sort of news," Spotz said. "My dad was still getting text messages so our family in Colorado was texting us the news from there."

When the hurricane's eye began to pass over the area, Spotz and her mother said she saw a number of people flood into the shelter.

"Right after the storm, people were showing up like we have no food and everything's flooded please let us have food," Spotz said. "But there was no food. People were traumatized."

While it was scary to go through a hurricane, Spotz said she felt very safe in the shelter.

Bailey Spotz, 17, and her mother Jade gather necessities at the Foundation for Lee County Schools. Their house in Cape Coral is temporarily unlivable after Hurricane Ian.
Bailey Spotz, 17, and her mother Jade gather necessities at the Foundation for Lee County Schools. Their house in Cape Coral is temporarily unlivable after Hurricane Ian.

Going home

After the storm ended, Spotz and her parents went back to their home to assess the damage.

"It took our breath away seeing Del Prado like initially there was so much damage," Spotz said. "It looks like someone took a comb through everything and just scratched."

Their home was in such a state they wouldn't be able to live there until repairs were made.

"It was so heartbreaking," Spotz said. "We had a really pretty backyard, I love the backyard, and it was just flattened. There were sticks on the ground and our pool was just full of shingles and the lanai screen was shredded."

The main damage was to their home's roof, resulting in water damage and cracks all through their ceiling. The ceiling hadn't caved in, but they are still waiting on inspectors to check out the attic area to make sure no mold has begun to grow.

There was no power, no water, and since they were in the middle of remodeling their kitchen before the storm they had no way to store or prepare food.

Thankfully, the flood water from the canal behind their home didn't reach their house.

"The water came about one foot from entering our pool and would have gone into our house," Jade said.

There's damage to their pool, which mysteriously drained following the storm. Their boat and boat dock were also damaged.

More shelters

After three days, the shelter at Tortuga Elementary shut down. Her father was then transferred to the shelter at East Lee High School, where the family stayed for three more nights.

"That one was kind of intense and more scary," Spotz said. "It was very full, just a lot more traumatized people."

But she said it was better than Tortuga Elementary because they had better food, according to Spotz, who spent the first three days eating dinner rolls and sub rolls with butter. There was also power and the ability to charge her cell phone.

After the East Lee High School shelter closed, they went to Hertz Arena for two days.

"That was the most intense," Spotz said. "It was just beds everywhere. There were people and animals anywhere."

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By the time they left the arena, people had claimed all of the chairs and were making beds on the actual ice since all the hallways were full.

They decided to leave since Bailey is severely allergic to cats, and the shelter handed over to the Red Cross.

"We just thought we needed to get her out before we became an emergency," mother Jade Spotz said.

While living in shelters for a week made her feel terrible because of the lack of sleep due to noise and hard concrete floors, Spotz said it was better than the alternative.

"It was better than being homeless, and we were able to get free food from the shelters," Spotz said.

Looking to the future

Day after day, the Spotz family returns to their home to do a little bit more cleaning.

They've tarped the house to prevent any rain water from adding to the existing damage. They hope for the best.

The family eats when they can and crashes into bed exhausted at the end of the day. Then they wake up the next day and do it all over again.

"We just want to be home," Spotz said.

Nikki Ross covers education for the Fort Myers News-Press and Naples Daily News. She can be reached at NRoss@gannett.com, follow her on Twitter @nikkiinreallife, Instagram @reporternikkiinreallife or TikTok @nikki.inreallife.

This article originally appeared on Fort Myers News-Press: Lee County high school senior unable to live in Hurricane Ian-damaged home