Starting over at 91: Florida couple begins new life in WNC after Hurricane Ian
For several years now, James and Lorene Capek's daughter, Vickie Seliga who lives in Brevard with her husband Joe, has been trying to get her parents to move from Florida to North Carolina to be closer to her.
It ended up taking a force of nature for the Capeks, who are both 91 years old and have lived in Florida since 1984, to make that move.
"We had no choice," Lorene Capek said. "Mother Nature made the choice for us."
On Wednesday, Sept. 28, Hurricane Ian made landfall just 22 miles North of Fort Myers Beach, Florida, the home of the Capeks, and within hours, their house was filled with ocean water.
"We were about a mile from the beach. The water moved in quickly and it was clear up to our waists," James Capek said on Oct. 19 from the couple's new home in Hendersonville at Lake Pointe Landing. "I kept having to get as many things as I could in the home and put them up on shelves to keep them from getting wet."
He said they had been through several hurricanes in the past, but nothing like Ian, which reached Category 4 status as it tore through the small town.
"The weather people always make it sound like the world is coming to an end every time there is a hurricane, and it never does. For this one, they said it might miss us. It didn't," he said.
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The Capeks are from Walkertown, Indiana, just a few miles from South Bend, home of Notre Dame University. James Capek, a Korean War veteran, was a longtime barber there and did haircuts for the football players. The Capeks, who have been married for 71 years, later moved to Florida after retiring and have enjoyed their beach life for the past 38 years.
Hurricane Ian changed all that.
The Capeks weathered out the storm and stayed in the home for the night with no electricity and no running water. When family members back in North Carolina couldn't get in touch with them, they called law enforcement.
"We were making do," James Capek said. "I slept on a wet sofa, and my wife was sleeping on the bed that wasn't stable from all the water. The sheriff's office said our family had called, worried about us. So the sheriff's office guys came and got us and took us to a shelter. We were there for several days, and it was a funny feeling. When you've been in charge of your life for so long, it's just a funny feeling. We didn't know what was going to happen to us."
They got a chance to go back to their home to salvage what they could, he said. Family members from N.C. came with a pickup truck and loaded up everything that was able to be saved. James Capek said as he stood in the road and looked at the damage of the storm, a sense of pride came over him.
"We were very fortunate. We were in a section that had three houses in a row. We didn't lose our roof... we didn't lose our siding. I had built those, so I was proud of that. But on either side of us, those houses lost their roofs and their siding," he said. "Our little Honda we had, it had water up to the steering wheel."
"Not fun," Lorene Capek said.
The family brought them to Western North Carolina, and the couple found a new home at Lake Pointe Landing, a retirement home that welcomed the couple with open arms. The couple didn't have insurance on the home to cover all their losses, so they are having to slowly return to a normal life, trying to replace what they can afford.
"We spent quite a bit of money up here already on furniture and other things. We didn't have anything," he said.
"No car, no nothing," his wife said.
But after arriving in WNC this month, they did get some good news.
"My granddaughter in Charlotte called and said we did have comprehensive insurance on our car, so that was good to hear," James Capek said.
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Now they are adjusting from beach life to mountain life, and so far, they are loving the small-town feel of Hendersonville.
"The people of this area are so friendly, and everyone here (at Lake Pointe Landing) are, too. We draw smiles at restaurants and even when we go shopping. I like Hendersonville's stores compared to ours in Fort Myers. The stores seem a lot neater and the people working there are a lot more helpful," James Capek said. "And we like that it's a small town. Fort Myers was a small town, too. If I ever had to live in a place like New York City, that'd be a prison for me."
The only thing the Capeks have from their Fort Myers home is a little blue book that sits on a table in the living room of their new home.
"It still smells like the ocean. It has salt all in it, but I saved it," James Capek said. "All of the other things we salvaged are at my granddaughter's home in Charlotte. They are planning to come up here next month to bring everything to us. It'll be like an early Christmas for us."
This article originally appeared on Hendersonville Times-News: Starting over at 91: Florida couple begins new life here after Hurricane Ian
