Stephanie Downing got an alarming text message from her dad, Stan Pentz, as flood water from Hurricane Ian rose in her Rotonda West, Florida residence around 2 p.m. on Wednesday, September 28.
Over an hour away at his home in Fort Myers, Pentz told his daughter that the water was up to his shoulders and he could not get out of the house. Downing, standing on her kitchen table, called her dad on the phone and told him to do anything in his power to get out and swim to safety.
The call then dropped. Every time Downing called back, it went directly to voicemail. She then lost all cell service as Hurricane Ian wreaked havoc in the state. The 32-year-old physical therapist told People Magazine that the last thing she heard her dad say was he thought he was going to drown.
Downing thought her dad had died
To make matters worse for Downing, her neighbors told her they had heard the death toll in badly hit Fort Myers was growing. She recalled looking at her husband at the time and telling him that she thought her dad was one of those people who were dead.
Downing said that when she saw her sister, they did not even say anything to each other. They just held each other and cried because they thought their dad was gone. The sisters faced that potential reality for the next 20 hours until Downing finally gained access to the internet around 10:45 a.m. on Thursday.
She received a text message from a stranger. It was the best message she had ever gotten, saying, "I'm here with your dad." Downing said her sister fell to the ground crying while she just fell into a chair with her head in her hands, saying, "Oh my God, he's alive."
Pentz, who lives in a one-story condo building in Lee County, was in constant contact with his daughter as Hurricane Ian approached. He first put down towels when the water started seeping into his home.
Palm tree comes to Pentz's rescue during storm surge
The water then smashed through his sliding glass doors. It rose 6 feet inside his home within an hour. The water was rushing at Pentz from both sides, and he could not get out of the house. He told his daughter on the phone that he was scared of drowning if he got out because the tide was so fast. However, Downing made it clear to her dad that he needed to get out.
Pentz managed to dive through an opening in his house and swam over his vehicle toward the two-story building next door. He thought he was going to drown when he swallowed water, but he managed to cling to a palm tree for three hours to save his life.
He was able to put his feet on the ground as the sun began to set. He walked a few miles to the Publix grocery store. A stranger there helped Pentz get word to his daughter that he was safe. Downing's sister picked up their father and took him to their mother's house within hours.
