Members of the Project DYNAMO rescue organization talk with a resident in a storm damaged home in the wake of Hurricane Ian on October 1, 2022 on Sanibel Island, Florida. (Photo by Sean Rayford/Getty Images) SANIBEL ISLAND, Fla. - There was no time to waste.
As Hurricane Ian lashed southwest Florida, Bryan Stern, a veteran of the U.S. military, and others began gathering crews, boats and even crowbars for the urgent task that would soon be at hand: rescuing hundreds of people who might get trapped by floodwaters."As soon as the sun came up, we started rolling," said Stern, who last year put together a search-and-rescue team called Project Dynamo, which has undertaken operations in Afghanistan, Ukraine and, now, Florida.Project Dynamo has rescued more than 20 people, many of them elderly residents who became cut off when the Category 4 storm washed away a bridge connecting the Florida mainland with Sanibel Island, a crescent-shaped sliver of shell-strewn sand popular with tourists that is home to about 7,000 residents.PREVIOUS: Tampa non-profit of military veterans helping Americans evacuate from UkraineOn a stretch of beach, etched into the sand, there were calls for immediate assistance: "Help," "SOS."As local authorities continue reaching people isolated on barrier islands or trapped by floodwaters, others unwilling to be bystanders have sprung into action, sometimes risking their own safety or setting aside their own losses and travails to aid official rescue operations.