he works as a charter fisherman and stayed inside his home with his wife and friend. my windows broke on the backside and for a couple hours i thought the house might come down. it got scary. it was something i ll never forget. i ll tell you that much. reporter: friends showed up to hug gary stringer grateful he survived. he might have a story to tell, but he feels lucky to walk away. i won t do it again. if another one comes i m going to book a flight about a week early and be on the other side of the world at a ticky bar. no cell phone service, i ll try later. you learned yourlessson? yes. i m glad. ed, thank you so much. cnn following other news around the world this hour as well.
damage when hurricane irma hit. it s at a community were dozens of people were riding out the storm. ed lavandera visited the town. here s what he saw. reporter: where the everglades meets the gulf of mexico, there sits a fishing village called goodland. the eye of hurricane irma chainsawed its way here, and gary stringer stared down the sharpest edge of the storm s blade. he sat in this room as the 130-mile-per-hour winds roared outside. did you feel the house was going to get picked up off the ground? i thought, here we go. it s going to go. reporter: like dorothy an the wizard of oz? almost, yeah. as the house shook, he heard the cracking and rumbling of a giant tree ripping out of the ground. he opened the door to see the tree had fallen on to the neighbor s house. he was spared. at that point did you start telling yourself maybe i should have left town? yeah. i was telling myself that an hour before that.
welcome back to our continuing coverage, the aftermath of hurricane irma. i m george howell live in atlanta, georgia. in the state of florida, millions devieded to evacuate as this storm pushed through florida, but there were those that did not evacuate. our ed lavandera went to the fishing village and spoke with people who decided to stay. where the everyglades meets the gulf of mexico is an island good land. gary stringer stared down the sharpest edge of the storm blades. he sat in this room as the 130 mile per hour winds whirled
i will tell you that much. friends showed up to hug gary stringer, grateful he survived. he might have an incredible story to tell, but he just feels lucky he can walk away. took a direct hit. won t do it again. if noah comes i will book a flight a week early and be on the other side of the world at a tiki bar or something. you learned your lesson? yeah. i m glad you are all right. water services and electricity out throughout most of marco island, so that s where emergency officials are urging people if they can to stay away until the services are re-established. there s no exact timetable on when all of that will happen, and they are urging people to be patient and to come back and so you can have water and
mexico, there s a fishing village. the eye of hurricane irma chain sawed its way here, and gary stringer stared down the sharpest edge of the storm s blade. he sat in this room as the 130-mile-per-hour winds recovered outside. did you feel the house was going to get picked up off the ground. i thought, almost, yeah. as the house shook, he heard the cracking and rumbling of a giant tree ripping out of the ground. he opened the door to see the tree had fallen on to the neighbor s house. he was spared. at that point did you start telling yourself maybe i should have left town. yeah. i was telling myself that an hour before that. emergency officials say some 40 people decided to ride out the storm here in good land, but there were no serious injuries reported. the hurricane ripped apart this town that s home to several hundred people. boats tossed around, trees top