CEDAR KEY, Fla. — WPTV is speaking with those affected by Hurricane Idalia after the Category 3 storm slammed into Florida's Big Bend region Wednesday morning.
Nancy Beckham, a well-known oyster harvester and artist in Cedar Key, was among those impacted.
Since the storm hit, she's been posting videos and photos of the damage on her Facebook page.
"Our home is wet," she said. "We lost a lot of stuff in it, came up in it pretty good. ... It was scary. The noises."
They rode out the storm at a neighbor's home on stilts, which she described as about 15 feet off the ground.
"We came over here to evacuate because we got four dogs and a tortoise, and I'm not leaving my babies behind," Beckham said.
She said she couldn't get the sights and sounds of the storm out of her head.
"We watched the neighbor's dumpster float down the road and out and to the marsh," Beckham said.
She also said her art gallery was destroyed by the storm.
"Right now, I am kind of numb because I lost a lot of my stuff," she said. "I lost my artwork, and I do wood carvings, so my shop is pretty much underwater. I'm numb."
Her social media post seems to say it all.
"We lost everything but each other, and that's the most important thing of all," she wrote.
"It's a catastrophe. It's just something that happens, and you gotta take it day by day. Like I tell my friends, I built it, and I can rebuild it."
