".. For Renee Smith and her paralysed, cancer-stricken husband Christopher, evacuation was not an option when Hurricane Ian came violently bearing down on their Florida home.
"It would have taken an ambulance, a stretcher, and three grown men to move him," she said of Christopher, who became paralysed just days before the hurricane as a result of prostate cancer spreading to his spine. "I had no control and it was terrifying."
Without any other choices, Mrs Smith resorted to desperate measures to protect her husband. She used cable ties and gaffer tape to attach a tarpaulin to his hospital bed in a bid to keep him dry and used his wheelchair to barricade the front door from the 150mph (241km/h) winds...
...In Ian's wake, some Florida residents have come under criticism for failing to heed repeated warnings and calls to evacuate. But for families like the Smiths and hundreds of thousands of others, logistical and financial hurdles to evacuation meant that staying was the only option..."