Hurricane Ian cuts wedding festivities short for Shorewood couple

Nick and Cristina Altiery, both of Shorewood, had planned the perfect wedding for Sept. 24.

They each had grown up vacationing in Florida with their respective families and had taken vacations to Florida as a couple, too.

So it only made sense to host their wedding in Florida. Cristina said they rented out all six villas at Sunset Beach Resort on Siesta Key Beach for all 65 people who would attend.

Nick and Cristina arrived Sept. 19 and were planning to stay until Sept. 28. Two days later, they were hearing people saying, “Oh, yeah, there’s going to be a hurricane,” Nick said.

Based on reports, Nick felt confident they could get through the wedding – but not much more.

“It was already starting to get gloomy on Sunday,” Nick said. “We started packing on Monday, mid-morning.”

The couple was gone by the time officials urged residents to evacuate, he said. Cristina said one of her aunts, who lives in Aurora, wasn’t due to leave until Tuesday afternoon. By then, airports in Sarasota and St. Petersburg had closed, she said.

“She had no choice but to rent a car and drive home,” Cristina said. “The drop-off cost for the rental car in Illinois was $700 because so many people were trying to get out of Florida.”

Cristina said she and Nick went to three gas stations in Florida and they found one with gas. Even then, the wait was 45 minutes, she said. On the way home, they passed many boom trucks, landscaping trucks and “a ton of ambulances” from Illinois, Cristina said.

In fact, their brother-in-law is a lineman in Illinois and they were afraid he’d miss the wedding, which he didn’t, she said.

“But he flew back to Chicago on Sunday, got in his truck and drove right back to Florida,” Cristina said.

Cristina said she felt sorry for the couples whose weddings for this week are now canceled because of Hurricane Ian.

Retired Joliet Junior College chef Keith Vonhoff said he is riding out the storm in his home at Cape Coral, Florida, which is stocked with plenty of food and water and a whole-house generator.

He feels “cautiously confident,” he said.

“We aren’t expecting a direct hit but are expecting to feel the 150 mph winds of the Category 5 hurricane,” Vonhoff said in a Facebook message. “Our house has impact windows, roll downs and accordion shutters across the entry doors. Fingers crossed!”

Vonhoff said he also has a first floor condo on Fort Myers Beach. Vonhoff said the storm surge of 10 to 15 feet was over the seawall, producing “flooding underneath the building and spilling across the street,” he said.

His condo likely is flooded.

“I hope not,” Vonhoff said. “But time will tell.”