“He was just a large guy, a gentle giant. He had a coronary heart of gold and never stated a bad word approximately all of us.”
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Arbelo, 62, of Whitehouse Station, N.J., showed that her brother died after Hurricane Ian hit Florida as a Category four hurricane with sustained winds of 150 mph on Wednesday afternoon.
Lumley, who was washed faraway from his home inside the floodwaters, was one in all greater than 100 individuals who died in the storm.
Because of the lingering effects of a critical automobile twist of fate nearly 50 years ago, Lumley, sixty five, handiest had partial use of his legs and arms, used a cane and spoke with a stutter.
As his fitness worsened about years ago, Lumley, a native of Martinsville, N.J., left his cherished island to live with Arbelo, her husband Hector, and their three kids, so his sister may want to take care of him. But the pull of Fort Myers Beach, in which he cherished to journey his 3-wheeled bicycle up and down the seashore to visit friends, drew him again — in spite of Arbelo’s pleas for him to stay in New Jersey. “He became now not satisfied here,” says Arbelo. “He just desired the beach life, and he missed seeing all his buddies.”
About a year-and-a-half ago, she continues, “he got himself on an Amtrak and stale to Florida he went. I attempted to get him returned right here, so normally.”
Back in Fort Myers Beach, Lumley turned into briefly homeless, sleeping on a bench close to a Baptist church.
During a rainstorm in January, Lynn Krinkey and her husband, Don Romano, who’d regarded Lumley for about 25 years, discovered him at a bus forestall, banged up after a person robbed him. They decided to welcome Lumley into the only-story rented bungalow they known as domestic.
“Everybody cherished him at the seaside,” says Romano, 58. “He was a fantastic guy.” When Hurricane Ian changed into forecast to hit Fort Myers Beach, Arbelo referred to as her brother Tuesday. “I said, ‘You want to get off that island, this is going to be catastrophic, worse than Katrina,’ ” she remembers. “He said, ‘I know we are gonna be pleasant.’ ”
Arbelo spoke to Lumley Wednesday morning, begging him to leave. “He was like, ‘It’s no longer gonna be bad,’ ” she says. “And that turned into the remaining time I talked to him.”
Not long after, the typhoon floodwaters commenced creeping up the stairs of the bungalow, in which Krinkey, Romano, Lumley and any other buddy named Chris hunkered right down to journey out the hurricane. Krinkey, 59, referred to as 911 for help with Lumley, who became almost immobile due to his health problems.
The dispatchers said they could not come “due to the winds and stuff like that,” she says.
By mid-afternoon, a surge of floodwaters flipped Romano’s white Ford Mustang convertible and swept it down the road.
Then the water “stored arising,” Krinkey tells PEOPLE. Before long, it started out inching closer to the ceiling. “We were given on this bed that changed into floating,” she says.
Romano, who does preservation at the Sandcastle Beach Club timeshare, bashed in the ceiling to create a hole into the attic.
He hoisted himself, Krinkey and their two small puppies thru the hole. With Chris nevertheless down under, they struggled to boost Lumley to safety.
“Chris become seeking to grab maintain of Scotty at the same time as the water turned into jogging by,” says Romano, “and the water turned into pushing him as much as the ceiling.”
“We ought to listen Scotty screaming, ‘Help, assist,’ ” remembers Krinkey. “We simply could not get him up there.”
Chris grabbed an extension wire and tried to tie himself to Lumley and then to a tree or a post, Krinkey says, however the raging storm waters — now tossing round air conditioners, washers, dryers and fridges — were too effective. Krinkey says she’s not certain how much time exceeded earlier than Chris lower back, climbed into the attic, and instructed them, “Scotty’s long past.”
“He stated, ‘Scotty turned into blue. I tried to bring him back, but I could not. The again wall washed out and he went with it,’ ” Krinkey remembers.
After spending a night time within the attic in prayer at the same time as the waters receded, Krinkey, Romano and their dogs, a Jack Russel terrier and a chihuahua, walked six miles to the Sandcastle Beach Club, wherein they spent the night before joining Romano’s brother at his home in nearby Cape Coral.
Meanwhile, Chris, who’d stayed behind, found Lumley’s body in the yard of the bungalow, below a refrigerator and different particles, Krinkey says.
Law enforcement officers contacted Arbelo on Friday with the information of her brother’s demise, she tells PEOPLE.
She plans on him cremated and bringing his ashes again to New Jersey for a party of existence ceremony.
“He changed into dwelling and doing what he wanted,” Arbelo says.
“Even in any case he’d been thru, he wasn’t the sort to say, ‘Why me?’ He made the fine of every situation. He didn’t have a median bone in his frame.”
Romano tells PEOPLE he appears like he misplaced a brother. Krinkey keeps to peer her friend’s face when she closes her eyes.
“I still can’t eat,” says Krinkey, a income companion at a 7-Eleven that became destroyed with the aid of the typhoon. “It became hard seeing him die. Let me inform you.”
In latest months, Lumley’s health had persisted to become worse.
When he fell, the couple could not lift him and wished to call an ambulance for help, but Lumley refused to visit the clinic. So, rescue employees might placed him again in his recliner.
“He changed into usually a fighter and he likely fought until the stop,” says Romano. “Scotty usually simply talked about God.
And he stated, ‘I’m by no means afraid to die. You recognize what I mean?’ And he said, ‘Whatever takes place, takes place.’ “
— News Reel (@NewsReel247) October 4, 2022
