Strangers united as brothers in Ian's aftermath share dramatic rescue stories
MIAMI - In all the devastation and pain that Hurricane Ian left behind, CBS4 is also learning about stories of triumph.
One week ago, Michael Friedopfer and Eduardo Andreu were strangers and now they think of each other like brothers.
"It was unbelievable, because of the fact that I have never met someone, and for them to say, 'hey I'm gassing up the boat,'" said Andreu.
Eduardo has a home in an area of Southwest Florida devastated by Ian. Many of his neighbors were trapped in their homes after the storm hit.
Andreu found Friedopfer of Epic Airboat Tours through a Google search and gave him a call. He asked if they would use their boat to rescue people in his community trapped in their homes.
"I jumped to it, me and my best friend Matt, one of the owners of Rockin Footwear. We jumped in my truck and loaded up what we had and actually drove straight down. We found a marina nearby to put the boat in and it was a 12-mile shot to the island," said Friedopfer.
They captured video of the rescues and told CBS4 a story of a man named Bob.
"I got tears in my eyes right now that I just saved Bob. Bob is seriously a special dude. We couldn't be more happy that we got him out," said Friedopfer during video taken of the rescue.
"Bob's 85 years old. We found Bob, who was actually sitting on his couch. We were calling out for people, he yelled, we came in and his wife had just passed away a couple of weeks before. She actually had stepped over the dock he had in the house and drowned. So, he was super emotional and didn't want to leave," said Friedopfer.
They convinced Bob to go with them to safety.
Rescue after rescue, "They were so thankful. So appreciative. I mean, every single person we rescued was crying and hugging us and thanking us," said Andreu.
"It was sad. We had some moments when we cried, and we had some moments when we laughed, but at the end of the day, it was all worth it. A lot of smiles out of people and people were just grateful to be taken out of the island," he continued.
Authorities say at this point, they have searched more than 90,000 structures looking for survivors of the hurricane.