After You've Lost Everything the story of Trixie Parkes

December 26, 2023

115. After You've Lost Everything the story of Trixie Parkes

Hear the heartbreaking story of Trixie Parkes, a Fort Myers Beach, Florida resident, who lost everything during Hurricane Ian.  Trixie vividly recounts the devastation, revealing the emotional toll and challenges she faced after her home, possessions, and even insurance were swept away.  As Trixie navigates the aftermath, she discusses the unpreparedness of communities for such disasters and shares her profound insights on the true cost of living in paradise. Join George Siegal and Trixie Parkes for a poignant 30-minute conversation that sheds light on the harsh realities homeowners may face.

Here’s how you can follow Trixie:

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/iamtrix_xoxo 

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/hurricanewarriorwoman/

Website: https://trixieparkes.com/  

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/baymarvacationrentals 

Important information from Homeowners Be Aware:

Here are ways you can follow us on-line:

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/homeownersbeaware/

Website: https://homeownersbeaware.com/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/george-siegal/

If you'd like to reach me for any reason, here's the link to my contact form:

https://homeownersbeaware.com/contact

Here's the link to the trailer for the documentary film I'm making: Built to Last: Buyer Beware.

🎧 If you enjoyed this episode, don't keep it to yourself! Share it with your friends and help spread the knowledge. Remember to hit the like button, subscribe for more insightful content, and leave a review to let us know your thoughts. Your support means the world to us! 🌟

Thanks for listening!

Transcript

George Siegal: 0:00

Thank you for joining me for this week's Homeowners Be Aware podcast. I want you to stop what you're doing for just a moment and imagine what your life would be like if you lost everything, and I mean everything your house, possessions, family members you loved. Sadly, we see this happen every time we have a major disaster in this country. Today, I want to share the story of Trixie Parks. Trixie and her father lived across from the beach in Fort Myers Beach, florida. They had a beautiful home and a great life, and then Hurricane Ian struck and changed things forever. As you celebrate this holiday season with your family and friends, I hope you'll take 30 minutes to hear Trixie's story. I'm George Siegal, and this is Homeowners Be Aware, the podcast that teaches you everything you need to know about being a homeowner. Trixie, thank you so much for joining me today.

Trixie Parkes: 0:54

Oh my gosh, thank you for having me. Always nice to see you.

George Siegal: 0:58

Yes, it's our second time getting together. I interviewed you recently for the documentary film we're making Built to Last Byer Beware. Sadly, you were a tragic story from Hurricane Ian in Fort Myers Beach. Tell us about what happened to you.

Trixie Parkes: 1:15

Oh gosh, well, you know what it's like a never ending story, honestly. So I was a resident of. I've been a resident of Florida my whole entire existence. By choice, not by choice You're born here, you're a resident of Florida, right here, and so I've lived on the East Coast. And then, when I moved over to the West Coast, I've been here for oh, I don't know 20 something years and we had a home and a business right on Fort Myers Beach and everything was, you know, just going as supposed to be going the way. You just live your life and you don't think about anything. And then, september 28th came Hurricane Ian and everything is gone and my whole entire existence is somewhere in the Gulf of Mexico, I guess. So it was the first time in my life, living in Florida, that I actually lost everything.

George Siegal: 2:12

Yeah, it's pretty horrible what we saw down there Now the house, the location where your home was. It's actually across the street from the beach, but that doesn't stop the water from getting to your house, does it?

Trixie Parkes: 2:26

Yeah. So I mean you think okay, so that's a great way to put it, because there was really truly no rhyme or reason and there isn't to any kind of weather disaster. Don't even try to make sense of it, don't even try to say well, if I move here, I'll be okay, if I move there, it real. We're across the street from the beach and we had, I think, something like 15 to 18 foot storm surges. I had a home up on high level and it gutted me all the way through to the top level, gutted me through, and the house across the street on the water also was gutted, but still standing. And then the one next. I mean there's no rhyme or reason to it. Yes, I got devastated, definitely 100% devastated.

George Siegal: 3:17

Was your house elevated at all or was it slab on grade?

Trixie Parkes: 3:21

It was elevated, it was on concrete, you know pilings, and again doesn't matter, the bottom part of it was completely gutted through. So that was empty, an empty shell, and then the top part, on top of the pilings, that was gutted as well. So I think that you think you're going to build up high, but what happens when you're 15 foot storm surges? How high can you actually go? How high can you go? I don't know.

Trixie Parkes: 3:55

So I mean I guess, between the wind, the water, maybe a tornado, who knows what happened, it all just kind of came together. It was a complete weather disaster. That's all I can call it.

George Siegal: 4:09

In looking at what your house used to be when it was there. Is there any way you think it could have been built that would have survived this? Is it because it was older? Is there? Can you look at it now and go, wow, if we had had this so many feet into the ground and it had been elevated to this code, that maybe we would still have a home?

Trixie Parkes: 4:28

That's great. That's a great question. And again I go back to thinking about things like that if we would have done something different, I can't say. First of all, I'm not a builder. I'm just a person who oh wow, you know I, that's a good. Actually I'm a builder. I had no choice to live there. My family lived there. So I'm sorry my dog is barking.

Trixie Parkes: 4:55

No, that's OK, we can edit that part out, don't worry, I'm sorry he's being annoying, so OK, so my, you know, having a choice. So if I look at the guy next door and he built a house built onto his house, so he had like a regular kind of beach house, and then he started building concrete and concrete. He still has his house but he's still, you know, got gutted underneath, so part of his house is gone, part of it is there. Our code is different. You know, I don't know. Do people really know? Like I mean, can a human being know what is going to be? I'm no expert, I'm just. I just experienced a hurricane. I'm no expert, I don't know. I can tell you, living in Florida, my whole life, the progression of where I lived before and where I live now and the differences in how I experienced hurricanes. I experienced hurricanes my whole life. So yeah, yeah.

George Siegal: 5:57

I mean, you know I'm not an expert either. I can tell you that what experts do tell me is that newer structures and structures built for the hazard in the area tend to survive better. But that doesn't help, clearly, when you have an older structure like that. Now your situation also brought into play. Your father was older, he was experiencing some health issues and the insurance lapsed on your property. Talk about that.

Trixie Parkes: 6:24

Oh gosh, you know, oh my gosh, I'm feeling the pain of that situation. So, you know, just on a personal note, I mean it kind of brings tears to my eyes because I'm dealing with that right now. So a year and something later, a year and a few months later, I'm having to go back and kind of pick up the pieces of what my 89-year-old father with dementia started. Okay, so he started this legacy when he was, you know, in his 60s or whatever, and now the legacy has ended because of the decisions that he made as a leader of our family and we got the home and then he didn't take care of it. So at the end of his life he had dementia and he canceled our insurance.

Trixie Parkes: 7:16

So I ended up with nothing except bills. So I had and I had nobody to guide me. I was all alone. I know that sounds really sappy, but I was all alone and no guidance whatsoever and nobody had my back and nobody told me what to do. And when I went to go, I get a little upset, I get a little. So when I went to go call about insurance, I was informed at that time, maybe a couple weeks after the hurricane, that we had no insurance that. Oh, mr DeFeo, your dad canceled the hurricane insurance and he did that. Let me tell you why he did that. As I thought back, he did it because he's 89, and he lived in Florida for, you know, 60 years and he never really experienced this devastation, so he thought he would be okay. That's all. I think it's just at a pure. You know, you think you're going to be okay, you really do so. I had no insurance and nobody to guide me and I'm. It's been really hard, I'm not going to lie, it's been really hard.

George Siegal: 8:26

Well, that's it's understandable, and it's hard to imagine all the pain and challenges that you're having to deal with Now. After the storm, you went and escaped to the wilderness for a while. Right, you went off out into the woods to get your to clear your head, but you're still suffer from PTSD, from this, don't you? I mean, this is a life-altering tragedy 100% PTSD.

Trixie Parkes: 8:53

So I really, truly knowing myself you know the hippie girl that I'm I said I got to get out of here, especially because I didn't have any guidance. I was all alone. The person that I would ask questions to had died my dad. So I was just, you know, kind of fumbling and and and my head was in a fog. I couldn't make any decisions. So I bought an RV and I literally went to the woods. I was in Idaho, I was in Montana, I was in Wyoming, I was unplugged from the world. I didn't know what was going on. Great for my head, bad for when I came back, because I, when I got back, I was hit with all this stuff, back taxes that my dad didn't pay. Oh my God, the things that I'm going through. So, um, I know I forget the question.

George Siegal: 9:37

No, the the question was more about just, you're still reliving this. I mean, you don't just, you don't just walk away from it.

Trixie Parkes: 9:44

No, no, no. So even though you try to walk away. So I went into the woods and I unplugged, but then I came back and I'm going to be honest with you that I'm having a hard time being in the world right now. I I kind of lose my, my sense of, I don't know how to deal with things. I'm not going to lie because I hit my family, not knowing I don't think they do it on purpose my just people. I know. Oh yeah, oh, I have this brand new $70,000 car and oh, I just got my Tory Bird shoes and oh, I have this and I have that.

Trixie Parkes: 10:19

And I just look at them like what's going on inside of me is I want to explode and I want to scream at them and say I lost everything my earrings, my, my shoes, my everything. And you're telling me about all the new things that you're getting. And should I be upset, should I be happy for them? I don't know, I have a mix of emotions, but really what it does inside, it makes me want to explode. And then I just go and I retreat and I can't. I just can't. I'm thinking to myself this is so unfair. Why am I going through this? It's so, like, do you people not understand what this feels like? So yeah, I relive it consistently, and part of that is I just hide and I don't think that's a good idea either.

George Siegal: 11:03

So Well, I think that whatever coping mechanism you need to use, it's kind of hard to question it. When you look at something like that and a common theme and everybody that I've interviewed after a disaster that lost everything, there's just that feeling. Describe what that feeling is like when you wake up with nothing.

Trixie Parkes: 11:25

Nothing. Yeah, it's nothing, it's. It's um, I don't know for me, and I've always been a really like giving person, like I get, I give, give, give, right. I'm always that person that has helped everybody and you know I didn't have a lot but I always helped and and I'm I'm now like feeling like I've all the life has been sucked out of me. Really, it's a struggle every day to wake up and just want to go on with the world, because and then I know that sounds really dramatic, but that's how I really truly feel I'm like, not that your your stuff or your cards or your shoes, you know, identify you, um, but you know we work for them and they make us happy and, um, you know, nobody said you have to be. You know, living in with no shoes and you know, in a tent, that's not what we're, we're here for and I had everything and now I have nothing. And you know people say, oh, but you're alive. Yes, I'm alive, but I'm alive with a lot of trauma inside of me.

George Siegal: 12:35

Yeah, I mean, that's a catchphrase that does victims Absolutely. And when somebody says, well, at least you're alive, oh, you don't have cancer, I mean there's always a scenario that can be worse, but it doesn't make the tragedy you're experiencing just vanquish and go away.

Trixie Parkes: 12:50

Right, and I always say my everybody, whatever your tragedy is right. So, whatever you're trying, mine isn't worse or better, yours isn't worse or better, it's just, it is your own personal journey of your tragedy and how you deal with it and how. And honestly, I really kind of just, I don't try, I try not to talk about it anymore, because I think I think and maybe this is true, maybe it isn't, but I think that people around me, my friends, my family, they don't want to hear about it. They're like, oh, get over it. You know, it's been a year and a half, move on right.

Trixie Parkes: 13:24

Okay, yeah, easy for you to say, as you're celebrating the holidays with your family, as you're driving in your new cars, as you're going about your everyday business, I'm still living the tragedy. I'm still living with trauma inside of my soul. I'm telling you, every day something comes up. Every day I get a phone call. Oh, well, you know the things that are happening to me, the things my dad did prior and now after the hurricane, and I'm still paying bills that came up during the hurricane. And I try to explain to people well, I didn't have an address and I lost things. And they're like yeah, it doesn't matter, it doesn't matter who cares, we heard it all. We don't care, we've heard it all and nobody wants to hear it, and they really don't. So I just I try not to complain and I just say okay, and if I get one thing done a day, I've accomplished a huge amount. And I used to be this, you know, business owner and go getter, and I did everything, and now I'm just like I'm exhausted. I am, I'm exhausted.

George Siegal: 14:33

Well, I think it says a lot more about some of the people you're around, possibly, than around you. Because, then about you? Because it sounds like a lack of empathy for something that was a real tragedy, that Rightyou're still living Now. Right now, you're house sitting for somebody in that area where you're on the beach. You've lived in a motor home. Could you see yourself going back to a house? Do you like the freedom of not having that responsibility? Are your eyes now open to owning something is too risky.

Trixie Parkes: 15:01

Yes, yeah. So you know, as I, as I have gone through the travels, you know my, my family said oh, you got to buy a house, you got to buy a house. But let me tell you, pyrr, I truly, truly feel inside when you work really, really hard and then I mean, then you're, you just look at a piece of dirt after your house goes and your cars go and your shoes go. I'm scared to death to take, make any kind of investment. I know this sounds so dramatic and maybe in a few years I'll change.

Trixie Parkes: 15:31

I'm scared to death to make an investment in something, or maybe, possibly a 1% chance, a 90% chance of who knows percentages, that I could lose it all again, because once you lose it all, that is my greatest fear, it's my greatest fear. So I have very little, very little. I'm very minimal. I can get in my RV and I can escape, and it wouldn't. I bad weather's coming, I'll go somewhere else. I mean, I'm, I. I'm telling you truth. Truth be told in my heart of hearts, I don't think I'll ever buy anything or own anything of great, great value.

George Siegal: 16:12

That makes perfect sense. Now, are you able to get any value for the lot that your home was on?

Trixie Parkes: 16:20

Well, I don't know. So I looked around at the area and, you know, nothing's selling right now. And I do need to sell it. I'll be honest with you, because now, since the hurricane and having no insurance, I've been putting money out rather than than being able to, to, you know, survive. So I don't know, people are selling some lots, but not a lot, and I'm not. I don't know what's going on. I don't know if people even want to come. I don't know. Well, wait, because now it's season on Fort Myers Beach and people don't care, they just want to come to the beach. They live in Michigan, they want to come to the beach. They don't care that it's there's nothing to do here. They want to come. So I guess we'll see what happens during the season. If people are interested in, in owning and I think people still are, I don't know why, but they are.

George Siegal: 17:16

Where are people staying when they come down there? Because I was struck by, over a year past, the hurricane. It looked like it was a mess there.

Trixie Parkes: 17:24

It's a mess. I have no idea. So in the prior to hurricane, oh my gosh, everybody, everybody in their brother owned a vacation rental Everybody you know me and you know my next-door neighbors and everybody else and that's what we did. That's how we made our living. There's really none. So I think there's like a cup, I think there's a hotel, a resort, and then now Margaritaville is open and that's wow, 700 a night. So good luck, Good for them, if you can afford that. Seriously, really, I'm not saying that. So I don't know. I think they're staying off the beach and driving. There's some new hotels that have been built, but it is. I'm on the beach, it is. It's like Death Valley here. I'm sorry, there's nothing here. It's pretty, pretty depressing.

George Siegal: 18:15

Are they giving you any sense of in the community how long they think it will take for everything to get back up to speed? I know it took several years in Mexico Beach, in the Panhandle of Florida. Do they give people a sense of, wow, this is a 10 year project, this is a five year project. What do you hear?

Trixie Parkes: 18:32

You hear different things from different people. There's condos that I know people live in and they're not able to get into them until next winter, 2024. So two years of waiting, and that's maybe. That's a maybe. There's nothing guaranteed, so we're not having a guarantee of okay, you know, on January 15, everything's going to be in this shape. Nobody knows, because people are coming in and I mean there's constant workers constantly. You know, you see the electricians and you see the plumbers and you see the construction workers and there is stuff going up. But then, but then in certain areas there's nothing. There's still the dead, gutted building that's for sale, the gutted, you know church, and can I tell you I don't know, I really don't know. I mean, I know from, just like what you said, from Mexico Beach and all those are. Sometimes it takes five to 10 years.

George Siegal: 19:34

So now I really don't know how to describe this to people, but I'm sure a lot of people can relate to this. If you're in Fort Myers, where all the strip malls are and all the hotels and everything, life looks like it's normal, but then you drive down to Fort Myers Beach and it's a war zone down there.

Trixie Parkes: 19:52

It's a war zone. It is, yeah, and I think that you know what has happened. You're right. So people are coming. It's not the old Fort Myers Beach that they knew when they'd come over the beach, the bridge, and oh, there was all this life and it's nothing like that. All you see is, you know, sand, which is great, you know, but dead trees and broken buildings and gutted buildings. And personally, if it were me and I didn't have to be here, this would be the last place I'd want to come. I'll be really honest with you, but they don't seem to care. I don't know. They're driving, they come over, so I think they're staying over the bridge. They're coming, they're spending the day on the beach, la la la, and then going back, but there's nothing here.

Trixie Parkes: 20:40

There's a little area in Times Square they call it, with a couple of what do you call them? Food trucks, Margaritaville, and that's pretty much it, and all these people. I'm sorry, it's all. It makes me ill. I'm an owner and they're driving here and they're gawking and they're driving five miles an hour to look at all the devastation that we lived in and that triggers my PTSD, like you would not believe, when I'm walking and I'm seeing people taking and they're still doing it literally five miles an hour, looking at our homes, our death, what we experienced, and then I'm triggered all over again. So the triggering of the PTSD happens pretty much every day for me.

George Siegal: 21:28

Yeah, yeah. No, that happens all the time after a disaster. Now we do want to give a shout out to the businesses that are there that are working. There's a great little coffee place down the street from you that I had some coffee at, and then there's a yacht club area further down the road that we had an amazing lunch there. So there are businesses that are working that, if you're down there, it's great to support them.

Trixie Parkes: 21:49

Yes, oh, yeah, you did. I think you went over.

George Siegal: 21:52

You told us to go there. It was great, yes.

Trixie Parkes: 21:53

And it was buff, it was bustling right.

George Siegal: 21:55

Yeah, it was, and the food was wonderful. It was great.

Trixie Parkes: 21:58

I'm so glad, yeah, yeah, so we love that. I mean, that's like a local Yoko place too. So we're happy that there's some place like that. So I'll put my mic. So we're happy that there's a place like that and I'm glad that you, you know, experienced that. And you know, in my heart do I want the old, old life back up? Of course we all do, we all do, we all want to go. You know, I was a frequent flyer of that restaurant when it was somewhere else. I don't know, it's going to be different, it's just going to be different. And I wasn't the person that was visiting. I was, I was a working person here, so I didn't always do all the vacation things that everybody does. I just wanted to go to my little local restaurant, have my mimosas on Sunday, meet my friends and be done. You know when they go back to work.

George Siegal: 22:51

So you know.

Trixie Parkes: 22:51

I don't know what it's going to be and now I can't do any of those things. So anything that I do is off of Fort Myers Beach and you know, luckily things are happening out there, but the beach I'm not. I'm not so sure.

George Siegal: 23:05

Yeah, Now, if a community has a sound infrastructure and a plan, the path back sometimes is faster than if they don't have that. When we interviewed you for the film, you made it clear that you felt that this, that Fort Myers Beach was really unprepared for this.

Trixie Parkes: 23:21

I think they're completely unprepared. I think that I started doing a lot of research and I started doing some living writing. I'm writing a book, right? So my book started out one way and now it's starting out as living in Florida my whole life, in all the hurricanes that I experienced, and how truly, how absolutely ignorant government can be, and I'm not sure how much they can do. I can't tell you.

Trixie Parkes: 23:55

Of course we have the weather people that say get prepared, but I don't care how many sandbags you put or how many you know, whatever you're preparing for it doesn't matter, because we humans cannot control what mother nature does, right, so that hurricane's coming in. So I think in my experience, you know you live, people are living on your beach, they're living in a coastal town, they're living on the Gulf of Mexico, which is probably the worst place for hurricanes in my opinion, and there was no, like they could have started this a long time ago. I don't know some kind of barrier or some kind of protection. Again, I'm no expert, I don't know how that all works, I don't know anything of that. But wouldn't you think that they would maybe be proactive as opposed to reactive?

Trixie Parkes: 24:50

And now you have to go back and pick up the pieces, literally, literally, pick up the pieces. And there's got to be a way, there's got to be some engineers out there that can say this is what we can do to help this community. We can start with and again I don't know some kind of barrier or some kind of bridge or some kind of you know, I don't know dam. I don't know what people do, but anyway, that's how I think about it. They're not prepared. No, and you'd think they would be.

George Siegal: 25:19

Yeah, oh, there's no question and it's amazing. But I think it's not only the people at the top, it's all of us at the bottom that go well, I want to live here. I know the risk. They just don't think it's going to happen to them. So, as you, watch them start to rebuild Fort Myers Beach. If they're not doing it much differently to me, that just means it can very likely happen again.

Trixie Parkes: 25:42

Oh, there comes for me the reason why I'm never going to do this again, ever, because I know what's going to happen. And then I started thinking about how, what? You know my parents. They came here in 1960 from Pennsylvania to live that dream. I'm going to live on the beach, I'm going to live in Florida, I'm going to have great weather. I don't know at that point, because I can't ask them if they really thought about what the risks were. I mean, you hear about hurricanes and honestly, I think they've gotten worse. They're getting worse and worse and worse and worse. Over the years they're getting worse. I lived through them, to cat twos, cat threes. Now, all of a sudden, a cat five is coming and they're coming more often, right? I think the cat twos and cat threes are like so who cares? Cat fives are on them, they're coming and I live through it. I'm here to tell you that a cat five is, it's no joke. There's a lot of value.

George Siegal: 26:49

It seems like Babcock Ranch, which is about 40 minutes from where you are. They're 35 feet up. They built a community with the plan of surviving hurricanes. They're not close to the water Right, yet those people are living their lives and are just fine today. That seems to be an interesting trade-off.

Trixie Parkes: 27:07

Right, Well, OK, so they're out. I know we're there, so that's a great place. They're out east but they do have the risk of the Caloosahatchee River there. So I'm not sure where that is in location to them. But out in that east area is the calo. I don't think they're close to that, but a lot of people out there in the east they have the Caloosahatchee River that does surge.

George Siegal: 27:29

Yeah, they have a plan there for getting water out of the community and it seems to have been very effective in the hurricane. The point is, at least they're trying to do something and it appears to be very effective. Looking at what happened in Fort Myers Beach, it's hard to say to somebody go live by the water.

Trixie Parkes: 27:52

I think that it. I'm just going to say I just think people, truly they get blinded by their dreams, by their hopes, by this person who's lived in the cold winter forever and ever, ever, in Michigan or Minnesota or Wisconsin. And let me tell you they have no clue, because I had renters from Wisconsin and right after the hurricane they're like, okay, well, can we come down? And I'm like you have no clue, there's nothing there. And I would start getting angry, like you have no clue. And I think those people would still come and they would still want to live on the beach. If they could buy something or get something for not a lot of money, or they thought it was a great investment, I think they would still do it. I think they would still take their chances. Because we always say it's not going to happen to me, it's not going to happen to me. People say it all the time right, it's not going to happen to me. That's a once in a lifetime thing.

George Siegal: 29:01

I think we all live that way. You know you don't wake up in the morning and go. I think I'll get in a car accident today. I think I'll have a category five hurricane wipe out my life. We don't think that way and it catches up to us. So now, having been through what you're living through now, is the cost of living in paradise worth it?

Trixie Parkes: 29:22

I don't think so at all. I think that, oh my gosh, there's so many other places you can live, really so beautiful. I've seen the country and there's some amazing places. You want water. You can have water, but you can do it by a lake, right? How about a lake? Lakes are nice. So I don't think so. I think that what people are selling land for here and what people are doing, good luck, you know, good luck to you, but beware, I'm just gonna say you know, do your homework. I don't think that this, I don't think we're on steady ground here.

George Siegal: 29:59

Well, you know, the film that we're making is called Built to Last, buy or Beware, and the beware seems to be something that most people aren't, because we're all enamored by where we wanna be and we tend to fall in love before we understand what we're falling in love with.

Trixie Parkes: 30:13

That's exactly right. That's exactly my point. Like I don't, I think people are blinded, I do. I think what you can have, you're gonna make an amazing documentary right. It's gonna be beautiful and it's gonna be really important for people to see. I'm gonna tell my story. Maybe other people are gonna tell their story, I don't. If you wanna listen, you will. If you wanna educate yourself, you will. Who's gonna do that? You know? I mean, I think you're right. I think people just get enamored with the idea of living in paradise. That's it.

George Siegal: 30:51

Yeah, I think everybody that lives in Florida is somewhat guilty of that. We hope it's not gonna happen to us and we see it keep happening year after year, and most recently here in Tampa we had just a winter storm that flooded houses. So people who were flooded by Adalia during hurricane season just got walloped after hurricane season was over by a storm that they didn't even expect would cause that kind of damage.

Trixie Parkes: 31:17

Right. And so why is so? I ask you, why is that? Like if you could get yourself, like if you could prepare yourself and say this could happen? Why would you like, is it so important? I maybe I'm just not a Florida fan, I don't know but is it so important to have that view, have your toes in the sand for that risk? I don't think so. I think the world is a beautiful place and I had no choice, right. So I was born here because my parents came here. But if I had a choice and I do I wouldn't stay here. I would definitely not stay here.

George Siegal: 32:00

So, as some parting advice, then, what would you tell people who are thinking of moving here or that go? Hey, my dream is to live at the beach. I'm retiring, I'm gonna take everything and buy this place right by the water. What advice would you have for people?

Trixie Parkes: 32:18

Well, you know, it's coming from a point of sadness and it's coming from a point of a person who actually, you know, lived a tragedy and I would say come visit, but don't buy anything. You wanna enjoy the beach? Come visit, sure great, put your toes in the sand. I wouldn't invest in anything here. I mean, I just go back to my 89-year-old dad who was just a regular guy, a barber when he was a kid, a barber and a singer and then a cop. And then he had this dream to have and he had several places. They had one in, they had places in Pembroke Pines, they had places in Key Largo, we had places here in Fort Myers Beach, and now we have nothing. And I mean I can't even imagine some person coming after they've retired and worked their whole life and taking the chance to. But I just would not do it. Come and visit, really. Come visit. That's good and help the businesses grow that are here on the beach. Come visit, but I wouldn't buy anything. Stay where you are, come visit.

George Siegal: 33:35

It's like people who have older people, who have grandkids, and they find that so much easier than their kids because you get to send them back. So you go to the beach for the day, but then you go home someplace safe yeah yeah, Is that weird, but I think that's a good.

Trixie Parkes: 33:50

I think so.

George Siegal: 33:52

I don't know if it's weird because, to be honest with you, I love living in Florida. I'm terrified of what can happen because of all I've been doing with my job, so I'm very aware of the dangers, but I haven't moved yet, so I'm just as guilty as everybody else.

Trixie Parkes: 34:09

Right, and you came here. You came here from New York. Where'd you come here from?

George Siegal: 34:13

I came here from Texas, where we happened to live in a neighborhood that was not gonna flood. It was safe. And now we're living in a place that every time there's a hurricane, we're in a flood zone. Now we have what we think is a safe house, but you never know.

Trixie Parkes: 34:28

No, no, you never know. I mean you can. I remember my first house in the 1960s, and it was. My dad built this house and it was a sturdy house. I'm not gonna lie, it was a sturdy house. We lived through many hurricanes, but it was in a completely different area. It wasn't on the beach, it wasn't on the water, it was inland and it was a rock solid house. It still stands today and it was built in 1960. They don't make houses like that anymore. I'm not gonna lie. Every house is a stick house. I'm watching them build new houses somewhere here in Fort Myers and there's still sticks. How do they get away with it? I don't know. Why are people buying them? Cause they're cheap? I don't know, not one.

George Siegal: 35:11

That's it exactly. That's why, first of all, shame on whoever's building it. I had a guy interviewed recently, a builder here in Tampa who won't build houses that he doesn't deem safe, that he has a standard that he says look, I'm not gonna build unsafe houses, but I think that it starts with us. We have to demand it, because somebody's always gonna try to make a living and sell you something you don't have to buy it.

Trixie Parkes: 35:36

Right, right, right, that's right.

George Siegal: 35:40

You can use that as the title of your book if you want. You don't have to buy it.

Trixie Parkes: 35:43

Oh, I love it. I love it. I'm working on the title right now.

George Siegal: 35:50

Okay, well, hey, Trixie I like that. You were great when we interviewed you. I'm so sorry for what you're going through. Thank you so much for coming on today. I wanna let people know how to get in touch with you, which, if you email me that, I'm gonna put it in the show notes and so people can follow you. So when that book comes out they can read it, and I want you to definitely get me a copy. I'm not asking for a free one. I definitely will buy your book.

George Siegal: 36:10

Oh, I love it, but I look forward to reading that as well.

Trixie Parkes: 36:13

Oh, good, good, good, yeah, thank you so much. Thank you for having me. Really You're doing great work and keep it going, because I think the more you put the word out there, maybe somebody will listen.

George Siegal: 36:25

Thanks, trixie, take care. Thank you for joining me today. If you have a story about your home, either good or bad, I'd love for you to share it with me. There's a contact form in the show notes. Fill it out. You might be a guest on an upcoming podcast. Thank you again for listening. See you next time.