Stranded Hurricane Sandy Survivor Leaves Farewell Message in Evacuated Home

A young man who was swept from his Jersey Shore home by Hurricane Sandy managed to find refuge in an evacuated house, then scrawled a heart-rending message to his father there in the hope that it would be found in case he died.

The note by the man, identified only as Mike, has made waves across social media and has become a symbol of the trying days brought by the devastating storm. It read: "There's no res[c]ue. Tell my dad I love him and I tryed geting [sic] out." Mike included his father's phone number in the note.

Mike explained in the message that he had to break into the house and take blankets on the couch and a jacket to keep warm. "WHO EVER READS THIS I'M IN THE DARK AS I'M WRITING THIS I'M DIEING [sic] - I'm 28 yrs old my name is Mike," the note said.

Christine Treglia, who owns the Toms River, N.J., home where Mike sought refuge, found the message when she returned after the storm, according to Yahoo News. She called his father's number and found out that Mike had ultimately made it out safely. She took a photo of the note and shared it on Facebook, where it quickly went viral.

Radio station WOBM was able to reach Mike and learn the rest of his harrowing story.

Mike told WOBM that he was swept a half-mile into the bay near his home in the Green Island community of Toms River, N.J. Unable to swim back home, he ended up on the other side of the bay "at some lady's house," where he found towels, drank some water, and wrote the now-famous message to his father.

But the story doesn't end there. Mike ventured back outside after resting for a few hours.

"In the street there was about eight feet of water," Mike told WOBM, "and I'm like: I ain't dying like this; after all this, I ain't dying like this."

He said that he was then picked up by a man named Frank on a personal watercraft. "He drove me to his house. He's the one who gave me clothes. They were really nice people; they put me by the gas stove. They were like: Here are your clothes, here's everything, hot chocolate, everything to keep your body up," Mike recounted. "Everybody's calling me the miracle child."

Hear the entire interview at WOBM.

When asked why he penned the note to his father, Mike said, "I just wanted to tell my father: I tried. You know, I wasn't a baby about it. I tried, I did my thing." And doing his thing may have saved his life.

If you want to aid the continued recovery efforts in regions devastated by Hurricane Sandy, you can text "REDCROSS" to 90999 to give $10 to American Red Cross Disaster Relief.

See also:
Building a More Storm-Resistant Home
Home Insurance for Hurricanes and Floods

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