By Rebecca Marshall, American Red Cross

Elaine Holden Devroy cried as soon as she saw an American Red Cross vehicle pull up in front of her home in Englewood, Fla.  

“Oh, I’m so glad to see you! This is great. I just want to cry,” she said enthusiastically.

Not even five feet tall, Devroy is big in personality, and her 94-year-old brain is sharp as ever.  

“I went through a hurricane in 1938, the worst one to ever hit the United States,” she said. 

There was no warning for the 1938 New England hurricane, and her family had to ride it out. She was just 10 years old at the time but tells every detail of the event like it was yesterday.  

“Three o’clock in the afternoon they sent kids home from school,” she recalled.  “Elm trees that they planted during the Depression were knocked down one after the other. My father took my sister and I to see it.” 

Flash forward 84 years, and the trees that surround her are palm trees. And, unlike the storm of ‘38, Florida residents were warned to leave before Hurricane Ian made landfall.  

Devroy had a safe place to stay during the historic storm, but that didn’t reduce the shock of seeing her neighborhood of five years where so many homes are destroyed and some completely flattened. 

“My home is repairable, thanks to my kids,” she said, but nevertheless, she was grateful when the Red Cross showed up with tools to begin the cleanup. 

Her daughter from New Hampshire, and son from Connecticut, scrambled to get to Florida to help get her home back in order. The Red Cross provided a tarp, garbage bags, a shovel, and gloves.  

When things settle down, Devroy will go back to living by herself and resume kidney dialysis three times a week. She says she still wants to celebrate more birthdays and she has no plans to leave her neighborhood. 

“I’m trying for 100,” she said, “but I’ll be okay if this is my last hurricane.”

American Red Cross relief is free to anyone with disaster-caused needs, thanks to the generosity of the American people. If you would like to support the Hurricane Ian response financially, visit redcross.org, text the words IAN to 90999 to make a $10 donation, or call 1-800-HELP NOW.