OKEECHOBEE COUNTY, Fla. — Next to a mountain of debris in western Okeechobee County, Catline Dahlonega recently sifted through the remnants of what once was her home.
"It's hard to look through and realize that’s where we were lived," Dahlonega sighed. "It's a lot, but I'll get out of it. As long as my husband's OK, I'll get out of it."
Dahlonega pushed a strand of white hair out of her eyes and immediately straightened up with a look of fierce determination in her eyes.
"Sometimes I look at it and I want to cry," she said. "But crying ain't going to get the job done, you know? It's spilled milk now."
Dahlonega goes by Charley, and from the moment that WPTV met her at the site of what used her mobile home, it was clear the 70-year-old has plenty of spunk.
"I've been known as Charley most of my life, they say I'm a cross between a Chevy and a Harley," cracked Dahlonega with a sly grin. "I've been married to John Alberigi III. And don't forget the III, because he won't forgive you if you do."
Yet even as she joked, her smile soon faded as she took another look around the now-empty lot as she remembered the day she almost died.
"There's going to be some pretty bad memories for a long time, you know? I mean, I lost a really a lot of valuable stuff, a lot of really beautiful things that I had collected. I collected a lot of really nice stuff, and, you know, it's all gone," Dahlonega said.
On Oct. 9, Dahlonega and her husband were sitting in their living room, watching television, waiting for Hurricane Milton to arrive.
"We were prepared for the hurricane. We knew that Milton was approaching land," Dahlonega said. "You're just kind of hanging out waiting for those squalls to start."
That was around 2:30 p.m., just before the National Weather Service said a 100-yard-wide, EF2 tornado touched down at 2:27 p.m. near the Milking R Dairy.
The twister's 155 mph winds carved a 2.6-mile path, the tornado churning straight toward Dahlonega and Aberigi's home.
Hurricane
'Debris flying everywhere:' Okeechobee tornado injures 2, destroys homes
"I got up to prepare John a snack, and just as I stood up, the front glass just started breaking in the front, in the room. The front glass was coming in. The G-force was pushing John so deep into the chair he was sitting in, his head was turned, and I was worried about his ability to breathe, so I tried to just get on him so I could control some of that," Dahlonega said. "I couldn't get there. This thing had us, and we were gone."
Dahlonega said the tornado picked her home up about 32 feet in the air — higher than the two oak trees in the front of her yard — and imploded it.
"The next thing I remember, quite literally, was waking up under a dryer over in the field to the north, several hundred yards to the north," Dahlonega said. "When I came to, I was buried. Most of me was underground. I had, my arm was free, and I was trying to push this dryer off of me. The sheriff was there. I heard voices, you know. They were talking, and I started finding whatever I could. I think I remembered finding a phone, throwing it straight up into the air, just trying to get attention and yelling. And they told me to quit trying to push the dryer off because we were totally wrapped in fencing and electrical wire. That was hot wire. That was scary."
But at that moment, Dahlonega's only concern was her husband, John.
"Where is John? You know, John has dementia, and I just couldn't imagine what he was going through. At least I was conscious, but where's John? And they were, they were yelling his name, but wasn't getting a response. And I yelled his name a couple of times, and they held my ear to the ground, and I heard a muffled noise," Dahlonega said. "He was literally completely buried in a cow field with all that muck and junk ... under, they said, about 1,000 pounds of debris."
Dahlonega said Okeechobee Fire Rescue soon extricated both her and her husband, telling her she was in critical condition.
"My right leg is pretty mangled and scarred up, my back's probably as gnarly as my leg was, and I guess they had to do CPR, and they ended up intubating me before we got to the hospital," Dahlonega said. "I was rushed to Lawnwood (Hospital), according to the reports for emergency surgery, but four days later, I come out of there. They considered me critical. I don't know how. When I think about how John was and his injuries, how could he not have been the critical one? You know?"
Dahlonega said Alberigi broke every rib, his left arm and left shoulder.
"He was broken up. He was battered, and I don't feel like anything happened to me," Dahlonega said. "I mean, I had a concussion and I had a pretty nasty gash, and sometimes it still hurts and it's still tender on the back of my head. So either I hit something or something hit me, I tend to think that I probably hit something, but, you know, John just looked like he was in worse shape."
Dahlonega said there were rumors she had died.
"We kept meeting people in town, and when they would realize who I was, I was hearing this for weeks, 'Oh, we thought you were dead,' you know, I'm like, I've got a little more behind me than that, you know," Dahlonega said with a determined grin.
Yet months later, it's getting harder to keep staying so positive.
Their home and almost all of their belongings are gone, either taken by the tornado or by looters who took advantage soon after the storm.
Decades worth of memorabilia, collectibles and irreplaceable items were gone in a blink of an eye. The life she and her husband spent so many years building is now broken, buried or stolen.
"We've been able to recover some of it, but not much," Dahlonega said. "I have my moments when I still want to break down, but I can't cry over it. I got to get up and do, there's no one else that is going to do what I need to do."
Dahlonega is living with a local pastor and his wife, who she said have now become dear friends.
Yet Alberigi has been stuck in a nursing home ever since he was discharged from the hospital: unable to come home until they have a home to come back to.
"I just can't leave him in that nursing home any longer than this ... any longer than is absolutely necessary," Dahlonega said.
"He's looking for me. He's calling for me. I promised him we'd never be separated, and here we are separated, you know, yeah, it's one of the hardest things I think I've ever had to do, is to tell him one thing and not be able to hold to my promise," Dahlonega said choking back tears. "That hurts, but I'm going to see him again today, so it'll get better. It will. Sun is shining, and I got the love in my heart."
Dahlonega continues to find a strength deep within. As she spoke to WPTV, she took a deep breath, sighed and lifted her head high.
"It's just survival. That's all I know. To think of it as I've survived all my life through a lot of things," she said confidently. "I couldn't begin to tell you the stories of my life, and they just all prepared me, I guess, for this."
"You know that plate you're supposed to have, the one the Lord won't put more on than you can handle? Well, I've got a platter. It's not just a plate, but I'll eat every bit of it," Dahlonega says with another grin.
Dahlonega needs a car to get back and forth from the nursing home to see her husband. Her vehicle, like her home, was damaged beyond repair in the tornado.
She also now hopes for help from FEMA that may allow her to find a new home.
Friends and family have launched a GoFundMe page to support Dahlonega's needs. Click here if you'd like to donate.
