LAKE WORTH BEACH, Fla. — A Lake Worth family's vacation to Cancun took an unexpected turn when Hurricane Beryl took aim at Mexico.
"It's a little bit different to wake up at 2:30 in the morning to your bed vibrating and moving from just the impact of the wind itself and the howl," Lois Oler said. "It was something I've never experienced and something I don't ever ever want to do again."
Anthony and Lois Oler and their four children were staying at the Beach Palace in Cancun. Little did they know Beryl would make it a trip they would never forget.
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"We did not sleep in a bed. We slept on a bathroom floor me on one side of the toilet, my son on the other, and my husband by the door just in case the window did break and it blew open the door," Lois Oler said.
The storm, which was a Category 5 earlier this week, roared ashore in Mexico as a powerful Category 2 hurricane. Lois Oler said the scariest part was being in a different country where she felt ill-informed and ill-prepared.
"The feeling of hopelessness—we can't be in the dark. We just have to know and have to know how to protect our kids," she added.
After the brunt of the hurricane passed, the struggles for them continued.
"All of the ocean-facing views are flooded. Our room is flooded. We're on the 11th floor. Our ceilings are leaking," Lois Oler explained.
"The winds were so strong it was actually blowing the water from the balcony through the seals onto the floor," Anthony Oler added.
The Palm Beach County family is grateful they made it through the storm safely.
Now, they're counting down the hours until they fly black to Florida Saturday afternoon.
