Family evacuated just before Isaias destroyed their home: ‘We probably wouldn’t be here today’
The family left the barrier island Friday morning before Hurricane Isaias made landfall. Laura Dean credits the local evacuation order and urgent pleas to leave with changing her mind.
One Pensacola Beach woman says urgent pleas to evacuate pushed her to leave just in time: Hours later, Hurricane Isaias destroyed her home.
Laura Dean planned to ride out Hurricane Isaias at her waterfront Pensacola Beach, Florida, condo with her 89-year-old father and her son. A last-minute decision to evacuate spared them from sheltering in a home that would lose its top floor, where all their bedrooms were located.
When the family returned Saturday, they found the upper floor torn away and a wall of windows destroyed, leaving their home exposed to the elements.
The top floor of a Pensacola Beach home was ripped off by Hurricane Isaias's powerful winds. (Image: Bill Wadell)
Dean, her father, Ken Norris, and her son, Alex, left the barrier island Friday morning before Isaias made landfall. She credits the local evacuation order and urgent pleas to leave with changing her mind.
Concern for the emergency crews who might have to rescue them helped her make the decision.
Laura Dean shows AccuWeather the damage to her home in Pensacola Beach damaged by Hurricane Isaias. (Image credit: Bill Wadell)
“You don't want to put the other people at risk to come help you if something should happen,” Dean told AccuWeather Correspondent Bill Wadell. “And so, I thought, I'm not gonna be selfish and stay. I'm gonna think of others.”
Even their escape proved dangerous: Two trees fell on their vehicle in Gulf Breeze.
Hours after they left, Isaias tore apart their condo. Seeing the damage brought home how fortunate they had been to evacuate.
The top floor of a Pensacola Beach home was ripped off by Hurricane Isaias's powerful winds. (Image: Bill Wadell)
Dean said losing sentimental belongings was the most heartbreaking part of the destruction. But amid the wreckage, she found some of her most treasured possessions intact.
“Family photo albums. My mom's ashes, the Bibles, all survived, all the things that really matter,” she said.
Pointing to a room that remained upstairs, Dean described finding her mother’s ashes.
“My mom’s ashes were in there, and nothing happened to that room,” she said.
Laura Dean shares some surviving belongings after her Pensacola Beach home was damaged by Hurricane Isaias on Oct. 10, 2026. (Image: Bill Wadell)
After seeing what happened to the home where her family had planned to shelter, Dean urged others facing evacuation orders to leave.
“If they ever tell you to leave, leave, or we probably wouldn't be here today,” she said. “Things can be replaced; your family cannot.”
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