- February 7, 2025
-
-
Loading
Loading
Stan Escudero's house has countless valuables. While preparing for Hurricane Irma, he was worried about losing them.
As a big game hunter, the right side of his living room floor is adorned with the fur of a lion that he scored in Africa. There are rows of knives on his office wall that sit beside his certificates of war and his work in Washington.
Escudero, 75, is a former ambassador to the United States Embassy, where he served for 33 years. He has traveled to countless countries, lived undercover in Iran and as aforementioned, fought lions in Africa.
But Daytona is his home and has been for the past 30 years. He would rent his property out to others when he went on expeditions to other nations, but now that he's retired, he's enjoying his time in the Sunshine State. However, hurricanes Matthew and Irma have struck Escudero's home with significant damages over the past two years, and it's been hard to handle.
"It was exhausting," said Escudero about his Hurricane Irma preparation. "I’m 75 and I hate to admit that. I figured we would evacuate and we went to Orlando, which is where one of my son lives. If it continued and went up the spine of the state, it would be a lot weaker when it went to the center, but that turned out a little differently."
Escudero has experienced many Florida hurricanes, most notably including Hurricane Donna in 1960, in which he distinctly remembers helping his substitute teacher trim 12 trees in his backyard that fell as a result of the damage in New Smyrna Beach.
He insists the hurricanes are part of the flow of nature. As a history buff, he cites storms occurring in the late 1800's, early 1900's and others in the frames of every few years. In addition, the worst of the damage in any of the storms didn't end up being from Irma, but rather, during Hurricane Matthew last year.
"As you can see, I used to have a dock," Escudero said. "The most damage I suffered was from Matthew. It turned a good portion of the grass yellow due to the storm surge and he tore up the bricks on the patio, which are now just sitting in sand. It completely destroyed the dock, and now I’m going to cut down the rest of the trees."
Upon hearing news of Irma's initial forecast, there was worry about losing the house and all of the things he held dear.
Escudero says the house's roof was rebuilt after Matthew in order to sustain more hurricane-force winds, but with winds of 160 mph in the Caribbean, it sent a scare through their entire family.
"We [Wife and I] kept thinking that If it does what it says it’s going to do with 150 mph winds, this house wouldn’t be able to sustain that," Escudero said. "Maybe 120 or 130 but anything else and there’s no chance."
Luckily, nothing happened to the lion rug, the knife collection and the war certificates.
Escudero intends to press on, and prepare for these storms as long as they keep coming.
