It takes Michael O’Hearn a few, uncomfortable minutes to get up from his sleeping bag each morning.

He, and a handful of his neighbors, have been sleeping on the concrete porch in front of their apartment building since Hurricane Ian hit. The small North Fort Myers apartments on North Cypress Street were badly damaged by flooding with multiple residents saying they’re afraid of spending much time inside because of black mold.

At least one of the neighbors is sleeping on a mattress. O’Hearn isn’t as fortunate – his air mattress has a hole in it. So, six months after suffering a broken back, he’s found himself sleeping in a sleeping bag with nothing but a deflated air mattress between him and the concrete slab the past two weeks.

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“It takes five minutes to get up,” he said. “I have to crawl to my feet.”

When it rains, like it did Sunday, O’Hearn inches closer to the apartment door to try and avoid getting wet.

He’s been advised to go to a nearby shelter, but he’s not comfortable being in a place with “maybe a couple hundred or even a thousand people.”

Like many in Lee County, O’Hearn and his neighbors have their damaged possessions piled up in the grass in front of the building waiting for it to be taken away.

All he really has left is a blue carry-on suitcase, a cooler and a handful of other items that were in his attic. Anything on the ground floor was destroyed. The black stained walls with pieces of leaves and mud reveal the water rose almost halfway up the walls, completely covering the stove and sink.

During Hurricane Ian, O’Hearn saw the water rushing down the street and quickly decided to bring his suitcase and cooler upstairs, He said in the three minutes it took to do that, the water already was waist deep.

“I’ve been down here for 33 years and been through many hurricanes but never seen anything like this,” O’Hearn said. “I didn’t dare go anywhere because the water was rushing so fast, but after it started rushing in, I was afraid of being trapped in here or drowning in here.

"So, me and the next-door neighbor, we made our way up the street. I guess we were about half a mile, three quarters and we were up to our neck in water. We went east, which actually was probably the wrong way to go because we’re parallel to the river. If we went north, we would have gotten out of the water sooner.”

Wet and shivering, O’Hearn said he tried to sleep on the ground outside of All Souls Episcopal Church the night Ian hit and returned home the next day. He then started the painful process of cleaning out his apartment.

“The water was gone. It was just wreckage,” he said. “Some of it might look salvageable, but it had sewage all over it.”

For now, he and his neighbors are stuck outside. Waiting.

He said his initial request for help from FEMA was declined because they said he didn’t have any losses. After waiting more than two hours on the phone Sunday, he finally got someone to reopen his case.

O’Hearn said his landlord, Jalon Johnson, has told him his apartment likely won’t be fixed for four to six months.

“They haven’t told us to move or anything like that,” he said. “Pretty much everyone here is pretty much on Section 8 housing or on some sort of government voucher. Most of us are disabled or handicapped in one way or another – mentally, physically.

"He’s saying four to six months before we’re back to normal. I can’t live in this for four to six months. He said that we’re required for moving all our furniture, that we’re required for cleaning the unit, and that to me doesn’t sound right.

“The community has been great. People have brought cleaning supplies, food. But I just wish the landlord could do more.”

Johnson said Wednesday morning that new drywall is going in and he's hopeful the apartments will be up and running by the end of the month. 

"We’re in the process," Johnson said. "When the storm came, there was 5 feet of water. It was unbelievable. The first thing we did was check to make sure everyone was OK. Once we did, I advised everyone to file a claim with FEMA and get a voucher for a hotel or something because it was going to be time. The power is on. It should be a matter of weeks. Some people are at shelters. They have three hot meals a day and new clothes.

"I tried to make as many provisions as I can. If they want to sleep outside when there's no power and no available resources outside of FEMA, that’s really a choice. We're working as fast as we can