A North Texas couple found themselves caught in the chaos of Hurricane Dorian as it churned right over their heads, as their relaxing vacation to the Bahamas took a path they never saw coming.
Hurricane Dorian's wrath on the Abaco Islands left a trail of destruction. The death toll rose to 50 earlier in the week, but thousands of people are still missing.
Vickie Neubert of Granbury and her boyfriend Ken Kratch of Sherman saw it firsthand.
"Palms started blowing sideways and rain started coming in sideways and we didn't know if it was a Category 1 or 2 at the time," Kratch said.
They thought they were going on a dream vacation in late August.
"I just always dubbed it my nirvana," Neubert said.
But a week into the trip, it became a nightmare.
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"The first time it really hit us was when both of us saw the door of the laundry room fly in and I thought, 'Oh my God there's an entrance now for the wind and the rain that's just gonna start blowing everything out,'" she said.
As the track of the hurricane narrowed, the pair moved to Kratch's brother's vacation home, thinking it was strong enough to weather a Category 2 storm, but with communication lost, they had no idea how serious Dorian would be.
"We started getting canned food. Peanut butter and crackers and Vienna sausages and stuff like that," Kratch said.
With furniture secured, they prepared to ride it out.
"Thick doors that were latched down and everything, started shaking, so we held onto them," Kratch said.
"We were facing two windows and we could just see the rushing and the water was just getting higher and higher," Neubert said. "All of the sudden Ken says, 'Oh look there's a jacuzzi.'"
The pair spent the first night in a tub.
"We did as best as we could to rest because we thought we're not done yet," Neubert said.
As the Category 5 monster churned on for three days, they prayed.
"We just kept on saying, 'Oh God get us home, get us home, get us to our family,'" she said.
"That's what was so bad about this thing, it was going a mile an hour," he said.
A feeling of reprieve only washed over them once the winds calmed and the skies parted.
"Everything was just gone," Kratch said.
Once pristine beaches became their pathway to help. The couple eventually got their names on an evacuation list and returned to the U.S. late last week.
Kratch's eyes welled with tears remembering that first embrace with his daughter.
"Big hug," he said.
The pair said they hoped to relax and catch their breath back at home.
