Tyra Elwess, her husband Kelvin and their 2-year-old daughter took some emotional steps off a plane and into the arms of their family members at Orlando International Airport on Tuesday after being stranded in Puerto Rico for nearly eight days.
The three were supposed to fly back to Orlando more than a week ago, but Hurricane Maria grounded their plane and they were forced to hunker down for the storm.
The trip started off as a vacation, Tyra Elwess said.
“Everything was green (and) beautiful,” she said. “Now, it’s just brown. Everything is brown.”
Family members met them at OIA with kisses, tears of joy and a few of the things they went without during their trip, like cheeseburgers, fries and diapers.
The experience was one that Tyra Elwess said she never wanted to go through again.
“It’s destroyed people,” she said. “With no water, no electricity, it’s hot. You can’t sleep.”
Now that the young family is back in Florida, Tyra Elwess said they just wanted to relax and recover.
“I want (air conditioning) and a bath, and some Netflix,” she said.
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