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SALT LAKE CITY — Several Utah families arrived back at home after Hurricane Odile turned their vacations at Cabo San Lucas into nightmares.
John and Katie Taylor landed in Utah late Thursday night, but they said it's bittersweet because they had to leave some family behind. Katie said the hardest part of returning was leaving her brother and his family behind.
Katie said she and her husband had to sleep in the stairwell of their hotel for a few days, then in a parking lot.
“Everyday was worse and worse as far as mildew smells, chlorine leaks, all sorts of things — the drywall cracking,” she said.
After 36 hours of no communication and minimal resources, they finally made it onto a plane. The Taylors said the hotel staff gave Katie and other pregnant women and their children priority when it finally came time to leave.
Katie's brother and his family stayed back.
“At the last minute we were loading onto the plane and I turned and I told them to come with me. But he just smiled and stayed because there were so many other little kids that he didn't want to take a spot for,” she explained.
Taylor later learned her brother and his wife made it to San Diego and should fly back to Utah sometime Friday.
Video taken by a storm chaser inside a hotel in Cabo shows the Category 3 hurricane when it hit land.
