When the remnants of Hurricane Ida slammed into New York City last Wednesday night, flooding Dempsey and Lisa Pillot's Bronx basement apartment -- according to the landlord, though, it's an "elevated lower level" -- Lisa said she had one thought: "I just want the kids out."
Dempsey -- who is a podcast and multimedia producer at 1010 WINS and WCBS 880 -- sprung into action and grabbed their kids, son Dempsey, 4, and their 6-month-old daughter Andie.
Dempsey carried his son on his shoulders, and held his daughter high in the air, as their Throggs Neck apartment began flooding -- within 20 minutes, they were chest-deep.
Luckily, neighbors heard Lisa's cries for help -- which were captured on a neighbor's Ring camera -- and came to the couple's aid.
The apartment was totaled, essentially: The family's clothing was destroyed, computer equipment, family mementos like frames, and a host of other valuables and essential items were lost.
Dempsey admits he didn't expect Ida to be so severe -- and to uproot his family's entire life.
"It wasn't until I saw it (the water) coming from the back that I got worried," he said. "It never came from the back. And when I finally saw it coming from underneath our walls, that's when I knew we had to go."
As for their two children, his daughter obviously is too young to understand what was happening, but "my son didn't really understand the seriousness of it, and I could see that he didn't really get worried until he saw how worried we were."
On Friday, though, the Pillots got a special visitor: Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who represents the area.
"Seeing AOC in my house still feels like a dream," Dempsey said. "I've always wanted to meet her, but not under those circumstances. Seeing her in my destroyed bedroom, helping my wife move stuff around was surreal. Her being there, listening to us, and giving us hugs and assuring us that things would be okay meant a lot."
So now what? "We're at my parents house," Dempsey explains. "We're waiting for our landlord to have someone take a look at the house. She lives in Florida, and when we asked her to come down to speak with her, her exact quote was 'the flight is $900. It's too expensive to go.'"
He adds of their landlord, "She believes all the damage can be repaired in a week. Those were her exact words. I want to note that it's been nearly a week since this happened, and no one's still shown up. Everything already smells moldy. She's in for a rude awakening."
Not surprisingly, Dempsey says, "Me any my wife are definitely looking to move elsewhere, but we're taking it a day at a time. We've been so busy dealing with trying to make sure we have clothes and toiletries and still trying to move stuff out that we honestly haven't even had time to properly process everything."
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