Fort Myers Beach ‘disappears’ after Hurricane Ian wreaks havoc on Florida coast
FORT MYERS, Fla. – Joy McCormack stood across the street from a row of mobile homes, townhouses and apartments now completely covered in knee-deep floodwater.
She watched her neighbors wade back and forth from their homes, hoping to pull something out of the rubble. She wondered how her home in the nearby Iona Ranch mobile home was functioning after Hurricane Ian, but know that devastation can also happen.
“I think I’m going to lose the whole thing,” McCormack said. “It was the only house I had and if it were gone…”
She follows the path.
For Mitch Stough and his brother Mike, Fort Myers Beach is their livelihood. Now, it has been completely destroyed.
“It was leveled,” Mitch told The News-Press, part of the USA TODAY Network.
Fort Myers Beach, along with other Lee County barrier islands, suffered Hurricane Ian hits Florida coast. The Category 4 storm on landfall brought winds of 150 mph and sky-high water tore through the center of town.
Fort Myers, with a population of over 92,000, is a popular city for tourists and spring break. The small nearby seaside town of Fort Myers Beach, filled with bars and beachfront hotels and resorts, sits on skinny Estero Island, making it more vulnerable to when Ian hits the area. The town has a population of nearly 6,000.
The cities and towns there were some of the first to take the hit from the storm. Other parts of the state are still experiencing heavy rains and have not yet escaped Ian’s grip. Local officials and President Joe Biden says hurricane could be historically deadly and costly.
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Mitch and Mike Stough take shelter on the third floor of the Estero Island Beach Club, where Mike works. From there, they get a top view of the chaos. Waves swept across Estero Avenue, destroying the lower floors of buildings and sweeping away traffic, they said. Their car flew.
Mitch, who used to work at the popular Lani Kai resort, said the high tide stripped the resort’s first floor of its structural elements.
“There’s nothing there,” he said. “Fort Myers Beach is gone.”
A few miles away, boats could be seen thrown against the road railings, ripped from their yards the night before. Near the Matanzas Pass bridge, entire marina buildings were shattered, the wooden piers twisted and shattered. The sheriff blocked the entrance to Estero Island, saying the bridge was unsafe to cross.
On San Carlos Island, rows of houses were ravaged by wind and water, planks were peeled off, windows shattered. A boat in the middle of the road, dragged out of the driveway by the storm. The villagers looked very shocked, starting the monumental work of cleaning, picking up debris from their lawns.
For Mitch and Mike Stough, there’s no going back: They say they plan to move elsewhere.
“There is nothing here for us. Our job is no more. Our car is gone. Nothing is open,” he said. “It’s going to take a couple of years to get this thing back in shape again.”
DEMOGRAPHY AND DESIGN:Watch Hurricane Ian damage every city across Florida
Sanibel Island sees ‘biblical’ devastation after Ian
A few miles to the west, a stretch of causeway connects Sanibel Island to the mainland of Florida has fallen into the seacut off access to the barrier island where 6,300 people live.
There, the devastation was almost complete. Aerial video of ABC News shows houses with damaged or missing roofs, some drifting from their foundations, and rows of houses surrounded by storm surge.
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis said: “Sanibel is destruction … it has been affected by the actual biblical surge.”
He said efforts were underway to get the rest of the islanders to safety. Officials said Thursday evening two people were confirmed dead on Sanibel Island, part of a total of 14 deaths in the state, though the toll is expected to rise significantly.
Farther south, the historic seaside pier in Naples has been demolished, with even the aviators below ripped apart. “Currently, there are no docks,” said Penny Taylor, a Collier County commissioner.
Stan Pentz heard rain water rushing into his Iona Ranch mobile home in Fort Myers on Wednesday. He said the water rose rapidly in the canals outside his home before overflowing through his sliding door. Pentz held on to the curtain, trying to get out as his house quickly filled with water.
Once out, the current pulled him up and around his house to some bushes, where he stayed for three hours. Debris crashed into him until he was able to swim towards a building for cover.
He went to his house to try to save what he could but to no avail because “it’s all underwater.”
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Contribution: Associated Press