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FORT MYERS, FLA. — No place in Florida seemed to have suffered more damage from Hurricane Ian than the town of Fort Myers Beach, located on Estero Island along the state’s southwest coast.
One official who flew over the community estimates that 80% of the structures will have to be rebuilt. Ian battered the barrier island with a 12-foot storm surge and winds near 150 miles per hour. The bridge to the island was damaged in the storm and has now been closed. Residents who evacuated and were briefly able to return to their homes are stunned by how little remains.
Susan and Jim Helton are in Fort Myers now, at a hotel where there’s no power or water. But they feel lucky they got a room here after their home was demolished in the storm. It was Ian’s storm surge that did the damage.
That, Jim Helton says, and the boat he found in the middle of his house. It demolished his sunroom and opened the house to the elements. He has no idea whose boat it is or what it will take to remove it and the rest of the rubble that used to be his home. « It will probably be there for six months or a year, » he says, « because so many places have been hit. »
The Heltons’ home is on the back bay in Fort Myers Beach, part of a boating community that’s now gone. They left the island before the storm and stayed with a friend. The next day, Jim returned, fearful about what he might find.
