Just over 30 miles south of Fort Myers, the city of Naples is healing its own injuries in the wake of Hurricane Ian.
Yesterday in the Crayton Cove area of downtown Naples, businesses and restaurants were still in disrepair from the flooding and winds of the storm. Popular local restaurant The Dock, normally a bustling spot for locals and tourists alike, was barren; workers could be seen and heard repairing almost every piece of the restaurant. The restaurant’s normal cozy front patio is now boarded up with large sheets of plywood, with a heartfelt message spray painted onto the wood: “Closed for hurricane cleanup. NAPLES STRONG”, in blue paint with hearts on either side of the message. All along 12th Avenue S, the commercial area is also deserted, with many shops undergoing repairs from the dangerously high storm surge.
“Everything is crazy out here. Just a street over, people aren’t stopping at the intersections, causing constant accidents as they fly down the street. Street signs are missing and lights are out”, said a man working on the interior of the Bleu Provence French restaurant.
Just a few doors down, a realtor from Alfred Robbins Realty Group exited her office and told Creative Loafing Tampa Bay it was the first time seeing the office since before the storm.
“We had three feet of water damage, and had to get most of the walls and floors replaced. Our office is raised on a concrete platform, yet the water was still high enough to reach here”, she said as she held her hand at nose level, giving an idea on the scale of the flooding.
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Continuing down 12th Avenue S, debris piled up outside condos. Toys, appliances, furniture—anything and everything—in the debris piles where homes once stood.
Further down, approaching the Gulf side of Naples, upscale restaurants along Third Street S were nearly under repair, save for a few that weathered the storm. Stylish steak house D’Amico’s The Continental was stripped bare as employees worked alongside contractors to repair the damage. In alleyways and back streets at many of these restaurants, the entire kitchen could be seen left on the street for debris and garbage collection—stoves, freezers, and more all unusable.
Walking onto Naples Beach, beachgoers were first greeted with a sign warning of the high bacteria levels from the water contamination caused by the damage to pipelines and sewers. The advisory did little to deter people from spending a day on the beach. Many locals could be seen relaxing on the beach, sunbathing, collecting shells, and fishing right next to the Naples Pier, which was missing almost the entire end of its boardwalk.
Traveling back north up Tamiami Trail and then south down San Carlos Boulevard, the full power and ferocity of Hurricane Ian was on display. Approaching San Carlos Island, boats are stranded in the mangrove shrubs on the west side of the road. Across the road, two massive charter yachts were smashed together, dropped right on-top of businesses as if they were toys.
Back down San Carlos Boulevard, a checkpoint was set at the end of Matanzas Pass Bridge, with police checking IDs because the island was restricted to only rescue workers and residents. From the top of the bridge, ground zero could now be seen: Fort Myers Beach. As the Hurricane ripped onto the coast of Florida, Fort Myers Beach made first contact with Ian’s rampage. Roofs of buildings were peeled back or blown blocks away, entire houses were missing, with nothing left but their foundations, or in some cases nothing at all. Dunes of sand, some reaching above five feet in height towered along the sides of Estero Boulevard. An entire town once beaming with resorts, local shops and restaurants was wiped away, leaving behind what could only be described as a warzone.
Outside the vibrant yellow home of town council member Bill Veach, a sign thanked rescue and aid workers of all backgrounds. In his home, only first floor garage sustained moderate damage, with the outside walls stripped and the garage door missing.
“Well this is a really interesting statement. The house is nine years old and had a wrap-around thing like beach cottages. This is a kind of man cave I put over the garage about five years ago to modern building codes,” Veach told CL.
“So here we had one of the worst hurricanes in history, in the most vulnerable area on the beach, and that thing is fine. Doors work, windows work, but this house [the cottage], our deck that was on the beach side, is down at the end of Jefferson Court. Which is by the bay”, Veach said as he packed up his truck after a day of surveying the island and making plans for repairs.
On the roads, residents were driving up and down Estero Boulevard trying to locate their homes, which became a struggle as many street signs were missing or buried. Improvised signs were made out of metal and wood found in the wreckage as temporary placeholders. Convoys of police vehicles, fire trucks, ambulances, and bucket trucks from Florida Power & Light were racing back and forth along the street, responding to emergency calls and disconnecting power lines to avoid risks of electrocution in the flooded streets. Many of the first responder vehicles carried labels from other state counties, some coming from as far as Orange County.
As the day approached its end, everyone lined up in their vehicles to exit the island, as officials requested the island to be cleared by 7 p.m., due to recent issues with looting and so recovery workers could continue to work diligently into the night. Even after such a harrowing catastrophe, southwest Florida remains strong.
