Some Fort Myers Beach property owners and residents who evacuated the island more than 10 days ago began the trek Saturday morning over the Matanzas Pass Bridge.
It was the first time since Hurricane Ian for many to see the storm’s damage for themselves.
They got in line to board a bus before 5 a.m.
The first bus was supposed to have left at 7 a.m. It remained in the lot at 8 and left a few minutes later.
Residents and property owners chatted with each other, making new friends or catching up with neighbors. Largely, they stayed calm and polite, even after hours of waiting, but a thread of impatience ruffled through the passengers as the bus began to move and then stopped.
‘Pirate of the Beach’:Fort Myers Beach man remembered as ‘Pirate of the Beach’ after hurricane claims his life
Bridges after Ian:Bridge damage from Hurricane Ian: List of all compromised bridges in Lee County
Approximately 30 people were loaded onto the first bus, a second bus waiting behind it was similarly filled.
The bus stopped every 500 feet along Old San Carlos Boulevard to allow passengers to get off closest to their destinations.
More:Lee County: What you still need to know about curfews, boil water notices and more
‘It’s just gone,’ one woman said of her parents home
Shana Dam carried her father’s ID. Her parents’ house used to be on Fort Myers Beach.
“It’s gone,” she said. “It’s just gone.”
She wanted to look for a few important things that Hurricane Ian may have left behind, hoping some memory of her late mother and her life on the beach remained.
Her maiden name, Kraai, means “crow” in Dutch, she said, and her parents named their beach house “As The Crow Flies.” She told fellow travelers to be on the lookout for crow decorations as they searched the rubble of their own homes.
Debris sat in piles across the island. In some places, it’s difficult to tell what is from the storm and what was from emergency crews clearing roadways.
“There should be a road here,” Dam said, gesturing to a pink, shattered cottage that washed across a canal to sit near a roundabout.
Breeze almost hides the whiff of flood in the air
It’s quiet on the island.
A muted generator hum is the loudest noise, blocks away. The cool morning breeze buffets loose hanging pieces of metal and wood from damaged houses and hotels, punctuated by the cries of sea birds. In the drifted sand, broken microwave plates mingle with sea glass.
The breeze almost hides the whiff of flood in the air, the same earthy stench everywhere.
Residents dispersed from each of the seven ad hoc bus stops on Estero Boulevard.
Emergency vehicles waited near where returning residents left the road.
Access to Estero Island had been restricted since soon after the storm hit Sept. 28, keeping even aid missions away as search and rescue teams combed the island amid dangerous infrastructure damage.
Lee County officials announced a phased reopening process late Friday evening in a news conference on San Carlos Island.
Not everyone would be allowed access immediately.
The center of operations for reentry is the Welcome Center at LeeTran Park and Ride, 11101 Summerlin Square off of Pine Ridge Road, Fort Myers Beach.
Only property owners with addresses north of Times Square will be granted access at first, and only then through the specific bus transportation system the county is initiating.
One resident: ‘Right now, it seems like there’s no plan’
Some full-time residents, like Kristin Carrington, wish the plan had been handled differently.
She owns a house on Palermo Circle, just south of the phase one re-entry line so she wasn’t allowed back on Saturday. Her family was able to get into their house briefly last weekend before the island was closed, but they haven’t been able to make a full assessment or start the clean-up process.
“This plan should have been in place forever. Right now, it seems like there’s no plan,” she said. “Full-time residents should be allowed first, to get to their house, their full-time home, whether they’re owners or renters.”
Palermo Circle is a tight-knit community inside the larger web of connections that ties Fort Myers Beach together. She helps run the “FMB tip jar” page on Facebook, which initially began as a way to help struggling bar and restaurant staff from the island at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. This week, it’s become a hub for direct hurricane relief.
Carrington plans to stay, if possible.
“But every day that residents can’t get on, that becomes more in doubt,” she said.
They’ve lived on the island full time since 2019 after buying their house in 2012. Her son attends a local high school.
‘People need to know’ the horror
Dam paused outside the rubble that was her parents’ home, holding a heavy, foot-wide seashell her mother once used to decorate the beloved house.
Throughout the morning, she’d had tears in her eyes. She wasn’t alone. Neighbors exchanged hugs and asked after each other’s families.
She’d just learned of the death a woman she’d known for years.
“People don’t know the horror they went through here,” she said. “People need to know.”
On the walk back to the makeshift bus stop in the island’s Times Square business district, Dam gasped at the site of a 7-Eleven that looked like a carport, its interior washed away.
The once-vibrant commercial district itself was left largely a facade in the devastation, with tumbled debris left behind the brightly-colored storefronts.
More:Hurricane Ian: 121 restaurants on Fort Myers Beach, Sanibel, Pine Island, how they fared
A few blocks north, Greg Highley was distraught, he said, surveying what was left of his home. He held a piece of the cream and sage siding that once was part of the four walls of the house he’s owned for years and moved into full time a year ago.
Distraught, but undaunted.
“It was a good year. It was one bad day. We’ll be back.”
Reach reporter Mariah Timms at mtimms@tennessean.com or 615-259-8344 and on Twitter @MariahTimms.
Source Article from https://www.news-press.com/story/weather/hurricane/2022/10/08/hurricane-ian-aftermath-residents-see-devastation-first-time/8211348001/
Comments