FL - ‘Urban renewal by God’

We know what happened — we know it in lives lost, in unparalleled property damage from Naples to Port Charlotte and especially on the barrier islands, and we know it in the unmatched economic cost to too many of the region’s 1.3 million residents hit with the most devastating storm to assault Florida since before the Great Depression, or ever, some say — Hurricane Ian, a year ago on Sept. 28, 2022.

But now we’re beginning to see what will happen in the years going forward. How our changing landscape may appear. What’s come back from the storm so far, what’s likely to come back as time passes, and what remains and will remain gone, or at least uncertain in the coming years — all taking shape now in the eyes of those who spend every day looking ahead.

This question no longer travels alone, nowadays: What do we have to do today to restore what we had? Instead, it’s always accompanied by a companion question: If it can’t be like it used to be, what do we want tomorrow to look like?

Here, Florida Weekly offers reflections, evaluations or even answers to those questions through the eyes of local government leaders, business and construction leaders and environmental leaders on the west coast.

Catastrophic recovery

“You want to be, and I am, as optimistic as you can on the recovery length to get us back to whatever back will be,” says Holly Smith, a Sanibel council member, vice mayor and former mayor, whose words would be accurate in each of the hardest-hit communities.

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Read also

Hurricane Ian May Have Changed Florida Towns Forever, Weather Underground / September 27, 2023

It's Been A Year Since Hurricane Ian—Here's How Sanibel Island Is Coming Back,Southern Living / September 27, 2023

‍Hurricane Ian one year later: How has it affected beach, inland real ..., Naples Daily News / September 26, 2023 (paywall may apply)

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“Where are we now a year later? Realistically, we understand that the road is longer. And that what we control we control, but the other events happening — construction, supply, contractors, insurance is a big one — they’re beyond our control and recovery. Those are in the hands of all those stakeholders. So our island is a long-term recovery. I’m looking at not a two- but a three-year catastrophic reconstruction, and then we have five or 10 years (to fully recover).”

The so-called catastrophic recovery — the restoration of key elements for living, the clean-up of devastation — continues, ranging from communities that suffered only a glancing blow to those like the barrier islands or onshore communities such as Iona, in Lee County, that took it on the chin.

There, mobile homes may still lie rotting in the September sun of 2023.

Kevin Shimp, an engineer and president of Thomas Marine Construction, primarily devoted to bridge building and repair with other work across 15 counties in South Florida, lives in Iona.

“My father coined a term after Hurricane Andrew (a Category 5 storm with wind speeds reaching 174 mph, in August 1992). He was on a task force in Homestead doing reviews of why so many structures failed. He called it, ‘Urban Renewal by God.’

“We’re in the planning part of that, now.”

Shimp offers a comparison: the devastation caused by Hurricane Charley, a Category 4 storm with maximum winds of 149 mph in August 2004.

“Look at downtown Punta Gorda pre-Charley and now. Now, it’s a really special place. Charley is responsible for that. But that restoration was a 10-year thing. This storm (Ian) was worse.”

In Iona, flanking the Caloosahatchee River, “massive multi-acre trailer parks were decimated. One is completely cleared, the other’s sitting there inactive.”

As a result, he predicts: “Within 10 years Iona will be unrecognizable. We’re not going to put mobile homes back in there.”

Shaping up

In downtown Fort Myers, where businesses, marinas and single-home residential neighborhoods appeared devastated after the storm, the recovery has been strikingly fast, if not complete, and the future is taking shape in a downtown now a robust destination community, slightly altered but recognizable. Empty storefronts are unlikely to remain that way beyond 2024, residents say.

But even as far south as a busy intersection on Livingston Road in Naples, “they still can’t put the traffic control device in (to regulate red, yellow, green and turning signals) because it’s back ordered,” notes Bill Varian, president of Varian Construction based in Naples. “There are traffic lights damaged and awaiting parts up and down the coast,” he said.

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