Eight months ago, Chef Michael Sellora was working in a restaurant and just moved into a luxurious new home on Fort Myers Beach. now after Hurricane Ian He’s swept it all away, living in his older Infiniti sedan with a long-haired 15-year-old Chihuahua named Ginger.
Like hundreds of others, Sylora was left homeless after a Category 5 hurricane devastated the barrier island last September with high winds and 15-foot (4-meter) storm surges. Like many, he’s struggled with dealing with insurance payments, understanding the federal and state assistance bureaucracy and finding a place to shower.
There are many of us displaced like me. Sitting in a commercial parking lot with other storm survivors staying in recreational vehicles, a converted school bus, and even a shipping container, Sellora, 58, said during a recent interview next to his car. “There are a lot of homeless people here, a lot of people living in tents, a lot of people struggling.”
Recovery is incomplete for hard-hit Fort Myers Beach, Sanibel and Pine Island, where the Atlantic hurricane season officially begins this year on June 1. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration expected a The average tropical storm season is approx Expect 12 to 17 named storms, five to nine becoming hurricanes, and one to four storms becoming major hurricanes with winds over 110 mph (177 km/h).
Another weather pattern that can suppress Atlantic storms is El Nino greenhouse effect Expected this year in the Pacific Ocean, experts say. However, scientists say warming waters in the Atlantic basin due to climate change could offset the impact of El Nino.
In southwest Florida, piles of debris are everywhere. Demolition and construction work is ongoing across the area. Sand trucks roll in to replenish eroded beaches. Empty concrete slabs reveal places where washed away or demolished buildings, many of them once charming, are now decades-old structures that have given towns a laid-back beach vibe.
Some people, like Fort Myers Beach resident Jacquelyn Velazquez, live in campers or tents on their properties while they wait for slow insurance checks or building permits to get their lives back.
“It is, you know, in the snap of a finger. Your life will never be the same,” she said beside the carriage, which was provided under a state programme. “It’s not the things you lose. It’s just trying to get back to some normalcy.”
Ian has claimed more than 156 lives in the United States, the vast majority in Florida, according to a Comprehensive report from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) on the hurricane. In hard-hit Lee County — the site of Fort Myers Beach and other coastal towns — 36 people have died from drowning in the storms and more than 52,000 structures have sustained damage, including more than 19,000 destroyed or severely damaged, according to the NOAA report.
Even with state and federal assistance, the scale of the disaster has overwhelmed these small towns that were ill-prepared to deal with so many problems at once, said Chris Holley, former interim town manager of Fort Myers Beach.
Perhaps the biggest challenge is the madness of the debris removal process. We’ll be there for another six months, Holly said. “Permits are a huge, huge problem for a small town. The staff just couldn’t handle it.”
Then there are the battles with insurance companies and the search for how to get state and federal aid, which runs into the billions of dollars. His mobile home collected by storms, Robert Burton and his partner Cindy Lewis, 71 and from Ohio, spent months living with friends and family until a tiny apartment was finally made available by Federal Emergency Management Agency. They can stay there until March 2024 while they search for a new home.
Their mobile home park by the bridge to Sanibel is a ghost town, full of soon-to-be-flooded and soon-to-be-demolished homes, many with rundown furniture inside, clothes still in the closets, and art still on the walls. Most homes have at least three feet of water in them.
“Nobody has a home. That park is not going to reopen as a residential community,” Lewis said. “So everyone lost.”
the state Insurance Regulatory Office Ian’s total insured losses in Florida were estimated at nearly $14 billion, with more than 143,000 claims still open without payment or claims paid but not fully settled as of March 9.
With so many people in limbo, places like the hardest hit Beach Baptist Church At Fort Myers Beach provides a lifeline, with a food pantry, heated lunch counter, showers and even laundry facilities for anyone to use. Pastor Sean Kretzer said about 1,200 families a month are served at the church through donated goods.
“We’re not providing emergency feeding right now. We’re in disaster recovery mode,” Critzer said. We want to see this continue. We want to have a permanent presence.”
In nearby Sanibel, ongoing damage is not entirely widespread though many businesses remain closed as they are being repaired and storm debris is everywhere. Seven local retail stores have moved into a shopping mall in Fort Myers, hoping to keep operating while waiting for insurance payments, building permits, or both before returning to the island.
Rebecca Penkowski, owner of the Sanibel Seven, said they call themselves the Sanibel Seven. Macintosh Books and Paper This has been a Sanibel fixture since 1960. She said her store had no flood insurance and lost $100,000 worth of books and furnishings in the storm.
“The fact of the matter is we can get our businesses back up and running, but without the hotels to hire people, without our community back up, it’s going to be hard to do business,” she said. “I hope this will be a strong community.”
However, the prevailing feeling among many of the survivors is one of hope for the future, even if it looks very different.
Sylora, the chef who lives in his car, has a new job at another location at the Nauti Parrot restaurant on the mainland. The insurance only paid off the outstanding loan amount on his wrecked camper and he didn’t qualify for FEMA assistance, leaving him with almost nothing to start over and quickly increase apartment rents.
But after 22 years on the island, he’s not giving up.
“I think things will work out. I’m strong. I’m a survivor,” he said. “Every day I wake up, it’s another day to catch up and try to make things better.”