Supplies for loom band bracelets7/9/2023 ![]() In hard-hit Lee County - location of Fort Myers Beach and the other seaside towns - 36 people died from drowning in storm surge and more than 52,000 structures suffered damage, including more than 19,000 destroyed or severely damaged, a NOAA report found.Įven with state and federal help, the scale of the disaster has overwhelmed these small towns that were not prepared to deal with so many problems at once, said Chris Holley, former interim Fort Myers Beach town manager. Ian claimed more than 156 lives in the U.S., the vast majority in Florida, according to a comprehensive NOAA report on the hurricane. It’s just trying to get back to some normalcy.” Your life is never going to be the same,” she said next to her camper, provided under a state program. “It’s, you know, it’s in the snap of the finger. Some people, like Fort Myers Beach resident Jacquelyn Velazquez, are living in campers or tents on their property while they await sluggish insurance checks or building permits to restore their lives. Visual story: Fort Myers Beach, 8 months after Hurricane Ian.Blank concrete slabs reveal where buildings, many of them once charming, decades-old structures that gave the towns their relaxed beach vibe, were washed away or torn down. Trucks filled with sand rumble to renourish the eroded beaches. Demolition and construction work is ongoing across the region. In southwest Florida, piles of debris are everywhere. Yet the increasingly warmer water in the Atlantic basin fueled by climate change could offset the El Nino effect, scientists say. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration is forecasting a roughly average tropical storm season forecast of 12 to 17 named storms, five to nine becoming hurricanes and one to four powering into major hurricanes with winds greater than 110 mph (177 kph).Īnother weather pattern that can suppress Atlantic storms is the El Nino warming expected this year in the Pacific Ocean, experts say. Recovery is far from complete in hard-hit Fort Myers Beach, Sanibel and Pine Island, with this year’s Atlantic hurricane season officially beginning June 1. “There’s a lot of homeless out here, a lot of people living in tents, a lot of people struggling.” Nowhere to go,” Cellura, 58, said during a recent interview next to his car, sitting in a commercial parking lot along with other storm survivors housed in recreational vehicles, a converted school bus, even a shipping container. ![]() “There’s a lot of us like me that are displaced. Like many, he’s struggled to navigate insurance payouts, understand federal and state assistance bureaucracy and simply find a place to shower. Like hundreds of others, Cellura was left homeless after the Category 5 hurricane blasted the barrier island last September with ferocious winds and storm surge as high as 15 feet (4 meters). Now, after Hurricane Ian swept all that away, he lives in his older Infiniti sedan with a 15-year-old long-haired chihuahua named Ginger. FORT MYERS BEACH - Eight months ago, chef Michael Cellura had a restaurant job and had just moved into a fancy new camper home on Fort Myers Beach. ![]()
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