Hurricane Ian

Yeah, and it really isn't the same here this far inland unless you endure the flooding (which was unusually damaging this time around). It is a pretty serious cognitive load during the storm though, because that sound is continuous and it's unnerving. But then it backs off, you can get some sleep, and move on with your life. That's not so much the case on the coast.

We stayed at Marriott Sanibel Harbour in April, where we got married, which is on the road that splits off just before the tolls to the causeway, and we had a blast at this place called Bimini Bait Shack right at the turn. They posted that the restaurant is basically OK, though as you've likely seen, the road to it is half gone. I bring this up because, as you can see, the place sits on a huge concrete platform well above the height of any possible storm surge. An article I read suggested that this is the only tenable long-term arrangement if you want to have a durable business on the coast. That's why even in Ft. Myers Beach, you can see the wood structures are gone, but the concrete ones are still there (though water logged, if they weren't built off the ground). I naively thought that most things out there would be built this way, but that wasn't the case.

Jeff, we have stayed at the towers behind the hotel for years during Spring Break. Bimini Bait Shack is also one of our favorite places. Hoping that area can rebound soon. Still have a reservation for this March, I’m guessing we’ll know if we can go around Christmas.

I read where one of the challenges many of these decimated areas will encounter is re-determining property boundaries. Sure, there are site surveys, but that does little good when the property is basically unrecognizable. The road is gone, the fences are gone, the markers have washed away, and the shoreline is permanently altered. I completely understand wanting (and needing) to go back, but in some cases to what?
I get tired of hearing people (northerners who haven’t a clue) blame those who stayed behind. I know a couple with 6 elderly rescue dogs who live in St Pete. We all saw the reports that Tampa Bay was in for a direct hit so they got out. One gal is an ICU nurse who was on Team A and basically moved into the hospital. The other loaded the dogs in the car and drove down to the safety of her family’s place in…. Ft Myers. I try to imagine what that 24 hrs was like- they were greeted by pounding wind then a couple feet of water in the house, no water or electricity, and a car that (when they finally found it) was ruined. They are still digging out and mopping up. A little fishing skiff showed up in their yard so once I75 reopened she put the 6 sweet old dogs in it and waded to a friend’s place who had a car they could loan. Neighborhood people she didn’t know showed up all along the way to help her pull that boat. (She didn’t get a single picture of that, either. I told her she coulda sold it to Life Magazine and gotten them both all new cars, lol)
And meanwhile, back in St Pete everything was ok. Just minor wind damage. So, who knew? It’s a tragedy that nobody asked for.
Have we all seen that timelapse of the storm surge on Ft Myers Beach? It made me feel like I was gonna suffocate just watching it. An entire two story home washed away there. I’m so sorry for all of this.

Ft Myers was still in the cone of uncertainty, going anywhere on the Gulf Coast was a risk. I would have gone inland if I couldn’t afford to high tail it north to Georgia.

The weather experts are taking a lot of crap for their prediction quality, but it's unwarranted because of geometry. Once the storm crossed Cuba, it was moving essentially parallel to the Florida coast. A change just a few degrees either way radically would change the landfall by hundreds of miles, and that was before you even consider the cold front moving south to steer it across the state. The track changed every three hours, first west toward the panhandle, then east eventually just north of Ft. Myers. At one point, the center (what there is of one when it's crossing land) was supposed to pass over me, but it ended up being about 30 miles southeast of me. In some ways that was worse, because it started pulling rain out of the Atlantic and spinning it back at us.

A lot of surveying these days uses GPS, so they'll figure out property boundaries.

Nothing brings political opponents together like the opportunity hand out bags of borrowed money to distressed people.

It's certainly not as good as throwing paper towels out to people.

Shortly after learning that Puerto Rico is indeed part of the United States.

GoBucks89:

Nothing brings political opponents together ...

And in my experience, nothing will divide a community faster than arguments over finite amounts of said money.

Fighting over free money. Maybe they would prefer covering their own losses.

Ironic that Rubio and DeSantis voted against Hurricane Sandy relief but now want their own relief money.