The destruction of communities and power lines after Hurricane Ivanhoe’s first storm: dozens of injured and missing people are expected to return home
“Every home pretty much on the beach is gone,” Allers said. “Some of the homes on the side streets are completely gone, and there’s nothing but a hole with water,” he said.
Many people have been displaced by the effects of Hurricane Ian, with stories like the Heltons. Some homes in communities that were spared in the storm are now flooding. Some 10,000 people remain in shelters.
He noted that the dock pieces could weigh as much as a ton. “They were thrown around like they were nothing.”
The destruction is horrific, he said, but it’s “good for people to see this to understand the power of a storm. So when the storms are coming… they take our advisory seriously.”
The city has no reported deaths and the authorities are confident they have got everyone, according to Anderson. Electricity and water are the most important utilities in the city.
He said that the resident can expect power to be back every day, even if 80% of the city is still without power.
“Until we can get the roads cleared, the power lines secured, I would really love for people to stay home. It is not safe out there. There are trees that are still standing. People hitting power lines are among the reasons why more deaths occur after a storm.
The Category 4 storm washed away roads, bridges, cars, boats and homes. The damage is so extensive that, according to the state’s governor, Ron DeSantis, it may take years to rebuild.
It’s not certain how many people are still missing after the storm. The Florida Division of Emergency Management’s director said they were working to consolidate a list of missing people.
South Carolina residents are bracing for Hurricane Ian to hit the state again by Friday, even after Ian left Florida as a tropical storm.
Bill Ealahan Jr.’s trailer home in Holiday Park, Florida, was destroyed by Hurricane Ian’s flooded flood-svat
The blue and red paint on Bill Ealahan Jr.’s trailer home used to stand out among the other beige homes in the trailer park.
But Hurricane Ian ripped the siding off his home and destroyed the carport and enclosed porch, exposing beige interior walls that matched everyone else’s in the community known as Holiday Park.
Mr. Ealahan, who works in the kitchen of a seafood restaurant, nervously looked from his couch as the wind tore the roofs off of other homes and took out part of his house.
And there was the rain. He stated that the water came in like a river and poured onto his dining room table. It kept coming.
One official who flew over the community estimates that 80% of the structures will have to be rebuilt. Ian battered the barrier island with a 12-foot storm surge and winds near 150 miles per hour. The bridge to the island has been closed because it was damaged during the storm. Residents who evacuated and were briefly able to return to their homes are stunned by how little remains.
The Heltons’ home is on the back bay in Fort Myers Beach, part of a boating community that’s now gone. They left the island and stayed on a friend’s island. Jim returned the next day fearful of what he might find.
That, Jim Helton says, and the boat he found in the middle of his house. The house was demolished and opened to the elements. He has no idea whose boat it is or what it will take to remove it and the rest of the rubble that used to be his home. “It will probably be there for six months or a year,” he says, “because so many places have been hit.”
He tried to stay positive, however when he saw the damage done by the surge, he felt like he was losing his mind. “It wasn’t easy to get in there because there were couches and other objects in the room.”
“And the washing machine,” his wife Susan adds. The surge picked up everything in the house, including furniture, heavy appliances, a golf cart, and books.
“We were going to sell [the house] this winter,” Jim says. “I got over there today and there was a note by the coffee machine, ‘Call the sales lady.’ And that hurt a lot. It’s a blow he’s not sure he can recover from. He says he’s hanging in. I’m fighting depression. I could cry right now I’m not.
A New Perspective on Hurricane Ian Disasters. Fort Myers Beach and Florida in Florida (with a Comment by Jim and Susan Helton)
Some of the families that had flood insurance are finding it is not enough to account for everything of their damage. Federal flood insurance has a cap on payouts for single family home damage at $250,000 and contents at $100,000.
Jim believes the island community will be rebuilt a decade from now. He doesn’t expect to be around to see it. In the meantime, he and his wife are thinking about Texas. “I have a son over there,” he says, “and he doesn’t like Florida.” Susan says, “Neither do I much now today.”
Susan Helton has experienced trauma before. She was in Manhattan on 9/11, a former New Yorker. “I didn’t think you should push it.” I thought you gave me one disaster. The higher power said, “Go ahead, press that button one more time and see if she can take it.”
Source: https://www.npr.org/2022/10/02/1126469206/fort-myers-beach-florida-hurricane-ian
Joy and sorrow on the Pine Island of Fort Myers Beach, Florida, where an elderly man was killed by a blizzard, and how his daughter was killed
He’s also thought about God and whether or not he’s still up to it. “I’ve had a good life and he threw me this curve. Jim says that he’s alive and laughing. We won’t know tomorrow what happens. Because I’m just about out of gas.”
Fort Myers Beach City Councilman Bill Veach said his 90-year-old cottage is in ruins, with only one section that was a recent addition left standing. Pieces of his home were found two blocks away, he said.
That brings joy because you see a friend that you didn’t know was alive. The joy is so much more than the loss of property.
Her family said she had not spoken with them in two days and that they had trouble reaching her. They learned Friday that the 49-year-old had been found dead in her Cape Coral home.
“One hundred storms will not cost you as much as a bigger storm will,” said Susan, who moved to Florida from Maryland a few years ago. “My husband’s business whipped out, my daughter is dead … I never had a blizzard take anything away from me.”
On Sanibel Island, now cut off from the Florida peninsula after Ian wiped out a portion of the roadway connecting them, every house shows damage, Sanibel Fire Chief William Briscoe said.
“There are a lot places that are not livable. There are places off their foundation, and it’s very dangerous out there,” Briscoe said. “There are alligators running around, and there are snakes all over the place.”
On nearby Pine Island, a similar situation is playing out. It was a tranquil fishing and kayaking spot a few days ago. It is a scene of destruction with cracked roads and destroyed homes.
“Food is being delivered to Pine Island. Now, is it enough to sustain them over a long period of time? Roger Desjarlais, Lee County Manager, said that they cannot say that yet.
Emergency physician Dr. Ben Abo, who joined rescuers on Pine Island, said crews are encountering residents who were in denial the storm would hit the area and are now running out of supplies.
Abo also said he was seeing hope, but also a lot of despair. I am seeing the efforts of urban search and rescue, and fire rescue, bringing hope to people. But we have to do it in stages.”
“This is not necessarily going to be a bridge you’re going to want to go 45 miles per an hour over maybe, but at least you’ll have connectivity to the mainland,” the governor said.
Source: https://www.cnn.com/2022/10/04/us/hurricane-ian-florida-recovery-tuesday/index.html
Hurricane Irma Recovery: The aftermath of a flood devastated Port Charlotte area, according to a retired police officer and neighbor of the Associated Coast Guard
He described how thousands of boats that were destroyed have ended up in yards, mangroves, and sunk in shallow waters with diesel and fuel leaking, all because of the area’s bad reputation.
Johnny Lauder, a former police officer, told CNN he sprang into action after his mother, who uses a wheelchair, called in a panic and said water was rushing into her home and reaching her chest.
“The water was up to the windows, and I heard her screaming inside,” Lauder said. “It was a scare and a sigh of relief at the time – a scare thinking she might be hurt, a sigh of relief knowing that there was still air in her lungs.”
Tonia Werner is among those waiting to hear news about a loved one. It’s been three days since she heard anything about her father, David Park, who was admitted to ShorePoint ICU in Port Charlotte days before Hurricane Ian made landfall.
He was on a ventilator and the last contact was Friday, according to Tonia. “No phones, nothing. I do not know if he is alive. I have reached out to many different places, begging for information because we are stuck. There is no way to get to him.
Tonia lives nearly an hour away from Port Charlotte and is cut off from being able to reach the area by flooding in Arcadia, which has blocked access for anybody to get across town, she said.
Source: https://www.cnn.com/2022/10/04/us/hurricane-ian-florida-recovery-tuesday/index.html
The Impact of Hurricane Ian on Hospitals and the Housing Stock at Florida’s Children’s Playgrounds: What Can Happen if Cities Are Going To Rebuild?
Mary Mayhew, the president and CEO of the Florida Hospital Association said that since Ian hit hospitals in Florida have been experiencing significant pressure on capacity.
Emergency departments have sustained damage, staffing has been impacted as many hospital workers have been displaced or lost their vehicles in the hurricane, and facilities lost reliable access to water.
Whether or not their nursing homes were evacuated and temporarily closed, hospitals don’t usually discharge patients who don’t have a place to go.
Local officials and housing advocates worry about what the damaged housing stock will mean for people with low wages or fixed incomes. In interviews, some people said staying in water-ravaged homes is their only option.
“Cities will rebuild,” said Edward Murray, a housing expert and associate director of the Metropolitan Center at Florida International University. What about poor communities? What about individuals?
The Final Scenario for Florida Property Insurance: A Case Study of a Florida Homeowner’s Uninsured Grandma after a Hurricane
It’s a perennial problem during hurricane season. Older mobile homes, built to lower wind standards, are acutely vulnerable. But they’re sought-after because this is affordable housing in Florida.
Robert McLain sat in the garage of his rental home in Winter Springs, a city of strip malls and subdivisions in Seminole County, northeast of central Florida. With foot-high water marks in his home, there was no way he could move back in. Mr. McLain, who lives on social security and disability benefits, figured there were few options but to live in his car for a while. He said that he was not running to live in the hotel. I am completely screwed.
On a pool deck in a farming community in one of the state’s lowest income counties, the crying of a woman was heard three hours drive southwest. Her neighborhood had been drenched by the Peace River. It submerged her backyard and house where water from the river continued to seep in, days after the storm passed.
“It’s all gone,” said Ms. Hampton, who had property insurance but, like many Floridians, not flood insurance. Ms. Hampton purchased a one-story ranch-style home in 1998. She will live with a relative because she has only an income from a disability check. “We lost everything.”
In a report from July, the state said the average premium for homesteaders has exceeded $4,000 per year in five Florida counties, most in the Miami and Palm Beach areas. There is an average premium of $6,700 in Monroe County. Nationally, home insurance costs about $1,600 per year on average.
The fear is that such a massive payout from a single storm could be the final straw for companies already struggling to deal with the other challenges of doing business in Florida.
Six insurance carriers have declared insolvency this year alone. Some have stopped writing policies. As a result, the number of policyholders on the state-backed insurer of last resort, Citizens Property Insurance, has ballooned.
You can’t be the most prone to hurricanes and most litigious state and expect property insurance rates to go down in that area, according to state senator Jeff Brandes.
Previous hurricanes like Irma in 2017 also caused significant damage in the region. Many of the damage in Seminole County was caused by wind and debris, and is covered by typical homeowners insurance policies.
The lawsuits often originate like this: A contractor contacts a homeowner about potential damage, perhaps to their roof. The homeowner will sign an assignment of benefits agreement in order to have a contractor handle the insurance claim. The insurance company can deny or argue against the claim, and the contractor can file a suit against them even without the knowledge of the person insured.
The amount of the claim can be a lot larger than the attorneys’ fees suggest. The III estimated that the cost of excess litigation for Florida’s homeowners was over a billion dollars in 2019. The number of lawsuits have gone up over the past two years.
A State-Correlation Act to Improve Florida’s Property Insurance Rates: a Report on Floods, Bankruptcy, and Other Problems
Florida’s population growth is another factor. No state in the eastern U.S. is growing as rapidly as Florida. All areas affected by Ian are included in the fastest-growing metro areas.
Smaller companies aren’t able to build the same capital reserves as large companies. They rely on their own form of insurance to pay for major costly events.
Citizens is limited in its ability to raise rates and is often cheaper than its competitors, because of being state-backed. Private insurers say it is difficult to compete in storm-prone ZIP codes where only a handful of insurers offer policies.
Legislators passed a bill during a special session in May of this year to address issues with roofs and attorneys’ fees. Afterward, some Democrats complained that the bill did not do enough to provide immediate relief to homeowners.
The May session “treated the flu when the property insurance market had stage-4 cancer,” said Brandes, a Republican, who added that he hoped another session could be convened before January.
“This is the perfect opportunity to make some really tough decisions,” he said. To save the market going forward, you have to do things that have not been on the table before.
Amanda Trompeta, the first woman in Orlando, Florida, is afraid of a storm. When Ian came onshore, everything was ruined
When Amanda Trompeta was woken up by her dog barking early last Thursday morning, she assumed he was just frightened by Hurricane Ian. But then she got out of bed – and found herself standing ankle-deep in floodwater.
By the time the storm passed, three and a half feet of murky, dark water had swept into Trompeta’s house in the Orlando suburb of Winter Springs. She said that it went everywhere. “All the floors, all the walls have to be redone – everything is ruined.”
When she called her insurance company, she realized that they weren’t planning on covering anything.
About a fourth of single-family homes in coastal Lee County, where Ian came onshore, are covered by federal flood insurance. The hardest-hit areas of the county like Sanibel Island, where half of the homes are covered, have higher coverage rates.
Despite the fact that it was the rainiest month on record in Central Florida, officials still reported high flood levels even days after the storm.
In Seminole County, northeast of Orlando, more than 5,200 residential buildings have been damaged by the storm, primarily due to flooding, according to a county spokesperson. Jay Zembower, a commissioner in Seminole County, said they had never had anything like this before.
In Winter Springs, for example, at least 2,000 buildings have been affected, but there are only about 525 federal flood insurance policies in the city, according to FEMA records.
Trompeta, whose neighborhood is littered with debris and waterlogged furniture piled on front lawns, said the lack of flood insurance on the home that she and her fiancé bought a few years ago threw her carefully planned finances out of whack.
She said that it was a big blow. She said she was about to be debt-free in a year thanks to the federal forgiveness program.
Source: https://www.cnn.com/2022/10/09/us/hurricane-ian-central-florida-flood-insurance-invs/index.html
Flood Insurance and Disaster Assistance for Hurricane-Infided Areas: The Case of Punta Golada, Ft Myers
Without flood insurance people like Trompeta will have to apply for other government aid. Roy Wright, the former chief Executive of FEMA’s National Flood Insurance Program, said that after hurricanes, many people end up getting around $5,000 to $10,000.
Federal disaster recovery money to help homeowners rebuild does exist. In the wake of previous hurricanes, states have received hundreds of millions of dollars from the Department of Housing and Urban Development, or HUD, to provide loans to lower-income homeowners for reconstruction and repair costs.
Congress could also pass additional disaster aid – like lawmakers did in the wake of previous major hurricanes, like Katrina, Sandy and Harvey. It could take months for the funding to be approved, and for affected communities to receive it.
Research has also found that FEMA’s flood maps underestimate the danger in some areas as climate change advances, leaving some homeowners unaware of their level of risk.
The city of Punta Golada, Fla. A man in his late 70s, eyes red-rimmed and holding a beer in a koozie, surveys the ruination that was once his happy home. His decapitated mobile home is in Gasparilla Mobile Estates, about 30 miles north of Ft Myers. The name comes from the famed barrier island just offshore.
The Borren Experience in Florida: Old Mobile Homes in the Post-Aggressing Era of Hurricanes and Hurricane-Induced Floods
“That wind was so strong. I never seen anything so strong,” says Borren, a retired construction worker from Massachusetts. “They claim it was stronger than Charley. I believe it now.”
Before Ian, the hurricane of record on this stretch of coastline was Charley in 2004—also a Category 4 with 150 mph winds. But Charley spared Gasparilla. Life went on.
Borren and his wife drove out to the island in their boat, where they collected shells and shark teeth. They owned their 1972 trailer free and clear. The rent on their lot was only $580 a month. On a monthly social security check of $2,500 they got by on their little piece of paradise.
“This trailer’s been here for 40 years. I mean, it’s a ’72 trailer. (I’ve put) thousands of dollars in it and they won’t pay me nothin’. Many people didn’t have insurance. They lost everything.”
In 1994, two years after Hurricane Andrew pulverized the Homestead area, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development toughened wind standards for mobile homes. About the same time, the industry started calling them manufactured housing. And they became more expensive.
“They prefer to see a mobile park gone,” Ayotte says. “They see it as a blight on the community. They don’t really look at that as an affordable housing source. They say let’s get rid of it.”
Retirees on fixed incomes like John Borren, as well as low wage earner and farmworkers who can’t afford to live anywhere else in a booming real estate market like Florida’s, should know that. Folks from up north are streaming into the state to enjoy the mild summers, year-round sunshine and sugar-sand beaches.
Southwest Florida is becoming a hot spot for developers due to two affordability concerns: flipping damaged homes and building larger complexes that will be too expensive for long-term residents.
There are lots of old mobile homes in Florida. Almost two-thirds of the manufactured homes in Florida are pre-1994 vintage, according to the Florida manufactured housing association.
The rebuilding of the beachfront home of Charley and Ian in Parkhill Estates, Florida, following a Category-II hurricane
“Yeah, they’re ugly and square, they don’t belong here, they looked a lot better as beer cans,” croons the singer/songwriter who fell in love with Key West.
Just ask the residents of Parkhill Estates. It’s a 55+ community of 176 homes where folks like to play shuffleboard, poker, and bridge, and cruise the curved streets in fleets of golf carts.
“Hi Denny, how are ya?” says Bob Murphy, 82, to another T-shirted retiree in a baseball cap. Murphy is president of the co-op that owns the park. He’s getting together with his neighbors.
“It demolished all the older homes,” says Ernie Parent, a 74-year-old gas company retiree from Zanesville, Ohio, who had moved in only months before the storm hit. Over a hundred new homes were built after Charley. The hundred new homes all stood up despite Ian being bad.
“The structures themselves seem to be pretty durable compared with this hurricane,” says Murphy, who winters in Punta Gorda and spends summers at his home in Cincinnati. Almost all of the structures are still standing. There is siding off and roof damage. The skirting came off of a number of ’em. But for most part they held up pretty well.”
Murphy doesn’t want to go through another major storm like Charley and Ian. He hopes his mobile home holds, but if it doesn’t, “I won’t come back.”
The beachfront home of Trip Valigorsky was washed away this week in Florida after Hurricane Nicole caused the storm surge and powerful winds to sweep across the state.
In Volusia County, at least 49 beachfront properties, including hotels and condos, have been deemed “unsafe” in the aftermath of Nicole, which hit Florida’s eastern coast south of Vero Beach as a Category 1 hurricane early Thursday before weakening into a tropical storm and eventually becoming a post-tropical cyclone Friday afternoon.
Sea level in this part of Florida has risen more than a foot in the past 100 years, according to data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and most of that rise has occurred in the past three decades.
Sea level rise is leading to higher tides and more coastal flooding, as well as more erosion.
The back-to-back nature of storms is making seawalls – which are already aging – more vulnerable, Brian McNoldy, a senior research associate at the University of Miami’s School of Marine and Atmospheric Science, previously told CNN.
The Sandy Beachfront Community of Fort Marie, Fla., Where Ian and Arlisa Payne Came to Say goodbye to his family after Hurricane Nicole
On Wednesday morning, Valigorsky decided to grab his essential belongings and his dog to evacuate the area as he watched the storm become even more severe. The front of his house was all that was left by the time he returned.
Valigorsky said he wants to rebuild with his neighbors who also lost theirs, as his community rebuilds after Nicole.
Martin said he has lived in the area for two years and the home was his permanent residence where he spent time with his children and grandchildren, playing soccer in the backyard or walking down to the beach.
Martin said everyone gets along at the beach, and that his community is keeping his spirits up.
“It doesn’t really take a strong storm – you just need high tides or storm-agitated tides to wash away or put extra stress on the walls,” he said. Every storm leaves a mark if you don’t give places time to repair or replenish.
Arlisa Payne, who has been a resident of the beachfront community for most of her life, told CNN affiliate Spectrum News 13 that she’s “never seen anything like this” after assessing the damage caused by Hurricane Nicole.
The mother of four children said that despite the fact that many of her neighbors homes were not damaged by Hurricane Ian, it made it hard for the community to prepare for storms like Nicole.
People from cold states have trekked to the expansive sandy beaches in Fort Marie for years. They call Michigan home, but spend much of the year in Florida.
Real Estate Investments in Lee County, Fla. After Hurricane Ian, the Sampson Homes and Investors are Going Out of Business – Their Story Comes To Light
Lee County isn’t as upscale as many of Florida’s coastal areas. A report from the Shimberg Center for Housing Studies shows that a quarter of the people who rent there are low income or paying at least 40% of their income to rent.
The Sampsons own a home in Fort Myers Beach – it’s still standing. Their neighborhood became a mess after Ian hit, with all of the homes up and down their block torn down.
One double lot has already sold and we don’t know how much it is or who is behind us. It’s like, oh boy, that’s fast,” Sampson said. “I’m afraid … we’re going to lose all that beauty that we all shared.”
In 2021, Florida’s real estate industry accounted for $294 billion, or 24% of the gross state product, according to a report from the National Association of Realtors. More than 300,000 people move to the Sunshine State each year.
Brad Cozza, the owner of a real estate broker in southwest Florida, said new out-of-state investors have begun looking at new investments in the region.
He stated that his firm has been involved in 39 acquisitions since Hurricane Ian. The damaged waterfront home was bought by his clients for $670,000. It is expected to be sold for over $1 million after renovations.
A lot of new players are coming to the area after the storm, and values are going to jump.
This, Cozza said, is just plain market dynamics. There’s an opportunity for investors, since many homeowners don’t have flood insurance and can’t afford to rebuild.
Michelle Meyer, director of the Hazard Reduction and Recovery Center at Texas A&M University, said it’s expensive to build new structures up to code – most of which has been rewritten to make houses better able to withstand disasters.
“Older houses are more expensive than newer ones,” Meyer said. Even if you just build new, it is going to be more expensive if you eliminate the older housing stock.
But Meyer expects it will take one or two years before that money is available in Florida, since the state first needs to submit a funding plan to HUD for approval. She said local officials can encourage homeowners not to sell out of desperation and instead try to rebuild their property and remain in the home.
Zoning for single family homes can also help maintain the housing stock for lower-income residents, Meyer said, by preventing larger high-end complexes.
Jason Green, an independent zoning consultant for the town of Fort Myers Beach, spoke at the Local Planning Agency’s meeting on Dec. 6. He doesn’t expect to see a lot of change in the local regulations in the coming months.
Green said that there were some duplexes, a few triplexes, and a few quads there over the years. “But for the most part, you’ll see that there are single-family homes.”
Joanne Semmer, who has lived near Fort Myers Beach for more than 50 years, has been trying to stop one such project. She lives in the shadow of the town’s commercial fishing docks, and she’s also the president of the Ostego Bay Marine Science Center.
One month before Hurricane Ian struck, the project was approved by the Florida Gov. and his Cabinet and paving the way for more density in Lee County. The governor and Cabinet can approve a change to the Comprehensive Plan if an administrative judge strikes it down.