Days after Category 4 Hurricane Ian came ashore near the tony seaside community, residents are taking stock and trying to put their lives back together.
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BONITA SPRINGS, Fla. — Jim Bianco decided to stay put in his seaside home in Bonita Springs rather than evacuate as Hurricane Ian smashed ashore on Wednesday.
The white-haired 86-year-old has lived in the posh community in Lee County for 30 years. During that time, he's also ridden out, in similar fashion, the 1993 "Storm of the Century" and Hurricane Charley, which made landfall in 2004 at almost the same spot as Ian arrived earlier this week.
Never again, Bianco says. Those storms were "nothing like this," and it was "a big mistake" not to heed authorities who warned people to evacuate, he now admits.
At least 17 people are confirmed dead from the storm and more than 1.5 million people are still without electricity. Despite that, many newer structures — those built after 2002, when the state adopted building codes aimed at fortifying structures against hurricanes — remain intact, with little evidence of damage.
Bianco and his wife were sure their "Category-5 windows" — made to withstand the strongest winds — would give way. Luckily, they didn't. But, "the water came through [and] took everything underneath the house."
His Tesla "floated up to the garage door" and his pool is now filled with sand brought in by the storm surge, he says.
The devastation wrought by Ian along this stretch of Florida's southwest coast is clearly visible, with flattened seaside shops, debris strewn across roads and boats pushed and piled randomly along the shore.
From the air, the larger picture comes into perspective. Some 28 miles north, in hardest-hit Fort Myers, reporter Eileen Kelley of member station WGCU views the destruction from a helicopter. The beach, she says, has "been reduced to rubble" and the water is "horrifying."
"The water is generally green in the summer, and it's black now," she says.
On Barefoot Beach, back in Bonita Springs, boxes of booze and sodden floor mats are being removed at Coconut Jack's Waterfront Grille. Across street, Eric Frederickson from nearby Cape Coral gazes at a Roll Royce driven by Ian into the mangroves.
"What is it they call it? The eye wall? We were right in the middle of that," Frederickson says. It felt "like the house was being sucked into a vacuum cleaner for seven hours straight."
"My friend's family lives here," he says. "We came down to try to help them clean up, but you really can't get in."
Amid all the destructions, there are already signs of resilience, however. About two miles east of the devastation at Barefoot Beach, a strip mall where El Acajutla restaurant is located has no electricity. But thanks to a generator, owner Mario Dominguez, was able to open on Friday for the first time since the storm.
"A lot of people [are] looking for something to eat," Dominguez observes. "We had to take a little, you know, opportunity for it."
He put up a makeshift sign to replace the one swept away by the high winds when Ian made landfall.
And we begin this hour with the recovery from Hurricane Ian. Southwest Florida took the biggest direct hit from the storm. The region around Fort Myers still struggles to comprehend the scale of the damage. NPR's Martin Kaste is on the scene and has this report.
MARTIN KASTE, BYLINE: The view from above is a gut punch for reporter Eileen Kelley, who's just been up over Fort Myers and the barrier islands in a helicopter.
EILEEN KELLEY, BYLINE: Honestly, if I wasn't seat belted in, I would have been on my knees because it just brings you to your knees.
KASTE: Kelley lived and worked here in the '90s. She's just back for a new job with local NPR member station WGCU. She has really fond memories of this place.
KELLEY: It's everyone's beach, you know? There's honky-tonk places and bars, and it just has this great beach vibe. And it's been reduced to rubble. It really looks like matchsticks from the air.
KASTE: Another thing you see from the air is the water.
KELLEY: Oh, it's horrifying because the water is generally green in the summer, and it's black now. It's black with some copper tones in it. And then, off in the distance, you see the green. And it's clear that it's oil and gas in there from the boats.
KASTE: So that's the view from above. Here's the scene on the ground.
KASTE: Bonita Springs, 28 miles south of Fort Myers - a long line of cars is trying to get to the waterfront. But there's a checkpoint, and sheriff's deputies are asking for ID.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: So we want to park here.
UNIDENTIFIED SHERIFF'S DEPUTY: You can't park here. You're going to have to park somewhere else. This is only private residences.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: Well, I live here.
UNIDENTIFIED SHERIFF'S DEPUTY: Well, that's why I was...
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: Bonita Beach? See this here?
KASTE: They're letting only the residents in to keep streets clear for the earthmoving machines still coming in to push sand and debris out of the way. Jim Bianco has been inside the restricted zone. He hunkered down in his house for the storm. A big mistake, he now says. But he was able to watch the havoc firsthand.
JIM BIANCO: The water came through, took out everything in - underneath the house. My Tesla floated out through the garage door with the door. A refrigerator we had downstairs floated away. A ice maker... -
KASTE: Oh, I see it.
BIANCO: ...And countertop - took the whole thing. What a mess.
KASTE: And you can see that havoc even here, a couple of blocks from the water. Some of the sites are just jaw-dropping.
ERIC FREDERICKSON: Looking at a Rolls Royce that's mangled up against a tree in the mangroves.
KASTE: Eric Frederickson came here to try to help out a friend's family. He weathered the storm up in Cape Coral, an experience he likens to having his house sucked up into a giant vacuum cleaner for seven hours. He says the cleanup for this region will be daunting.
FREDERICKSON: It's a - it's crazy.
KASTE: What do you think? How long is this going to take?
FREDERICKSON: I have no idea, man. It wouldn't surprise me if it took years.
KASTE: Still, things here are on the move. The highways linking these coastal towns are busy with electric utility trucks and general traffic. People are already lining up outside hardware stores. And you see some green shoots of commerce...
KASTE: ...Such as the men rigging up this plywood sign close to passing traffic just a few blocks from the wrecked Rolls. The spray-painted message on the sign declares the reopening of a restaurant in the adjacent strip mall. Mario Dominguez is the proprietor.
MARIO DOMINGUEZ: It's called El Acajutla Restaurant. This is a Central American cuisine from the Salvador.
KASTE: Right after the storm, Dominguez came back to clean up, rig a new smoke hood - the old one had been blown off - and hook up his generator.
DOMINGUEZ: You know that right now, a lot of people is looking for something to eat. So we had to take a little bit of that opportunity for it. But either way, you know...
KASTE: This region has its work cut out for it, but that work has already begun. Martin Kaste, NPR News, Naples, Fla. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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