Community slowly recovering after Ian
When you go through some of the manufactured home communities in North Fort Myers, you see that many homes are worse for wear, but that the streets have long been cleared of the debris that lined the streets.
When you went to other places in the areas at the end of November, it almost looked like Hurricane Ian, which hit the area Sept. 28, came through yesterday.
Cleaning up after one of the most destructive hurricanes ever is going to take some time, and officials say it may will be years before things return to “normal”
In the manufactured home communities, such as Swan Lake, if you didn’t look carefully at the houses, you would have thought that Ian had never hit at all. The debris was off the streets and placed on property behind the community thanks to a private company that handles its waste disposal.
“We started the day after the storm cleaning up. We had a number of volunteers from the community and RVers up north come and to chip in for a few weeks,” said Steve Jordan, who manages Swan Lake. “We got the place back in shape and accessible.
None of the homes had to be taken from the park or demolished. The homes that sustained the worst damage were in the process of being repaired.
This happened thanks to Jordan allowing contractors, adjusters and FEMA to be housed on their grounds, who then took on many of the repairs that needed to be done.
In the days after the storm there were residents cooking up breakfast for the volunteers with food that would have spoiled otherwise.
“There were people calling and saying there was food in the refrigerator that’s only going to go bad. Give it away to whomever or cook it up,” Jordan said. “We had residents cook up the food on the grill and provide it to anybody who needed it, inside the park or out.”
At Tamiami Village, it was pretty much the same thing, clean streets aligned with some heavily damaged homes. Again, private waste removal companies got the debris out of there.
Laurie Campbell and Evelyn Reiner, who live in the village, said they put together a Facebook Page to let people know what was happening and connect with those who were there, which wasn’t many immediately after the storm hit.
“Through our Facebook page, we were able to get the information out to the neighbors who were still up north. It was a great relief to many people,” Reiner said. “We were able to organize the cleanup. Within three to four weeks, it was clean, with all the debris gone. It’s kudos to our management for that.”
At Horizon Village, they saw a lot of carports and lanais lost, but not entire homes or, most important, lives.
“With blue tarps, people were able to stay in their homes. All the homes received some damage, but were livable after the storm. Some needed major repairs, some minor,” Margaret Black said, who runs Horizon Village. “We had no flooding whatsoever.”
Black said cleanup has been a little slower, with some work still to do which will be handled privately, but the streets looked pretty good and the debris had been moved to a secure location.
“It’s in the back so it isn’t lying on the street along Littleton Road,” Black said. “We have no horticulture on the roads and no construction debris on our roads. We have a few where a roof is stuck between two houses, but the roads are all clear.”
As for the largest mobile home park of them all, Suncoast Estates, their residents were still struggling and may be struggling even further in the near future.
A lot of homes were badly damaged and even destroyed by Ian, which gave these residents few options on what they could do to shower or wash their clothes.
With the help from the state, particularly State Rep. Spencer Roach, they were able to get temporary washers and dryers, showers and restrooms located at the Suncoast Community Center.
Michael Jenkins, vice president of the Suncoast Community Task Force, said his team has worked constantly to get the area cleaned up, but things were far from perfect two months post-storm as they have had issues with FEMA, DCF and the speed in which the community has been getting help.
The state is taking out the showers and restrooms, he said.
“These people have no money, cannot go to laundromats and we’re actually saving them right now,” Jenkins said. “These people have a need for this and the state is pulling them out on us.”
The community has had a mental health association that has been priceless by helping to push them in the right direction, Jenkins said. Again, state funding was drying up.
That means Jenkins is going to have things return to normal with the food pantries on Tuesday and Toys for Tots and the Santa Sleigh for Christmas.
While the kids are going to be taken care of, Jenkins said not enough was being done for families, and the volunteers they had working had their own families to worry about after a while.
“They’ve only taken the horticulture off the road. They haven’t started on the debris from the homes. We had people here to help residents put tarps on roofs for 21 days. After that, I had to get back to work, and we couldn’t do the tree cutting or roof repairs because the volunteers had to go back to work,” Jenkins said at the end of November. “Before that we had our own people, burning their own fuel and saws, doing this.”
Roach was also able to get new generators for those who needed them, chain saws and 400 gallons of fuel. As great as that was, many were still on generators, which weren’t strong enough for those who needed to pump their water.
Jenkins said people need more funding from the state. He said Fort Myers Beach still looks like it did the Friday after the storm.
“They’re cutting back and they’re starting with the small communities like this. We have 5,000 trailers and 20,000 people here, but they’re not transitioned over yet,” Jenkins said.
Sharon Cobb was doing her laundry with a friend, Tanya Crawford, she met at the makeshift laundromat. She has to. Her house was destroyed. She will have nothing left if they take out the things they need.
“We’re going to be stranded. We’ve lived in a camper in someone’s driveway,” Cobb said. “There isn’t any water in the shower today. It’s really bad.”
“They haven’t picked up debris and a lot of people are disabled here. That makes it very hard to get help,” Crawford said two months after the storm. “We need outside help here. The more the word gets out, the more it would help us.”
Those who suffered the most were those who live right along the river. They were the ones who got the storm surge and three feet of water in their homes.
Those residents, many of whom live in higher-end homes, have been able to bring in their RVs to live in, while hooking up to the electricity in their homes to power things.
Charlotte County will allow residents to live in their RVs for two years by lifting the ordinance that prohibits it.
At this time, Lee County is issuing temporary permits for use of a mobile home or RV, pursuant to Lee County Land Development Code (LDC) Sec. 34-3046(a). This allows the use of a mobile home or RV for up to 540 days after the Presidential Disaster Declaration.
On the streets, it still looked as though the storm had come just yesterday. There were still piles of debris on the side of the road, and a neighbor was sweeping off the street near her home, still dirty from the water.
Angie Cloutier, who runs her realty company, Cre8ive Realty, from her home along the river, said her home is basically unlivable and unworkable.
“We lost the house and we’re in the process of putting it back together. We had two feet of water inside and everyone along the river had pretty much the same issues,” Cloutier said. “My son just bought an apartment and we’re moving in with him.”
Before that, they lived with some friends from Illinois. Once they have sheetrock and tile in the kitchen, the Cloutiers will be able to move back in. The doors weren’t expected to arrive for another couple months, but they planned to put covers on the doors in the meantime.
“We don’t expect to be moved back in until after the new year when the doors come,” Cloutier said. “We hope we can get in for Christmas, but that’s just four weeks away,” Cloutier said.
As for the streets, they had piles of debris so high they were basically left with a one-lane road. And with contractors looking to get through the piles, Cloutier was finally able to call someone to get some of the mess picked up.
Lee County launched a Hurricane Ian website, www.leegov.com/debris, to better provide information to residents with features such as tips, data, timelines, photos, videos and other information about Hurricane Ian debris collection efforts.
To reach CHUCK BALLARO, please email news@breezenewspapers.com