- On Wednesday, September 28th, Hurricane Ian slammed into Southwest Florida at peak Category 4 intensity, bringing with it catastrophic storm surge, damaging winds, and historic fresh water flooding.

Ian was responsible for over 150 direct and indirect deaths, and more than $112 billion in damage.

The costliest hurricane in Florida's history, the third costliest in US history.

A year later, thousands of lives and livelihoods upended by the storm are still recovering.

People on the barrier islands are living in damaged homes, or trailers as they rebuild, many are simply leaving.

Coastal businesses struggle to stay afloat, fighting insurance and construction costs.

Billions of dollars in assistance has been distributed from local, state, and federal organizations.

Yet as we continue to rebuild, the people of Southwest Florida are proving resilient.

They've joined together to help neighbors and strangers alike.

And as a community, they are working to build a stronger, more spirited Southwest Florida.

This is "After Ian".

(dramatic music) In the midst of another busy hurricane season, we in Southwest Florida continue to deal with the repercussions of last year's deadly storm, Hurricane Ian.

- That's right.

It was a storm that will have an impact on our region for many years to come.

In this anniversary special, WGCU reporters have been out in the community gathering just a few of the stories on the impact of Hurricane Ian before, during, and a year later.

- We'll take a look at some of the lessons learned from the storm, what history can tell us about future storms, and even celebrate some of the winds.

- In our first piece, we learn that even emergency responders are taking lessons from Hurricane Ian, along with some residents who now have a new perspective on hurricanes.

- [Speaker] There it goes.

- [Speaker] Oh my God, this is crazy.

- [Sandra] The Gulf stealing cars.

This is home video from the Schmucker family capturing Hurricane Ian's historic storm surge on the streets of Fort Myers Beach.

Dustin and Monica Schmucker and their two kids sought shelter in their friend's beach home just blocks from the Gulf, because it seemed safer than their own house.

This was a three story concrete home.

- [Dustin] Our house is starting to flood, which is... We still got a few floors yet before we get into too much trouble.

They were out to almost the top of the doors there.

- [Sandra] The storm surge was more than the Schmuckers could have imagined.

- Holy crap.

It's still blowing a lot.

The water's over the roofs now.

- [Sandra] At first, Monica says she believed the house would be okay, but watching homes fall apart in the 15 foot storm surge outside made her wonder for how long.

- I had my my kids' life jackets in my hand, and I would take 'em everywhere I'd go, because at any point, I was expecting the top floor to just rip off.

- [Dustin] It is just getting stronger and stronger and stronger.

- [Sandra] The home proved strong enough until the waters receded.

Schmucker is grateful for how that day ultimately ended, but dealing with what was left behind was heartbreaking.

- I don't feel remotely recovered at all.

I still struggle with everything every day.

- [Sandra] She's certainly not alone.

- Well, it was coming up, coming up, coming up, but when it got to this stage right here where the air conditioner is, it just started flowing in.

- [Sandra] Robert Heather never imagined how quickly water would fill his first floor studio apartment on San Carlos Island, or how soon his doors would become impossible to open, trapping him inside.

- I thought what I'd do is just break out the window and crawl out.

But when I started banging on the window, that's when I realized it's a hurricane window, and I can't break it out.

- [Sandra] He tried calling for help for two hours.

- I went to the back.

Well, I was banging on the ceiling, you know, bang for a few minutes, rest for five, bang for a few minutes, rest for five.

- [Sandra] Somehow, a neighbor felt Robert's vibrations upstairs.

- They saw me at about 1, 1:15 maybe.

- [Sandra] And the water was how high?

- Here.

- [Sandra] The neighbors broke his window just in time.

Both Robert and Monica say the next storm threat will be different.

- Before Ian, I wouldn't even think about leaving.

Now, I probably will.

- Next time, I think it will be easier to convince my husband to leave.

- I think people just kept looking at that cone saying, "Well, the cone's not here yet.

It's not here yet, it's not here yet."

And then when the cone was finally here, which was only 36 to 48 hours in advance, people started thinking it was too late to go.

- [Sandra] Kevin Guthrie, the director of the Florida Division of Emergency Management, says that wrong decision sometimes proves deadly.

- [Kevin] If you just got off this island and got across, we would've had 95% fewer deaths by people just leaving the island and going to the closest shelter, which was seven miles away.

- [Sandra] Just a small percentage of residents ended up at shelters.

Instead, operators at emergency operation centers were flooded with phone calls like this.

- [Operator] 911, what is the address of your emergency?

- [Caller] I'm actually at the Walmart in Englewood.

Our house has flooded out, and I had called 911 earlier, - [Reporter] Okay.

- [Caller] So we waited until we got in the car, and we made it to Walmart, but the roads are still so flooded, I didn't know what to do, and we're trying to get to a shelter.

- [Operator] The shelters are closed at this time, you can't get into a shelter.

- [Caller] Okay, so now what's my next step?

What can I do?

- [Operator] Get into a safe location and wait out the storm.

- [Sandra] Tracy Steele is a 911 operator in Charlotte County.

- During the storm itself was a lot of people that didn't leave the county, they didn't want to leave their houses.

So, you know, they're calling 'cause they need help, whether it be medical or they're requesting a deputy because they have water coming into their house.

And you know, at that point, there's nobody on the road.

There's no help coming.

And that's very hard to tell people.

- You would calm them the best you could, but at some point, accountability is not out there, it's right here.

And so that's what I want our citizens to understand.

"Oh, well, it costs so much money to evacuate."

What's your life worth?

- [Sandra] Mary McFarland is a volunteer operator who answers calls on the county's community hotline.

- I live in a 55 plus community of manufactured homes, and those are mandatory evacuations.

And I could not convince my own neighbors to leave.

- Sometimes we don't get the outcome of, you know, "Did they make it, did they not make it?

Are they okay?

Is the child okay?"

It's very hard.

- So, some of the deaths in the county were those people who called us.

There's a possibility of that, but we don't know that.

So, that's hard.

I've asked people, strangers... "Did you stay?

Yes.

Would you stay again?

No.

What could we have done differently?

What messaging could we have done differently to get you to leave?"

And they can't give me an answer, which is frustrating.

But they said, "Well, I didn't think it was going to be as bad as it was."

Or "The television or the radio or the media didn't make it seem going to be this bad."

- [Sandra] Ian's forecast track did continue to shift south, but Guthrie says the state made it clear early on that all of Southwest Florida needed to prepare.

- You know, we ordered a state of emergency from the governor 84 hours in advance of the storm, so we had more than enough time.

But again, I think people got so focused on the cone that they said, "This thing is not gonna happen here."

I remind you, that even when this storm was heading towards Tampa, there was six to eight foot of storm surge for this beach.

And we would've still had catastrophic damage on this beach, and probably nobody would've evacuated.

Because again, "The cone's going to Tampa, why do I need to do that?"

- [Sandra] But Guthrie says the state is working on improving its messaging to the public.

It brought in a psychologist to work with emergency officials as well as local and national meteorologists.

- If people know the reason we're asking them to evacuate, I really think they'll evacuate.

I think they'll do the common sense approach.

The number one thing I heard over and over again is, "Well, Irma wasn't this bad.

Charley wasn't this bad."

So what we have to do is tell people the difference between Hurricane Ian, Hurricane Charley, Hurricane Irma.

For example, Hurricane Irma had 12 to 18 feet of storm surge that came through the Everglades and saltwater marsh, a natural based solution.

But in this case, Hurricane Ian, as we look out here, it came from the south-southwest to the north-northeast.

There is no nature-based solution to lay that storm surge down.

So that 12 to 18 foot of storm surge hit this barrier island, which is in essence a nature-based solution to lay the storm surge down.

- [Sandra] Guthrie says Southwest Floridians living in at-risk areas need to have an escape plan.

Not fleeing hundreds of miles, but just to safety.

Robert, who lives in a trailer right in front of his old apartment now, knows firsthand what his storm surge threat is, and how lucky he is to have survived it with the help of Good Samaritans.

- How do I feel about them?

- [Sandra] Yep.

- Thank God they saved my life.

- [Sandra] He has no plans to leave for now, but knows what the worst can be.

So does Monica.

Nearly a year later, the repairs on their home have barely begun.

- It's a lot for somebody to deal with.

And I have kids, you know, I have a job.

My husband lost his business.

It's just a lot, and it's a lot all at once.

- [Sandra] But like Robert, she's not going anywhere.

Fort Myers Beach is home, and she knows the risk living in the community she loves.

- What makes this town so special is still here.

And so the buildings may be destroyed, but the resilience of the community is amazing, and everybody's come together to rebuild, and I don't...

I'm not leaving it.

- When it comes to storm surge, natural barriers are part of shoring up our shorelines.

We turn now to the resiliency of mangroves, from senior environmental reporter, Tom Bayles.

(soft piano music) - [Tom] Deep within the serene mangrove forest along Southwest Florida's coasts, intertwined roots hide juvenile fish.

Tucked into twisty treetops are birds and their nests, cradling the next generation.

Mangroves, left to grow freely between land and sea, stabilize coastlines and counteract erosion.

If not for the woody trees, experts say Hurricane Ian's damage would've been a lot worse.

Even a year after Ian, all of the damage it did in dollars and lives into the environment has not been totaled.

But data compiled after Hurricane Irma, which hit Southwest Florida in 2017, gives us a clue as to what we're going to learn.

- There would've been $13 million of greater damage to the Collier County landscape than actually existed.

Now mind you, that wasn't a surge intensive storm.

And again, those mangroves are only on the backside of the islands.

They're not out there at the leading edge.

So that gives you a sense of how important they can be.

- [Tom] Michael Severice, a coastal geology professor at The Water School at Florida Gulf Coast University, studies how important mangrove forests are, not just to critters that call the trees home, but for the incredible way the roots and branches beat back storm surge.

- [Michael] I don't think there is an ecologist working today that wouldn't put their life on their line to protect, restore, and conserve mangrove forests.

And the same should be said of our dunes.

Dunes should be treated with the same kind of respect and care, I would argue, as mangroves.

Oftentimes, a community in the aftermath of a storm, they're quick to throw sand on a beach.

The beaches will come and go and come and go.

If you protect your dune, you keep your dune healthy, everything out in front of it will do its own thing, and restore itself naturally.

But damage that dune, and then you open up everything behind it to devastation and trouble.

- Severice was amazed that Hurricane Ian's storm surge grew to 18 feet in places.

He worries what would happen if a similar wall of water hit another estuary that didn't have so many native mangroves.

- [Michael] The mangroves undoubtedly helped attenuate that surge.

If you take that same storm, and put it on its original predicted path, you know, where it was gonna make landfall further north, then that surge setup we had here would've gone right into the mouth of Tampa Bay, and then Tampa Bay has none of that, or very little of that sort of peripheral mangrove forest to protect it.

And it would've been a disaster beyond comprehension.

- A disaster beyond comprehension is exactly what Hank Hodde, Pinellas County sustainability and resiliency coordinator, feared for residents of Tampa Bay's barrier islands, especially each time the National Hurricane Center would address the track of Hurricane Ian towards Tampa.

- We kind of foresaw what happened down in Fort Myers is gonna happen here with the brunt of the storm and the magnitude of storm surge and winds, and all the models that we had, it didn't look pretty.

- [Tom] There are relatively few remaining mangrove forests in coastal Tampa, due to rampant development.

Along 35 miles of beach communities in Pinellas County are concrete sea walls, meant to repel incoming waves.

In other places, rock piles called "riprap" help stop storm surge and waves.

But neither cement walls nor rock piles are as effective as a mature forest of mangroves some 20 to 40 feet deep.

Hodde knows his region dodged a bullet with Ian and its massive storm surge.

- An 18 foot storm surge in Pinellas County, it would be quite devastating.

I mean, just along the beach behind me, within a quarter mile of what is the erosion control line, we have $10 billion of property.

So Pinellas County is incredibly built out with hardened infrastructure, what we call gray infrastructure.

And we are trying to implement green infrastructure, or natural infrastructure as much as possible, especially mangroves.

And they are really important, especially in the face of sea level rise.

- [Tom] In Bonita Springs, at the Vester Marine Field Station, a tall mangrove forest protects nearby luxury homes.

But mangroves were removed from immediately around the FGCU facility, when it was just a mom and pop hotel before being donated to the university.

The established mangrove forest saved millions of dollars in residential property that Hurricane Ian would've destroyed.

- I have no doubt as harsh as that storm surge was on Southwest Florida, that it would've been many times worse if we hadn't put energy starting in the 1970s, to protect mangroves as much as we could.

Any physical barrier to the movement of water is gonna slow the water up and back it up.

So if you've got a mile of mangroves slowing that water up, than whatever storm surge happens on the backside of those mangroves is gonna be delayed, is gonna be less deep, and is gonna be less long.

And so, yeah, that's it.

I mean, mangroves have all kinds of functions.

But in terms of storm surge, they're probably our best green infrastructure for preventing those storm surges from being worse.

- [Tom] Without the protection of mangroves, the Vester Station is still being rebuilt a year later, due to the destruction wrought by Hurricane Ian.

Abraham said in Pinellas County, they need to plant mangroves because they don't have any left.

In Southwest Florida, we need to plant mangroves because we don't have enough in the right places.

- We can't depend on natural forces to restore mangroves.

We should be planting more mangroves.

Now post Ian, what I'm trying to say to people is, because of development, but more because of sea level rise, we don't need to put mangroves where they were 50 years ago.

We need to plant mangroves where they'll need to be 50 years from now, 10 years from now, 5 years from now, next year.

We've gotta start to prepare this shoreline for the changes that we're already experiencing, or continue to experience.

Mangroves can play a real role in making our communities more resilient, so let's just embrace that.

(soft piano music) - Resiliency measures are essential, especially when we look at some of the historical equivalents of Hurricane Ian in Southwest Florida, and what storms with massive surge can mean for our future.

Gulf Coast Live host Mike Kiniry talks with author Tom Hall about research he's done for a timely new book.

- Hey there Tom, how are you?

- I'm well, thank you.

- So you're an author, you're a historian, you do a lot of research, you've got a book coming out around the anniversary of Ian called "Fort Myers Historic Hurricanes", that I had the pleasure of reading the advanced copy of already.

I grew up here thinking that we weren't very susceptible to storm surge.

I've been here since 1980, so that's just sort of what history showed me, I think.

But we are very susceptible to storm surge, as your research showed.

Can you break down why?

- Sure.

In fact, I was surprised when I did the research for the book, to find out of all the towns and cities, from the Rio Grande to the northern tip of Maine, Fort Myers is number six most at risk for surge.

The reason is, is that tropical cyclones drive wind down.

In the Atlantic that's no problem, because the depth of the ocean absorbs the downward pressure.

The Gulf of Mexico, by contrast, is very shallow.

Go a hundred miles out, and the West Florida shelf is only 300 feet deep.

15 miles in, it's only 40 to 50 feet deep.

So there's just not enough water to absorb that downward pressure from the cyclone.

So when a storm comes from either the west, like Wilma did in 2005, or from the Southwest like Ian did in last year, that downward pressure, on top of that West Florida shelf, there's nowhere for the water to go, so it just drives it up and piles higher and higher and higher in front of and to the right of the eye, till it reaches the shore and then it just drives it over the shore and inland.

- I read your book, the advanced copy of it, shortly after Ian, and it was eerie for me because it starts off with a... And you wrote it before Ian.

It starts off with a storm in 1841 that hit Punta Rassa that is very similar.

Can you just give us the basics of that storm way back then?

- Yeah, the two storms actually followed roughly the same path.

Now, the 1841 storm covered Punta Rassa with 14 feet of inundation.

Fortunately at the time, the only thing on Punta Rassa was a fort by the name of Delaney, and so the loss of life was fairly minimal.

But the Army learned its lesson, and when it rebuilt that fort in 1864, it built its barracks on 14 foot cross brace pilings.

And that prevented the inhabitants of the barracks in 1873 from drowning, when another storm covered Punta Rassa with another 14 feet of inundation.

- It may seem obvious that sea levels increasing would enhance how storm surge affects us.

Sea levels are rising, the historic record shows that.

Explain a little bit more in detail why that makes storm surge even more problematic.

- Storm surge is measured on top of whatever the sea level is.

So, sea levels rise, that means storm surge is gonna penetrate farther inland.

And that's going to disrupt the ability of rivers and tributaries to properly drain their associated basins and floodplains.

- You've written other historic books, one about the fires that have impacted Fort Myers.

You did a lot of research for this.

Is this a new body of data for you to have dug into this, all this sea level rise and things like that?

- It was, and it was completely unintentional.

I was actually looking to chronicle our early history, but in order to properly explain what was happening, I had to learn all about the impacts of tropical storms, so I've read more scientific treatises and civil engineering reports than I ever thought that I would.

- So your research has shown that there are four ways that warmer temperatures impact tropical systems.

Storms intensify more quickly, they slow down or they stall in some cases, there are a greater frequency of stronger storms, and storms are wetter or produce more rainfall.

Let's just break down those kind of quickly.

- Sure.

- Rapid intensification, it's a term that I'm hearing more and more of lately.

What does it mean scientifically?

- Scientifically it refers to a storm whose sustained winds increase by 35 miles per hour in a 24 hour period.

And according to a number of scientific studies, rapid intensification events have increased, just in the last 30 years, from 17% of all storms to 35%.

So that means one in three storms now, we can expect is going to go through a rapid intensification cycle.

- And it seems sort of counterintuitive to me, but explain why warmer temperatures would lead to slower storms or even stalling storms?

- Warmer temperatures change the gradient, or the difference between winds.

And winds are what drive these storms.

So as these gradients lessen, what's going to happen is storms are going to slow more frequently.

Not all storms.

For example, Idalia tracked at 18 to 20 miles per hour, which is about average.

But more and more storms are gonna slow.

And when they slow, they're more prone to stalling, which means that they linger for 48 hours or more in a 125 mile an hour area.

The problem as that portends is, the longer a storm remains in a given area, the more rainfall that it dumps.

Take for example, Harvey set the record with 60.68 inches of rain during the course of that storm.

But even Ian, moving at 8 to 9 miles an hour, Ian still dropped 25 inches of rain in Titusville, and 21 plus inches in Daytona Beach.

- And we should be expecting to see more Category 4 and 5 storms.

Is that a fair way to put it?

- That is a fair way to put it.

The body of research right now is predicting that for every one degree Celsius of temperature rise, we're going to see 25 to 30% more Category 4 and Category 5 storms.

- And explain what the wetter storms mean.

This is a term that I have only recently started hearing.

It basically just means storms have more water in 'em, is that a good way to put it?

- It is.

Think of it this way.

Nature loves equilibrium.

So as temperatures rise, the way that it offsets that is by putting more water vapor into the air.

So all you have to do is walk outside, it feels wetter, it feels more humid.

And that's because we're getting more water vapor in the air.

Tropical storms convert that water vapors, along with sea surface temperatures.

They convert that into rainfall.

And so, in a wetter environment, you're going to see wetter storms that are gonna produce more rainfall.

The average storm will produce an additional 10% of rainfall, but storms that slow and stall could produce anywhere from 20 to 60 inches of rain.

- And all that adds up to us needing to take storms extremely seriously here in Southwest Florida, as Ian showed.

- [Tom] Correct.

The slower a storm moves, the more surge it generates, and the longer that surge lingers.

But the other problem is, is the more rainfall that the storms generate, the more inland flooding you have.

And if you combine the two and have surge and flooding, there's nowhere for the water to go.

- Well, thank you Tom, for all the research that you've done, and I'm sure will continue to do, and for your book, "Fort Myers Historic Hurricanes".

- It's my pleasure, Mike.

Thanks for having me.

- Regardless of sea rise, flooding and storm surge, people are still drawn to live and thrive near the water.

But at what cost?

Investigative reporter Eileen Kelley talked with some of the folks living on the barrier islands.

(soft music) - [Eileen] Barrier islands are nature's versions of dikes or natural flood barriers.

That's why they're called barrier islands.

People have been living on them for centuries.

Near back-to-back hurricanes in the 1920s, and the massive killer Hurricane Donna, did not deter people like Stan Stouder.

His family's been coming to Fort Myers Beach since the 1950s.

- My parents would come, and every winter they would be here, and every year of my life, I spent at least two weeks on Fort Myers Beach.

- [Eileen] The resiliency of barrier island people has been tested once again after Hurricane Ian.

The island's old businesses and bungalows took the brunt of the storm.

Of some 12,000 single family homes on Lee County's barrier islands, more than half sustained significant damage.

And about a third of those homes have been deemed uninhabitable.

And that's just single family homes.

According to records from the Lee County property appraiser's office, one third of the island's, 11,500 condominiums have also been deemed uninhabitable.

- I don't think I could rebuild on a single story and live here.

We were talking about PTSD.

I really don't even think I could sleep here on the first story after what happened, 'cause I might have bad dreams of water.

- [Eileen] Homes like Carrie Lee's on Fort Myers Beach where she lived with her four year old son, cannot be repaired.

She must tear it down.

- I just keep trying to think of the future.

I'm thinking hopefully five years from now, you know, we're here living on the island, and the school's finished, and he's going there, and this is just a distant memory.

- [Eileen] On September 28th, Lee and her son were home when the canal behind her house began to flood.

- [Lee] And then ran out and looked out the front here, and it was coming down the street.

- [Eileen] Lee grabbed her son and headed out to her neighboring home, on pilings 15 feet above the ground.

- [Lee] I mean, when I was there for like maybe 30 minutes, the water was already halfway up my home.

And there were boats... (Lee chuckles) There were huge boats coming down the street, and running into our neighbor's homes.

And then finally the water was like to the top of the house.

And then that's when I forgot about my home, and started focusing on my neighbor's house, because the water was coming into their home.

Suddenly just having this feeling in their home, that we were no longer in a home anymore.

That we were like on a raft in the middle of the ocean.

- [Eileen] Though the islands have been gentrifying over the years, Fort Myers Beach, Pine Island, Sanibel and Captiva have largely held on to the last vestiges of old Florida.

Much of that is now gone, carted off to sea like Bert's Bar in Matlacha.

Bernard Johnson came down here in the 1970s.

Among other businesses, he owned Bert's Bar, a staple in the old fishing village for decades.

It was a community bar where locals were old friends, and tourists became new friends.

- Never even crossed my mind that it'd be gone.

When you think about it, it was built back in the 30s.

And it has gone from there, to almost what, 80 years?

And it survived storms that probably weren't even recorded.

The water had come up, and then the water would go down, and that was it.

But nothing like this.

- [Eileen] A little piece of paradise is what drew Stouder, Lee, Johnson, and Dan Allers, who is now the mayor of Fort Myers Beach, to Southwest Florida's barrier islands.

- I think that's the culture of Fort Myers Beach.

I think that culture will be back.

As long as I have a vote, I'm gonna try to keep the culture as close as what brought me here.

And I think there's a lot of people that share that same mentality.

They like the mom and pop shops, they like the quirkiness, they like the eclectic nature of the island, and I think as long as we can keep that, it doesn't matter what the buildings look like.

- [Eileen] But so much of what visitors and residents like Doug Eckman hold dear, is not likely to come back.

- We like the maritime feel with the shrimp boats, and the combination of the beachfront community and the maritime vibe.

- [Eileen] Eckman and his wife had a 1959 era home on Fort Myers Beach.

The home is now gone.

He's now mapping out plans on how to rebuild.

But with the cost to rebuild to hurricane code hovering around $600 a square foot, he's aware that some of his old neighbors will not be able to rebuild.

- [Doug] They can't afford to build back a new house to replace the house they used to have.

Because I'm hearing some pretty high numbers.

And I've already thought about what I'd rebuild if I can afford it, or find a contractor to build it.

You know, my first floor is gonna have to be 12 feet above grade.

- [Eileen] He serves on the local planning authority, which is similar to a zoning board.

- [Doug] We understand the town's not gonna get built back like it was, but we do want to try to retain a unique character for Fort Myers Beach.

But it's gonna be a challenge to balance the economics of redevelopment in a coastal community, which is very expensive, with maintaining a sort of more, let's say, rustic feel or a maritime feel that we used to have that was charming.

- [Eileen] Another deterrent is the cost of insurance.

Wind insurance is not required for those without mortgages.

So it stands to reason that many of those homeowners, especially those with homes built before Hurricane Donna or shortly after, may have been uninsured or underinsured.

Shelton Weeks, a professor at Florida Gulf Coast University, is an expert in real estate.

- So if they had them insured, and you know, especially if they were older structures, odds are that there's no way that they will have enough in terms of proceeds from the insurance payments to rebuild to current code.

'Cause when you consider building back to current code, base flood elevation plus one foot of freeboard, you're going up, so the cost of construction is gonna be higher.

- [Eileen] What has held its value and has actually shot up, is the price of land on the islands, which again, will not deter those determined to live and thrive near the water.

- I think what we're seeing there is an influx of significant capital.

I think there are a lot of institutional investors that are looking at our market and people that are willing to come down here and buy properties that have been damaged or destroyed, and then build newer things to code.

There are gonna be more high-end restaurants and hotels, and things like that that come to our market, because those are the ones that will be able to afford the higher construction costs, the higher land cost, and the higher cost of operation associated with higher taxes and higher property casualty insurance and flood insurance.

- [Eileen] So, will we be saying goodbye to old Florida and the things that drew so many of us down here to begin with?

- Little pieces of it disappear probably with every storm.

- As the popular barrier islands rebuild, Lee County has taken a hard look at how to put less pressure on the travel and tourism side of its economy.

Managing editor Mike Braun has the story.

- [Mike] Lee County depends greatly on the dollars that come from travel and tourism, and Hurricane Ian dealt a stunning blow to that source of income.

The area sustained damage to hotels, vacation rentals, restaurants, and two prime tourist draws.

Fort Myers Beach, and the Sanibel and Captiva Islands.

Post Ian, what does the economic recovery road back look like?

Tessa LaSage, director of the Future Makers Coalition at the Collaboratory in downtown Fort Myers, and Lee County Commissioner Brian Hamman, spoke to WGCU about that way back.

- Prior to Hurricane Ian, an enormous component of our economy was the tourism and hospitality industry.

And I think that will always be the case.

Where it goes in 5 to 10 years is gonna depend a lot on some of the choices that we make now.

Hurricane Ian was devastating on so many levels.

What we have learned from Hurricane Ian, and similarly with the pandemic, with issues with red tide, Hurricane Irma, the list goes on, that we really need to think about diversifying our economy, and take bold steps to move in that direction.

- [Mike] LaSage, who grew up locally and has strong ties to the community and business, explains what the business diversity could be like.

- Healthcare is a huge industry here in Southwest Florida.

Healthcare faces a lot of challenges as well.

It is another reason why people actually visit Southwest Florida, and a reason why people can live here throughout the rest of their lives is because of a good healthcare industry.

But healthcare faces a lot of struggles, so we have to figure out how do we keep that industry robust and thriving with the workforce that it needs.

Other things that we're seeing, manufacturing, logistics.

When you think about the work that's happening out in Hendry County with Airglades, and this idea of having an inland port of sorts, logistics and manufacturing start to play a big role in how we do business.

- [Mike] Hamman agreed with LaSage about the diversity aspect of Lee County's economic future.

- But these are the cards we were dealt.

The facilities were destroyed, so we have to build something back, and what gets built back is probably gonna be different.

It'll be more resilient, might look a little different, it'll be built to stronger codes as it should be.

But it's gonna be something that hopefully supports our community, which relies heavily on tourism for jobs.

And so it's gonna be different, but I think it's gonna be very hopeful.

And I think one of the first big milestones we're gonna see is when Margaritaville opens up on Fort Myers Beach next year.

- [Mike] LaSage cautioned that some segments of the community, which were in a depressed mode before Ian, and didn't farewell after, need extra attention.

- So I think it behooves us to look really, really strategically at some of these more historic, longstanding communities that maybe aren't always at top of mind, because they've just been around so long, but that really do need that extra care.

We've heard from so many folks that are retired and that their homes, this is where they've lived for 50 years, and now they're left with nothing.

And so what do we do to protect the aging community, and the folks that have called this place home forever?

I think we have to take really special consideration of that.

- [Mike] Commissioner Hamman agreed, and stressed that funds are being earmarked for those communities.

- That $1.1 billion that we got from Hud, it's meant specifically to go to low to moderate income communities.

In fact, we're required to spend at least 70% of that $1.1 billion right there in those types of communities that meet the low to moderate income thresholds.

And so I think there's a tremendous amount of opportunity to do some things that we've always wanted to do, that we knew would always help meet the needs that are in those communities, that now we have some resources to answer that call.

(soft music) - While a billion dollars is slated for low to moderate income communities, the people in those communities have less faith in the system, especially a year after Hurricane Ian.

Bryant Monteilh has this from Dunbar and Harlem Heights.

(dramatic piano music) - [Bryant] Many residents have called the neighborhood of Harlem Heights home for a long time.

But when Hurricane Ian tore through this area, bringing wind, rain, and a storm surge, the flooding devastated homes and changed the face of a closely knit community.

- I was, you know, I was scared.

But somehow I knew we'd make it.

It was difficult and it still is, you know, because...

Excuse me.

I never thought in my lifetime that I'd see something like that.

But we made it out.

It was the two of us and six animals.

- So everything was paneled up, but the back door wasn't.

So I poked my head out the window, and the generator was underwater, the cars were underwater.

- [Bryant] The storm surge continued to rise and make its way inside.

Joan Ocevedo told her mom, Luz... - I'm like, "Mom, we need to come up with a plan, and we need to come up with one now."

She says, "Why don't you just go, Joan?"

I'm like, "First of all, Mom, my car's underwater.

Second of all, I'm not leaving you in here by yourself."

So I started thinking of anything and everything.

I started cutting a hole in the ceiling.

- So she took the doors off the refrigerator when the water started coming in.

There were some guys coming around in a rowboat.

When the guys came, they got me in the rowboat, and she floated the animals out in the refrigerator.

- I honestly didn't think we were gonna make it.

I honestly didn't think we were gonna make it, because I've never been that scared.

- [Bryant] Luz Ocevedo bought her home back in 1976, and what made this house a home for the past 47 years was destroyed in a matter of hours.

Federal agencies like FEMA, the SBA, as well as the Red Cross, came to help those in need.

However, a number of people we spoke with from the Harlem Heights and the Dunbar community, say they did not, and still have not received much, if any assistance to help rebuild and replace what was lost.

James Muwakkil with the Lee County NAACP shares what people have shared with him when it comes to receiving financial help from the state and the federal government agencies.

- They didn't help me, or they didn't give me enough help.

But the Hispanics would say to you, they got no help.

We began to notice that nobody was going into the Hispanic community, man.

No hot meals was going in there.

No resources was going in there.

None whatsoever.

- [Bryant] Earl Barnes is an associate pastor, a longtime resident of Fort Myers, and owns a small business in the Dunbar area.

- Harlem Height area...

They got hit real bad.

And you probably can still go out there and see a lot of the damage that was done.

And to me, that's unethical at this time, as long as it's been, that should've been cleaned up.

You still got trucks driving around, picking trash up.

Thousands and thousands and millions and millions of dollars being spent, but not on the people that actually need help.

- [Bryant] Muwakkil says he has consistently seen how systems in place often disqualify those who really need the help.

- You see?

They fight to not help you.

And that is what's scary, Is that they did not fight to help the Black and brown community.

They fought tooth and nail to not help you, if they didn't like who was sitting in front of 'em.

- For Luz Ocevedo, FEMA at first denied her, because she had insurance, but later came back and gave about $2,000 towards living expenses.

Luz Ocevedo has had the same insurance for over 20 years.

- Right now, it's just a struggle trying to get the insurance companies, you know, to take care of what they're supposed to take care of.

Because of course, you know, they're just interested in money.

They really don't care.

And these people, you know, these volunteers have been very, very wonderful, trying to do as much as they can for all of us.

- [Bryant] The work being done on the home has been paid for mainly out of pocket, little by little.

Often, recovery takes time, patience, and a whole lot of faith.

Joan says she remains lighthearted, keeping in mind what matters most.

- I feel we've been blessed either way.

You know, with the volunteers, the help, you know, it could've been a lot worse.

Like I say, I could've lost my mom in the hurricane, because we could've lost a lot more than what we did.

But it is what it is.

(Joan chuckles) (dramatic music) - Local arts organizations are still in recovery mode, yet the people within the arts know just how to channel their creativity for the good of the entire community.

Morning Edition host, John Davis, brings us this story.

- [John] Arts organizations in Southwest Florida were no exception to Hurricane Ian's catastrophic damage, and many are still in the process of recovery.

Even as they dealt with their own immediate needs, performing art centers became a hub for essential supplies.

The basement of the Sidney & Berne Davis Art Center in downtown Fort Myers completely flooded, and had to be pumped out.

Even still, the art center's grand atrium was transformed into a drop off and distribution center for essential items like food, water, clothing, infant formula, and pet supplies.

Despite being less than a half mile from the Caloosahatchee River, the Broadway Palm Dinner Theater was largely spared from Ian's wrath.

Two days after Ian, Broadway Palm partnered with World's Central Kitchen, and transformed their parking lot into a distribution point for bottled water and hot meals.

Still, Ian came at the start of the performing arts season, forcing the Broadway Palm to cancel more than two dozen performances.

The Florida Repertory Theater performance season was brought to a halt because of extensive flooding to downtown Fort Myers.

- It was about four feet of water sloshing outside, so we knew that there was a tremendous amount of water that had breached the Bradford block, and specifically the building.

When I got downtown, the water had subsided, but what we were left with rather was a tremendous amount of that black muck that everyone had dealt with.

- [John] The pace of recovery at the Florida Rep began rapidly.

- [Greg] Everyone, not just our production team, although they were on the spot immediately, but everybody in the company rolled up their shirt sleeves and and got to work, got busy, got dirty to help rectify the space.

- [John] The Florida Rep incurred some $2 million in damages, but even a year later, they've received no insurance payout for the flood damage.

When those funds do come in, it still won't cover the actual cost.

Despite recovering from 18 inches of water in its arts stage studio theater space, the Florida Rep was able to continue performances of "Lady Day" at Emerson's Bar and Grill, which they were in the middle of running when Ian hit.

- We were able to move that production down to the Foulds Theater at the Alliance for the Arts.

So, so grateful to them for allowing us to use their space.

And again, the team, you know, they jumped into gear, they salvaged what they could of the set, and then moved that down, and we set it up for a new staging, if you will.

- [John] Just south of downtown Fort Myers along McGregor Boulevard, the Alliance for the Arts worked quickly to address damage, including flooding in its back gallery, roof damage to multiple buildings, and widespread damage to their campus.

- [Emily] We had a big group day where we had volunteers come and help us clean up the campus, because we have a lot of campus to clean, and a lot of trees, so there was a lot of stuff to pick up.

We had some sculptures that were blown over, and a lot of them are still not back where they're supposed to be, because they're very heavy.

And so we need special cranes and stuff to lift them and place them back, so some of that still has not been done.

- [John] Almost immediately, Alliance staff began thinking about how they could maximize their resources to help the local community simply by providing an outlet to share their stories.

- After the storm, the first day we were all back on campus, we had like a staff meeting, and it turned into all of us just talking about what we had experienced during the storm.

And in having that conversation, we thought that it might be good for the community to find a way to talk about their experiences too, 'cause it was cathartic for us, so we hope that it is for other people.

So we immediately put together a phone line where people could call in and leave their voicemails, just talking about what they had experienced during or after the storm.

- [John] By January, the stories they'd collected led to a partnership with the Gulf Coast Writers Association, which had also been working to document individuals' experiences with the hurricane.

- And we got in contact with the writers, and they had so many that we thought that a physical written book would be a really great way to compile and share these stories.

- [John] The "Storm Stories" book containing written accounts from 80 people who experienced Ian, is now available.

It's come in conjunction with a juried art exhibition available now to mark the one year anniversary of Ian's landfall.

- We just asked artists to sort of ruminate on their experiences.

We told them it could be a healing story, it could be a story of loss, it could be anything as long as it's helpful for them to get it out.

It was really hard to choose, and it was also really emotional to go through the submissions and see, because a lot of them are things that people lost, or it's just like heavy things that people went through.

- [John] Overall responses from Southwest Florida's performing arts organizations reflect the spirit of resiliency, collaboration, and goodwill seen throughout Southwest Florida in the aftermath of Hurricane Ian.

(mellow music) - While art can be part of a healing process, the mental health struggles after a devastating storm like Ian is very real.

Cary Barbor spoke with two experts on how they help their patients.

- Hurricane Ian was traumatic for a lot of people in Southwest Florida to a greater or lesser degree.

Some people lost their homes, some people witnessed death and destruction.

Some people might have just seen the scary wind and rain and surge outside their window.

So I feel like there was a lot of trauma to go around that day, and this year.

Joining us today are Dr. Nicole Vega, she's a trauma therapist for Lee County.

Alex Conrad is clinical director of acute care and children's partial hospitalization for David Lawrence Center in Naples.

Welcome to you both.

Thank you so much for coming.

Let me just start by asking you, what professional role were you playing on the day of Ian last year, and kind of what were you doing that day?

- My current role is the clinical director of acute care.

At the time of Ian, I was actually working for a community-based treatment team.

The Fact Team out of Collier County.

Serving people with severe and persistent mental illness.

And we were out in the community trying to make sure that people were safe, and checking on them the day of the storm.

- Wow.

And Dr. Vega, tell me, what were you up to that day?

- I'm a trauma therapist for Lee County Public Safety.

So meaning I work mostly with EMTs, paramedics, and that includes emergency communications.

So 911 call takers and dispatchers.

I would say of all of the first responders during the storm, I would say they were hit the hardest.

And so about 11 o'clock the night of the storm, once the winds died down, the county, along with all of the other first responder organizations get together, and they decide, "We have to send a reconnaissance team out."

And so they were all activated.

So we have every single call taker in the building, every single dispatcher.

And so high, high, high stress, right?

Because normally our call takers are able to say, "Helps on the way."

Right?

They can say, "I've got a unit three minutes out."

And so they spent a lot of time not having solutions for folks who were in real trouble.

Fortunately, we have a lovely service dog named Maggie.

She came out with me, and we just spent time there.

I might have a PhD, but the truth is, is that Maggie does all the work.

Everyone loves her, and a really nice stress reliever in such a traumatic time.

- I wonder if you can talk a little bit about that, not just how people reacted that night, but what have you been seeing in the year since?

- First off, with this last storm that just come through.

I mean, I think we all felt it, but those that lived it feel it deeper.

There's almost like a learned helplessness that comes along with it.

I think a lot of things are not moving along quickly enough for some of the people that are- - In terms of the repairs and stuff?

Yeah.

- Yeah.

Insurances aren't paying.

Things are just moving at a very slow pace, and I think it's very frustrating for people.

It's a helpless feeling.

And I think that's kind of eating away at some of, you know, people come here because they wanna retire, they wanna live here.

You know what I mean?

Like a lot of people, they invest their life here.

And to have that be washed away, or to have that be shaken is a scary thing.

- And what about if, you know, my home is still wrecked, I'm still couch surfing, I still don't have a place to go home to.

I mean, I feel like...

In my case, my house was flooded, it took a year to fix it, but like, we're almost there.

And I feel like I can now grieve and kind of move on.

- I think it comes down to a sense of community, a sense of faith, a sense of hope.

Not getting back to normal.

Nothing's ever gonna be normal.

It's getting back to the things that made it worthwhile, and reconnecting with some of the people, and just having a sense of shared understanding, but also hope.

- It's interesting, you said essentially, "It wasn't that bad for me."

Right?

And I think one of the things that we do is, it's a disservice to our own grief process to minimize our grief, right?

Even though it may not have been as bad as your neighbor or somebody that you knew, it still has an impact on us.

So being still in that moment can give people even just a moment's sense of peace, which sometimes is better than nothing.

Research tells us that time in nature, 15-20 minutes in nature will relieve stress too.

And I say talk it out, right?

Talk to people.

A lot of times people want to keep that stuff inside, but talking it out is gonna be essential.

- Is there anything else that you all would add that you would wanna just make sure we covered today in this conversation?

- Just supporting the people that need it.

If you have friends or family or loved ones or whatever, just being there for them and saying, "Okay, we're gonna get through this."

I think sometimes we can forget how significant of an event this truly was.

It was pretty seismic.

And it's not something that we need to be ashamed of, or afraid of, or like turn away from.

We need to embrace it, but also be there to support the people that need it.

- Thank you both for being here and discussing this really important topic.

- Thank you for having us.

- If you need someone to talk with, please reach out to the Florida Warm Line at 800-945-1355.

Or if you're in crisis or know someone who is considering suicide, please call 988 for the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline.

Our final story by Tara Calligan celebrates some of the people and organizations who give aid where it's needed because it's who they are.

- [Tara] Even though each person living in Southwest Florida was dealing with some sort of damage following Hurricane Ian, vehicles swept away, loss of irreplaceable momentos, and in some cases, entire homes, friends, businesses, and neighbors went above and beyond to step up and help their community.

In the Harlem Heights neighborhood, a nonprofit called Gladiolus Food Pantry that was created to feed the community, took on even more responsibility.

- We're not just a food pantry, we give out more.

Our volunteers are so kind.

That's why people love coming here.

- [Tara] Miriam and what she calls the "big green building" have been helping food insecure residents of Lee County since 2013.

And despite Miriam's own home being almost underwater after Ian, she immediately thought of the Food Pantry.

- [Miriam] I tried to walk in, it was water, it was mud.

You know, we had to throw everything away.

The water went into the walk-in fridge.

- [Tara] Close to four feet of storm surge destroyed the interior of the Food Pantry, and the supplies inside.

The pantry also sustained damage to the roof, and lost their delivery truck.

But two days after the storm, Miriam and her volunteers were already back in action.

- People needed gas, grills, generators, clothes.

If you needed something, you come here, we have it.

- The Gladiolus Food Pantry was helping almost 665 families a day through November, according to Miriam.

Even with her own home uninhabitable, Miriam says she knew where she needed to be.

- So many people count on us.

I don't know, I just had to do it.

- [Tara] Other non-profits like Naples based Better Together, joined the Food Pantry in their mission to help some of the overlooked communities following Hurricane Ian.

- We needed to get creative and bring supplies and resources to them, because they didn't have the ability to get to the resources that they needed.

We knocked on over 10,000 doors, and we really intimately got to know over 3,000 families with young children.

- [Tara] Though providing the sort of aid was new for Better Together, helping out the community following Ian was never even a question.

- We could all do something and walk away knowing that we did the right thing, even when it wasn't convenient, when it was messy.

And I think that's the importance of community.

No one's gonna be able to serve and love their community like the community and neighbors helping neighbors.

- [Tara] Neighbors helping neighbors is exactly what Gary Baker and Stu Spoede did for their neighbors in Island Park.

The pair have ridden out several storms together before, but never anticipated what Ian would bring.

- Most of the Island Park community is a boating community.

It was pretty tight knit.

We all know our neighbors and we love the water back here, and we've definitely had some issues with water over the years from Irma all the way through to Ian, like the roads flooding and stuff like that.

So we're all kind of used to that situation back here, but just not to the level that what happened with Ian.

- [Tara] Gary built his Island Park home with hurricanes in mind.

- That's been the standing joke when I built it.

He said, "What are you building, a bunker?"

And I said, "Just wait."

Two major storms now, it's pretty impressive that the new codes do work.

- [Tara] Gary and Stu estimate that their neighborhood was inundated with 10 to 12 feet of storm surge.

- We get back in the house, and alls I remember Stu saying is, "That's it, nobody's going outside."

And then his phone rings, and they'd said that Dolores and Tim were in their house.

And we're like, "Holy cow, what do we do?"

At that point, we had to make a decision to either try to save them or let 'em die in their house.

- From my last time over at the house, that water was flowing, and it was too strong to swim against.

So I knew if we could find some lines, I could swim a line across, tie it off to that house, and then we would have an anchor point to bring people, you know, back and forth.

- [Tara] Gary's son Adam joined the rescue effort, and suggested using an inflatable raft as means to escort the elderly couple to safety.

Once inside, the task was to find Tim and Dolores.

- Tim, I asked him where his wife was, so we went in the back room, and we found her, she was on a pool float almost to the ceiling.

What I'm saying is, you know, it's this deep, but you're climbing over furniture that's already floating, and you can't see into the water 'cause it's black.

So it was kind of a fiasco to try and get her back out to the front door.

- [Tara] The three managed to get both Tim and Dolores out of the flooded home, and escorted them through the current of surging waters across the street.

When asked if they considered themselves heroes for putting their lives on the line to save their neighbors, they say it came down to pure instinct.

- We can't just sit here and let somebody die.

So I guess that was the definition of a hero, but I couldn't sleep at night knowing our neighbor just died in their house.

- [Stu] I mean, anybody would've done it, if they were in that situation.

- [Tara] The two friends are now forever known as heroes.

- There are many more stories, and more of holding our community leaders accountable as we rebuild after Hurricane Ian.

- Please stay with WGCU as we continue to gather the news and present it @wgcu.org on WGCU.fm, and right here on WGCU PBS.

- We want to say thank you to all for helping us tell the stories of Hurricane Ian.

(somber acoustic music)