It's also very important to try and keep a copy of your policy handy and safe. Fort Myers Beach They amassed donated blankets, bikes and food, formed a makeshift community. Because I'm just about out of gas.". Over the previous 24 hours, the expected landfall had shifted about 80 miles south, according to the National Hurricane Center. Six months after Hurricane Ian stormed across Southwest Florida, people in many areas are still struggling to rebuild. The spot where Mitch Pacyna's home once stood, and where he died. An emergency sand berm is built on Fort Myers Beach on Tuesday, April 18, 2023. 0:51. Lee County suffered none of the states 123 Irma deaths. Loggerhead sea turtles are protected by the Endangered Species Act, Floridas Marine Turtle Protection Act, and The Town of Fort Myers Beach Sea Turtle Conservation Code. Seven lived. If theres anything good that comes of this, its driving home that, you know, that these things really can kill people, said Bob Lee, a former Naples city manager. This was the seventh hurricane seasonin a row to produce a deadly landfalling hurricane on the U.S mainland. Jim and Susan Helton sit int he back of a car outside a hotel in Fort Myers, Fla. Their home in Fort Myers beach was destroyed by Hurricane Ian. Jerry Springer, the one-time big city mayor whose namesake TV show unleashed chaos on weekday afternoons, has died at 79. Fort Myers Beach A member of a search-and-rescue team confirms the discovery of a body in Fort Myers Beach, Fla., on Sept. 30, two days after Hurricane Ian hit Florida's west coast. Too many people still die in hurricanes, even after vast improvements in forecasting and communication, said disaster researcher Amber Silver. At least here, he thought, no one could make him move. Michael Yost's two closest friends in Fort Myers Beach drowned in Hurricane Ian. Last year, Turtle Time reported that some sea turtle hatchlings were found under condos and houses because the propertys lights disoriented them. After his daughter was grown, he sold his house near Lake City and moved onto his first sailboat in 2006. Daniel Noah, the warning coordination meteorologist for the National Weather Service in Tampa, said that regardless of the effort by local officials and forecasters, there will be people who dont leave and die because of it. As wind and water battered her tiny home in the island community of Matlacha, Peggy Collson texted her brother in a panic. NBC News determined the precise locations of 86 of the 119 deaths and found that two-thirds were in areas the federal government deemed at elevated risk of storm surge in a Category 4 hurricane. 0:51. Theres a huge lesson for all of us in public health response and emergency management to learn from what weve seen here and ramp up our outreach efforts, she said. 1:31 On the morning of Sept. 28, 2022, Hurricane Ian made landfall in Cayo Costa, Florida, a barrier island west of Fort Myers in Lee County. A tornado touched down in Charlotte County, smashing and destroying anything in its way. We are particularly concerned for everybody in Southwestern Florida, everyone that sustained significant damage from Hurricane Ian, Ross Giarratana from the National Weather Service said. Ten years ago today, one of the most catastrophic storm events to hit Southwest Florida impacted Fort Myers Beach and those who lived or worked on it. Ian battered the barrier island with a 12-foot storm surge and winds near 150 miles per hour. FORT MYERS, FLA. No place in Florida seemed to have suffered more damage from Hurricane Ian than the town of Fort Myers Beach, located on Estero Island along the state's southwest coast. (The 29 other deaths were in post-storm accidents and suicides, in addition to one homicide in which a contractor was shot.) In the meantime, he and his wife are thinking about Texas. The funds from the Department of Housing and Urban Development, with 70% earmarked for median-income level areas and 30% for other uses, amount to about $1,338 per person in the county, per the [], Hurricane Ian has drawn powerful attention to an Army Corps of Engineers feasibility study of coastal storm risk management in Collier County that began after Hurricane Irma but was shelved before a final report was released. This storm showed us that we dont, said Jeannine Joy, the president and CEO of United Way of Lee, Hendry and Glades counties. Yost, the Fort Myers Beach man whod also decided to stay, said he learned that he was in the most dangerous surge zone only the night before Ian made landfall, when a radio broadcast informed him that his home was at risk of storm surge of more than 9 feet in a Category 4 hurricane. The projected path continued moving south through Monday, the center said. An accused killer is in court after his defense missed a deadline. The Bay to Beach condo complex is at 740 Estero Boulevard, about a quarter mile north of the Fort Myers Beach pier where the rooftop fire with copious smoke was reported around 12:30 p.m.