Hurricane Ian came ashore on the Florida Gulf Coast as a Category 4 hurricane on September 28th. It left a wide swath of destruction that included Fort Myers Beach, Cape Coral, Naples, Sanibel, Captiva, and Pine islands. In it’s path of destruction was my winter home in Fort Myers Beach.

We bought the small manufactured house in 2019 and enjoyed the last 3 1/2 winters there. It was about 1 1/2 miles from the gulf in a nice retirement park with 1,400 other houses. The house was built to withstand the winds and rain of a Category 4 storm, which it did just fine. It was also raised up on 4ft piers to withstand flooding. What it couldn’t handle was the 10 ft of storm surge that came through and flooded every home in our park. Luckily, we were not there at the time.

Stress Over the Unknowns

When the hurricane hit, I was getting my RV serviced and watched the news from afar. Because of the power outages and evacuations that took place prior, there was little information about any damage. On day 2, we started to get some images taken at the waters edge in Fort Myers Beach. The destruction was bad. But still no word on how our house faired. We heard there was some flooding and some of the older houses in the park were destroyed.

This led to some anxiety over what happened to our house. We have a home watch person to keep an eye on things but they had evacuated to Sebring. A few days later pictures started to come in and we could see there was lots of damage in the park.

I began hearing more reports of flooding in houses similar to ours – those on 4 ft piers. I decided to drive down and do an assessment of our house and see how much damage we had. We had homeowners insurance which included hurricane damage from wind and rain, but not from flooding.

A Long Drive to Florida

I drove down to Florida starting on Oct 7th and arrived on Oct 10th. It was a unique trip to plan for. The nearest hotel that I could secure was in Bradenton – 100 miles away. In Fort Myers Beach there was no electricity, no water, no sewer, no food, and no services open in the area. I drove my car because I heard reports that there were no places to park my RV and the roads being littered with screws and nails from blown off debris. I didn’t want to risk a flat tire on the RV with no towing service and repair being open.

My head was full of questions as I made the long drive – what if I only had a few inches of water? What if there’s a hole in the roof? What if the siding is blown off? What if there were 3 ft of water inside? Who would I get to do repairs? I had no answers – only worry.

Seeing Provides Answers

I arrived at my park on Monday morning and I could see that the destruction was widespread and substantial. There was debris everywhere. Roofs were blown off houses. Skirts were gone around the lower parts of houses from flooding. Roofs had shingles missing. Large excavators with claw attachments were picking up debris from houses.

My house didn’t look too bad from the outside. There was some siding off the skirt and a couple of loose pieces of siding. The roof had minimal damage – only 4-5 shingles lost on one corner. The yards were littered with debris and smelled like low tide. There were several dead fish in my yard.

Inside was a different story. There had been 3 ft of sea water in the house. All the furniture was throw about from floating in water. The appliances were tipped over and had water inside. There was mold growing on the walls below the water line. And it smelled like a combination of low tide and a garbage dumpster. Here as some pictures.

No Sadness, Only Peace

When I opened the door and saw the damage, I had the answers to all my questions. The house was probably repairable if I gutted it. I’d have to replace 4 ft of walls and the floors, vapor barrier, replace the electrical wiring, buy and install all new cabinets, doors, trim boards, appliances, furniture, and an AC unit. Essentially the house framing, windows, roof, and exterior were good – everything else would need to be replaced.

My guess is that it would cost at least $40,000 to rehab the house. Then add to that the cost to meet any new FEMA flood code requirements which would probably entail raising the house up another 4-5 ft and putting in reinforced concrete piers.

I had done all the math in my head during the drive down. I knew I was not willing to spend that amount of time (it would take months to find contractors available for the work) and money on a house where I didn’t own the land and would never recover that investment. The insurance company said they would cover any damages above the water line but nothing below. The only option that made sense was to abandon the house, sign the title over to the park, and they would rip it down at no expense to me. I was at peace with that decision. The park is committed to rebuilding but it will be years before it’s repopulated with updated housing.

I spent a few hours savaging personal items and tossing out some of the damaged stuff. The picture below shows what I was able to take home with me. My brother in law and his wife, who live in Lakeland, came down a few days later and grabbed some of the dishware, TV’s, and clothes that weren’t wet or moldy.

A Risky Place to Own Property

Florida has a long history of getting slammed by hurricanes and tropical storms. We’ve had several close calls during our time there as snowbirds. Irma came ashore just south of us in 2017 near Naples as a Category 3. Then Michael blew by us in 2018 and slammed into Mexico Beach. In 2020, Hurricane Eta came ashore just north of us near Siesta Key. Then Hurricane Elsa brushed by in 2021. Earlier in January we had a F1 tornado passed just 1/2 mile away from us. And now it was Ian that hit us square on. Add to that the ongoing sea level rise and I’ve concluded that its just to risky to own property in Florida.

So, we’ll take a break from Florida and take some time to recover from our loss. I won’t miss the house we had or things we loss. It was just stuff. But, I will miss our friends, the area, and the lifestyle we lived during the winter months. It was great to be outside and live in an active community for those months.

We were blessed with the time we were given – to see, experience, and enjoy many beautiful places in south west Florida.