Visit us two years ago for spring break. We spent the week down at Sanibel Island. We had such a great time. After the hurricane hit I sent them a picture of the lighthouse on Sanibel Island. Everything around that lighthouse was gone! They sent a picture that they took of them in front of the lighthouse during one of the days at the beach. It was crazy to compare tne before and after pictures.

It’s wild to see the amount of damage caused by the hurricanes. Several years back the Florida Keys took a direct hit by one of the hurricanes. The storm surge was high enough that it engulfed numerous keys completely. From the Atlantic side across the key to the gulf side. We went down about a year later for a few days. Some keys were open and back in business. Other keys were still trying to get things cleaned up. On some of the keys there were boats still sitting on the sides of the road that were washed up from the storm and severely damaged. It took them years to get things cleaned up.

My same brother and his family came down to Florida last year for Spring Break and we spent the week in the keys. It finally felt like things were back to normal down there. Most hotels and restaurants were repaired and back open.

The only thjng that was still not back was the level of vegetation. The mangrove were destroyed in many areas and the trees and other shrubs were as well. It’s going to take many years for those to recover.