Sanibel Island - right next to Fort Myers, Florida got devastated by Hurricane Ian on Sep 28, 2022. Sanibel is my favorite vacation spot in Florida. We've been there several times - including multiple 1-week stays in beachfront condos. So when I saw that the path of Ian went just barely above Sanibel - and the worst part of the surge was right at Sanibel - I knew it was going to clobbered. And it was. Winds were estimated at 130mph. The surge was at about 12 feet which would have been enough to go over the island. 

We had made reservations a year ago to stay on Sanibel for a week the first week of January. Obviously those were cancelled on us. We still made our trip to Florida, but rescheduled it for February. (We have a daughter that lives near Orlando so we take advantage of where she lives to see some of our grandkids during the early part of the year. My wife and I took an overnight trip to the SW Florida coast and drove onto Sanibel to see how things are doing. So sad. Sanibel has always been this perfect, lush, green beach paradise. But not anymore. Because of the surge - all the freshwater wetlands were turned into saltwater marshes. And much of the green vegetation has died because of the saltwater killing it.

Here's some pictures we took last week. The island is still recovering and it will be many more years to go. There are a handful of places/homes that people have returned to, but practically all of the one-story buildings were destroyed or washed away. Two-story buildings built on stilts in the last 20 years stood a better chance. As people are recovering the city allows people to put all the damaged buildings and vegetation on the side of the road where the city is in a constant state of picking it up and taking it elsewhere. 

Here you can see all the lush, green vegetation that has died from the saltwater surge.

This is an empty lot now. All along this area it was wall-to-wall homes or condos. It's sad to see the empty lots knowing that someone has lost their home.