FORT MYERS BEACH, Fla. – Thursday marks one year since Hurricane Ian made landfall in Southwest Florida as a Category 5 hurricane, and to this day, residents and businesses hit the hardest are still recovering from the deadliest storm to hit the state since 1935.
A total of 149 Floridians were killed because of the storm, according to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement
With peak sustained winds at 160 miles an hour, Hurricane Ian showed no mercy on coastal communities.
This hurricane wasn’t just wind. It was the storm surge that was so damaging — and deadly.
Of the 149 Florida deaths reported, 72 were in Lee County, home to places like Fort Myers Beach and Sanibel Island where storm surge was the highest.
“I’ll never stay again,” Craig Ruke told News4JAX after riding out the storm in Fort Myers Beach.
He was stranded for days until a rescue crew got to him.
“If they say to evacuate, go. We didn’t think it was going to be that bad,” Ruke said.
Thursday, community members came together at the main roundabout in Fort Myers Beach, a place that’s limping toward normalcy to honor survivors and rescue crews.
Florida’s Chief Financial Officer, Jimmy Patronis, said crews cleared 1.3 billion tons of debris from land and water.
“The enormous response efforts served as a testament to the strength and resiliency of our state in the face of historic destruction,” Patronis said. “While the recovery is far from over, we will continue to be here for Southwest Florida communities as long as it takes to get the job done.”
Mark Friedlander with the Insurance Information Institute said the effects are wide-reaching.
“Ian was the second largest US natural catastrophe insured loss event in history, a $60 billion loss event for the insurance industry only surpassed by Hurricane Katrina, which would be about $100 billion in today’s dollars,” he said.
Since that historic storm, several insurance providers have pulled out of the Sunshine State, and others have raised premiums and not renewed policies for those most vulnerable.
“Hurricane Ian is certainly one of the many factors that determine the rate of home insurance here in Florida,” Friedlander noted. “According to the Insurance Information Institute, we’ve analyzed, the average premium for home insurance today is running about $6,000. That’s 42% higher than a year ago. And if you compare it to the US, the US average is $1700.”
Friedlander added it has led to approximately one in five homeowners choosing to scrap their policies and self-insure, which can be a risky move.
According to FEMA, federal support for Hurricane Ian totals $8.69 billion, including $1.13 billion in grants to more than 386,000 households in 26 counties. FEMA said they also provided rental assistance and funds for basic home repair for 386,000 Florida households.
In Cape Coral, the city unveiled a rock to signify the area’s resilience.
If there’s a silver lining, these communities are building back stronger, and many people learned lessons about how dangerous a direct hit can be.
While Hurricane Idalia, which hit the Big Bend this year in September, was weaker and in a more rural area, Florida’s emergency manager said people seemed to take it more seriously and evacuated low-lying coastal zones.
“We met people where they were at and we said you need to evacuate not just because there’s a storm surge watch or warning, but you’re going to be without power for four or five, six days,” said the Florida Division of Emergency Management Director Kevin Guthrie of the state’s approach this year. “Do you need power to live? And that particular message resonated with this area, and they evacuated they got out of their homes on the coast. And that has led to zero deaths related to storm surge.”
Guthrie urged people not to let their guard down and asked them to pay attention to warnings and to be prepared.
As for 2023, we still have a long hurricane season ahead of us.