28 months since Hurricane Ian hit Fort Myers Beach so why is Fort Myers Beach moving at a snail’s pace? Let’s do a comparison. FMB vs Lahaina Maui. On Sept 28th 2022, Hurricane Ian came onto FMB shores. Hurricane Ian was a cat 4 and FMB is 6.2 miles of land. 900 structures were destroyed. It has been 28 months since the storm. Fast forward to August 8, 2023. Lahaina Maui was not only hit with hurricane strength winds but it was incinerated with a fire that destroyed the entire town of Lahaina. The fire was so hot that it melted glass in the cars. FYI fire has to be
2,552 to 2,912 degrees Fahrenheit to melt glass. Lahaina is 7.9 miles of land and 2,200 buildings were destroyed and 87 boats that were docked in water off Lahaina were incinerated.
Also, let’s not forget that Hurricane Milton was a direct hit on Siesta Key. That was Oct.9th, 2024 and 2 weeks earlier they were hit with hurricane Helen. Recently I was in Siesta Key/St Armands Circle and I was shocked to see both areas were clean and cleared of all their debris, damaged homes and dead landscaping and trees. Here is a short video so you can see the condition of the area. In 2 months they had cleared and rebuilt their downtown area and the residential area was completely cleared of all damaged properties and dead trees. How is this possible? Because they have mayors that would not tolerate allowing the areas to be damaged and scarred from the hurricanes for months, let alone years like on Fort Myers Beach.
FEMA was involved in all 3 areas and I would go as far as saying that FEMA helped FMB out more than any of the other 2 areas so people can’t use FEMA as the excuse for the delays. Recently FMB lost their FEMA discount because of not being in compliance. Here is a video showing a tour of Lahaina that was just posted a few days ago. You can take a look at the progress that they have achieved. No debris, no piles of rubble, no dead trees and bushes. It is all cleared and ready to be built. This video is 1 months after the storm but Lahaina has been cleaned and cleared 11 months after the storm.
Mayor Dan Allers loves to jump in front of cameras and give all his excuses. He monitors message boards so he can give excuses to anyone that questions why our island is still an eye-sore. So maybe he will take the time to watch these videos of areas that experienced disasters like FMB did and yet they are cleaned up and rebuilding and no one is making excuses. How is it that Allers was re-elected is beyond me.