Unless you have been living under a rock, you know by know that southwest Florida – including Ft Myers – was devastated last Wednesday by Hurricane Ian. I said in my previous post that I would have to wait for better bandwidth to document my experience. Well, my power is still out 4 days later and I don’t know when it will be restored, but I have a pretty reliable way to recharge my cell phone and laptop – and the connectivity via cell phone hotspot has improved – so I will give it a shot.
I arrived Friday and did a quick (20 miles) “test drive” of the RV on Saturday to convince myselft that the rig, after being stationary for almost a year, could safely go 40 miles. The test had some minor problems but was successful overall. So I booked 2 nights at The Glades in Moore Haven, about 40 miles east of my site and about 50 to 60 miles east of the projected path of the storm. I thought that would be far enough from the eye to prevent damage to the rig.
Then the storm moved east. When I made my plans the projected landfall was Tampa Bay, about 2 hours north. It actually made landfall first on Sanibel Island, just west of downtown Fort Myers (and about 15 miles from my home site), and moved across Cape Coral, Punta Gorda and Port Charlotte – a path much closer to my home than originally anticipated. The result was devastation – and death – all along the coast of southwest Florida.
The first night in The Glades was fine – I had power and water and it was a pleasant, if somewhat breezy, evening. The next day got progressively windier and by nightfall the RV was rocking as badly as it has rocked in 10 years of travel. I think I experienced some hurricane-force winds (about 75 mph) and had gusts of 50 to 60 all night long.
By Thursday morning the winds had subsided and I thought I could probably return to Ft Myers. But the reports of the devastation on the radio were so dire that I was not certain what I would encounter if I tried to go back. I considered calling the resort, but expected that no one would answer the phone. And even if they did they would not be able to tell me if the route was passable.
So I decided to make a trip with the truck to check out the route and the resort. I got within 5 miles of home before the traffic signals were dead. Travel from that point got slower. I tried to go the “back route” down Orange River Rd, but found that it was flooded about 18 inches deep – shallow enough that I could take the truck through it but wouldn’t want to haul the RV that way. So I decided to return a different way.
The RV park was damaged – gates down, royal palms badly beaten up, tiki huts without caps. But the RVs that were there were undamaged and the clubhouse and common areas (swimming pool, etc) actually looked none the worse for wear. Pretty cosmetic damage, really. But no power, no water, no sewer, no cable, no internet. Still, no worse than what I had at The Glades. So if I could find a non-flooded route back, I would bring the RV home.
I went back via FL 80 (Palm Beach Blvd) and it was fine, except that it had more intersections with dead signals. Sill, passable. I brought the RV back. The normal 50-minute trip took about 90 minutes, but I made it without a problem.
My site had tree and shrub damage, like every other site in the resort, but no damage to the Toyota or the shed. I spent much of the day clearing the site, then took my new, never-used, still-in-the-box generator to my son’s house in North Ft Myers (which lost its porch roof and had a tree fall on the car). I found it difficult to navigate as many roads were closed. I crossed the Caloosahatchie River on the US 41 bridge, which is a bit out of the way. On the other side of the bridge one of the southbound lanes was blocked by a cabin cruiser. I was driving and couldn’t take a photo, but it was a sight I have never seen. And never want to see again.
By Thursday night I had settled into my RV on my home site. It was sad seeing all the tree damage, but royal palms are good at recovering from nasty hurricanes so, hopefully, the place will be beautiful again within a year or so.
Other nearby areas – Sanibel Island and Fort Myers Beach in particular – were not so lucky. Utter devastation and many lives lost. I don’t like being without power (the water was restored by Friday) but feel very fortunate compared to many in the area.
