Just over a week after Hurricane Ian hit, Fort Myers are beginning the long road back to a normality that will take years to return, while concern grows about an imminent spread of disease.
Devastation is the first thing that hits Fort Myers. The popular tourist destination on Florida’s west coast, known for its beaches and marinas lined with dozens of white boats, has gone unrecognizable after Hurricane Ian will make landfall last week, sweeping through entire communities and leaving at least 120 dead in the southern state.
Buildings reduced to ruins and others completely destroyed, bent poles, boats stranded on trees far from the water, destroyed businesses, furniture, mattresses and appliances in piles on the side of the road, are testimony to the strength of Ian, one of the most dangerous storms in Florida history, according to President Joe Biden.
The second thing you notice is the intense smell of putrefaction that emanates from the mud carried by the sea. More than a week after Ian, the soil in Fort Myers has not dried out. On the mud, hundreds of survivors count how little the hurricane left standing.
“Very little has been saved, we are trying to clean to make the house habitable,” he explained to the voice of america, Carlos Hernandez, as he took out his wet belongings and dumped them in a heap in front of his home on Sunnyland Trailer Court. Hernandez lives just a mile from Fort Myers Beach, the area where Ian began his path of destruction inland.
A bomb that fell on the city
Ian made landfall in southwestern Florida on September 28 as a category 4 hurricane, one of the five levels recorded on the Saffir-Simpson scale based on wind strength. The storm hit the area with maximum sustained gusts of 240 kilometers per hour, torrential rain and waves of several meters.
The rescue teams have rescued more than 3,800 people and a week after the disaster they are still actively searching for victims in the rubble. Rescuers have extended their meticulous search to islands such as Sanibel, Matlacha and Pine Island, whose land connection was interrupted by damage to their bridges.
This hurricane was a bomb, like a bomb that fell on the city”
During his visit this Wednesday, October 5, Biden acknowledged Ian’s tremendous impact in Southwest Florida. After surveying the damage from the air, the US president toured Fort Myers Beach, ground zero of the disaster, and from there promised help to the community, which is just now beginning the long road to recovery.
“This hurricane was a bomb, you can say, like a bomb that fell on the city,” he told the VOA Raul Hernandez. Together with about 12 neighbors, including children, Raúl spent the worst of the storm in the attic of the apartment complex where he lives in the Loma Linda neighborhood.
Rodrigo Mendoza also sought shelter when the water began to rise rapidly. “Things began to fly, the children screaming, the water reached people’s chests. We were like crazy, we didn’t know what to do, and the truth was, it was a horrible thing, ”he recalls.
Many in the area complain that authorities’ evacuation notice was too late, but Mendoza disagrees. “I think that the authorities did warn, leave early because this is going to be ugly. I did not leave because in all that I have lived in Florida, I have spent hurricanes living on the street, under a bridge, and when one has experience, well, it does not cause you much fear, but this was different from everything, “he acknowledged. .
Much closer to the eye of the hurricane, in Sunnyland Trailer Court, Carlos Hernández also tells how he prayed for his life.
“I never thought the water would rise so high. (…) A neighbor told us, go up to the second floor and I said to myself, ‘Yes, I’m going with her’, because if she’s like this at 10 am when she closes her eyes at 2 pm this is going to be catastrophic. We went up there and we saw how the water was covering the buildings in front, that’s where we started to pray, ”she narrated.
Carlos also recounted how he had to break a window in the house next door to save the life of an elderly neighbor who was found floating on his mattress, almost about to reach the roof.
“The truth was a disaster, we did not imagine that it was going to happen as strong as it did because I remember about five years ago when Hurricane Irma passed, but this one was strong, when I left and wanted to return I could no longer enter,” he assured. Uvando Díaz, a truck driver from the town of Arcadia, northwest of Fort Myers, who was left incommunicado after the rise of the Peace River.
The danger has not passed at all
Flooding from the inflow of the sea affected thousands of homes on the coast hit by Ian. Other communities like Arcadia, further inland, lost access by land when rivers burst their banks.
In Arcadia, more than a week later, houses and trailers could still be seen underwater, though roads are slowly beginning to emerge as the river recedes. “There were a lot of people who couldn’t get out if it wasn’t in boats and many who can return to us because the house has already been washed away,” Díaz lamented.
Strong winds left more than 2 million customers across Florida without power, of which most have not recovered it this Thursday. Official estimates predict that electricity will be restored for at least 95% of those affected by the weekend.
In Loma Linda, Raúl Hernández and Rodrigo Mendoza are still without power and are worried about an imminent health crisis. On your street, like most of Fort Myers, there are huge piles of debris and blighted belongings that can serve as a haven for pests.
“We understand that this is a difficult situation for this to return to normal, but we need the garbage to be removed. (…) It is already beginning to smell like a dead animal. As there is sea water and fish that also got in, there is a bad smell,” explained Raúl, who said he feared that the situation would get worse if the garbage problem is not solved, although he understands that the demand for garbage trucks is great. .
Like them, Carlos Hernández in Sunnyland complains about the “strong smell because the mud from the mangroves is in there” in his house. According to this immigrant, “no one has come to this area to say we are okay or not.” “I see what happens on other things, but not here, so you can see if they are okay, or in what conditions they are living,” he said.
Kilometers inland, in Cape Coral, Yudith López complains that this Thursday is the “ninth day without water and without light.” Although in her area Ian did not hit like in other places, this Cuban nurse recognizes that the danger has not passed.
“Now comes a delicate moment, plagues come, mice, stomach diseases due to bad water, food spoiled due to lack of cold, that is not talked about so much, but it is a danger,” he insisted while He recalled that, among the Hispanic community in the area, there are many undocumented immigrants and people without health insurance, vulnerable to this situation.
Now comes a delicate moment, plagues, mice, stomach diseases come”
During his visit, President Biden promised government help in recovering the devastated areas, an effort that forecasts predict will cost billions of dollars. “We’re not leaving until the job is complete. This I promise you,” Biden emphasized in front of the remains of destroyed buildings in Fort Myers Beach.
Biden and Florida Governor Ron DeSantis put their political differences on hold in the face of the magnitude of the disaster and pledged to work to restore normalcy to thousands of people who lost their homes and livelihoods. Access to several isolated locations has already been restored and the bridge to Pine Island has been repaired.
“We still don’t have energy, and right now people support us with a little ice to keep what they give us, but they come every day. The hand that helps us is not lacking, “acknowledged Raúl Hernández, who stayed” with what he was wearing “and has received clothes from” people he did not even know “.
A community that helps
For María Ferrer Vélez, owner of the Paletería Carrucel, keeping hands crossed in the face of the needs of others was never an option. The ice cream parlor she has owned for more than seven years was one of the few businesses to sustain minor damage in Fort Myers.
“It’s a blessing, that’s why I feel like I have to help. They are my clients, I cannot leave them hand in hand,” he said while preparing the food that he would distribute that day in affected areas, a journey that he makes with his own resources, although he acknowledges that once it was known that he was preparing food for those who had lost everything, the contributions began to arrive.
Hundreds of volunteers work in all affected counties. The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) has mobilized a “never seen before” device, according to Biden. The American Red Cross maintains more than 1,300 workers in Fort Myers alone.
Members of the community, affected themselves, are the ones who are touring the most remote and humble communities to ensure that help reaches everyone. Parking lots and closed businesses have been converted into improvised donation warehouses where the victims receive donations.
“We are taking donations and taking them to people who don’t have a car, don’t have a phone, don’t have electricity or water. We are using our own resources. We need diapers, garbage bags, wet wipes, and gloves to clean up,” she explained to the VOAAnahí Morales, who despite having “lost her car”, feels committed to her community, made up of mostly undocumented immigrants who do not know or are afraid to ask for help.
The 25-year-old Mexican specified that the decision to attend was spontaneous. “We depend on acquaintances and people who, although they have lost a lot, want to help. (…) Leaving is not an option. There is a large Mexican and Guatemalan community. We are all in the same boat, we all need help,” she insisted.
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