FORT MYERS BEACH
Residents were allowed to return to the coastal island, which had been destroyed Hurricane Jan on Saturday with the governor warning that the disaster is not over.
Many homes still standing on Estera Island lack basic services, so portable toilets, hand-washing stations, shower trailers and other essentials have been trucked in for residents who want to stay, Gov. Ron DeSantis said at a press conference. Before the start of the reconstruction, we still need to remove the garbage.
“We still have a lot to do, and some of the hardest things are still ahead of us,” DeSantis said.
While residents were initially allowed to return to the island after the storm, officials closed access to allow crews to finish searching the wreckage of the building, plotting possible victims. After the work was done, residents lined up and were allowed to return on buses.
Shana Dam went to see what was left of her parents’ house.
“He’s gone,” she said Fort Myers News-Press. “He’s just not there.”
Just getting around the island, where most of Fort Myers Beach is located, is difficult because of storm debris, but heavy equipment was used to clear the roads.
Fort Myers Beach said it will begin allowing more residents onto the island starting Sunday morning, CBS Fort Myers affiliate WINK reported. At a news conference Saturday, the mayor of Fort Myers Beach said the island has no water, no power, and no garbage collection. The fire department also said there are no structures safe to enter at this time.
Residents who want to return to see the damage are expected to be off the island by 7 p.m., when the curfew begins, WINK reported.
Lee County Sheriff Carmine Marcena said handmade signs were posted throughout the area warning that homeowners would shoot looters, and said only nine such burglaries had been reported.
Jan, high class Category 4 storm with maximum sustained winds of 155 mph (249 kph) on land, was the third deadliest storm to hit the continental United States this century after Hurricane Katrina, which killed nearly 1,400 people, and Superstorm Sandyin which the total death toll was 233, despite weakening to a tropical storm just before it reached the United States.
State officials reported 94 storm-related deaths in Florida, and most of them were in Lee County, which includes the Fort Myers area and nearby Gulf Coast islands including Estero. CBS News contacted local sheriff’s offices and their records confirmed at least 125 deaths — directly or partially — due to the hurricane in Florida.
