Three years after Ian: Fort Myers Beach businesses and residents rebuilding, recovering
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- Mom’s Home Cooking
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- Fort Myers Beach after Hurricane Ian. Photo provided
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- Flooding on Fort Myers Beach after Hurricane Ian. Photo provided
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- Flooding on Fort Myers Beach after Hurricane Ian. Photo provided
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- The aftermath of Hurricane Ian on Fort Myers Beach. Photo provided
Sunday marks three years to the day that Fort Myers Beach was struck by Hurricane Ian, one of the worst storms to ever hit Florida and which brought incalculable, deadly devastation to an island still recovering from that day.
Step by step, islanders continue to make repairs, rebuilding their homes and businesses. Some have left, unable to afford a rebuild under the stricter codes requiring elevation, or unwilling to accept the risk of returning.
Others have continued to forge ahead.
If it weren’t for Grant Erickson, the heart of Fort Myers Beach may have left Sept. 28, 2022 when more than 50 shrimp boats were damaged by the storm, some getting crushed against the docks and getting swept onto shore.
Erickson, whose family has owned and operated Erickson and Jensen for six decades, has been overseeing what remains of the Fort Myers Beach shrimping fleet. Since Hurricane Ian, the docks on his property are the only shrimp fleet docks remaining from what at one time spanned nearly the entire stretch of waterfront along Main Street on San Carlos Island.
The boats that use those docks have long supplied Fort Myers Beach restaurants and hotels with the freshest of catches of seafood.
Yet three years ago, Erickson didn’t know if he would be able to continue the family business that started on Fort Myers Beach in the 1950’s when his grandfather made his way down from New York to Florida in a fishing boat.
After talking it over with his daughter Hally, they committed to rebuilding their fleet and repairing their docks, providing a future for not only themselves but the many shrimp boaters and fishermen who count on their docks for unloading their catches and the local restaurants who count on the fresh Gulf seafood to serve their customers.
“If I didn’t build my docks back, there would be no place to park a shrimp boat (here),” Erickson said. The docks next to him owned by Lee County have not yet rebuilt since Hurricane Ian and the other docks next to him were purchased by the Fort Myers Beach Fire Control District last year as part of a land purchase for a future fire training facility.
Erickson’s shrimp boats go out deep into the southern Gulf to do their shrimping. Before Hurricane Ian, the largest shrimping docks in Florida were on Fort Myers Beach. Now the largest docks are in Tampa. At the time of Hurricane Ian, many of the boats docked in Tampa were on Fort Myers Beach as the storm was expected to land there instead of here.
“There were way more boats than normal. The docks were overrun by boats,” Erickson said.
Erickson lost three of his shrimp boats in Hurricane Ian. He still has eight shrimp boats, as big as 75-feet long. He is still working on repairing two of them. They date to the 1970’s. In addition to the docks that he had to repair and the boats he had to fix, Erickson’s home in Fort Myers also flooded. He lost many personal items.
While Erickson spent his savings on repairing the boats and the docks (he had no insurance), the recovery has not been easy due to the economics of the shrimp business.
“The price has been terrible,” Erickson said. “The only thing that has been good is the number of shrimp being caught.”
Erickson’s business has been hurt by the proliferation of farm-raised shrimp raised domestically and internationally.
“The farm-raised shrimp has been devastating on the industry,” Erickson said of the domestic wild-catch shrimping industry.
Erickson is hopeful that attention brought to foreign shrimp from in Indonesia that tested for positive for radioactivity, leading to a massive recall of shrimp sold at supermarkets and Walmart stores across the country, can lead to better business for cleaner, domestic shrimp.
“There is nothing like pink Gulf shrimp. It is a very high quality shrimp,” Erickson said.
Erickson said there needs to be more safety checks of the shrimp being imported from foreign countries where there is more pollution.
Erickson said tariffs can also protect the domestic shrimping industry. “Domestic production is only 10% of the shrimp market. Back in the 80’s and 80’s, we were almost all of it.”
He also wants to see truth in labeling for restaurants so that the shrimp is identified where it is from.
Erickson is optimistic the local shrimp fleet can grow again if boats are able to use docks next to his property where the Fort Myers Beach Fire Control District has purchased land for a training center, and on the other side of his property where the county is planning to repair docks damaged by Hurricane Ian. Right now, his docks can handle 20 boats.
“I get calls from fleets that want to be here but I have no room,” Erickson said. “It hurts to turn them away.”
In addition to catching shrimp, Erickson sells the shrimp in five-pound bags at his market off Main Street and Shrimp Boat Lane. He will also sell lobster, octopus, squid and stone crabs.
Mom’s Restaurant
One of the longtime staples on Fort Myers Beach has been Mom’s Restaurant, owned by Heather Reagan.
Reagan lost her Mom’s Restaurant storefront to Hurricane Ian as well as her other business, Heavenly Biscuits. She also lost her home on Fort Myers Beach.
“It was devastating,” Reagan said of Hurricane Ian.
“Think of losing every single thing you own. When you lose everything you own and your way of making a living, it’s pretty devastating.”
On top of that, she is fighting cancer.
Since Hurricane Ian, she has been serving customers her popular cinnamon rolls, biscuits and other treats out of a trailer called “Mom’s Home Cooking” on Estero Boulevard. Just a month ago, she didn’t know if she would even be able to continue operating out of a trailer due to the confusion among town officials regarding FEMA regulations and whether the trailers would still be allowed.
The town has since started a new process which will residents and businessowners to keep their trailers if they can show a hardship and that they have a plan to rebuild.
“I am very pleased and proud of the town for working with us,” Reagan said. “There are very little options available to mom and pop businesses. It gives us an opportunity to continue having an income while investing in our future. The town staff has been absolutely amazing in working with us and I could not be more thrilled with the day-to-day interactions I’m having with the town staff. They have been more than available to answer my questions and have gotten answers to me directly and quickly.”
Reagan is still searching for a location where she build back her business but said she has narrowed it down.
“Normally we close this time of year, but not knowing what was going to happen, I didn’t want to close and for clients to think we were out of business,” Reagan said.
In addition to her biscuits and cinnamon rolls, Reagan also offers brownies, key lime coconut pie and cookies.
“We make everything in house,” Reagan said.
Reagan thanked her longtime customers for keeping her in business despite all of the turbulent changes on the island since the hurricane.
“We are like a family,” Reagan said. She compares Mom’s Restaurant to happy hour for breakfast.
“They town has worked really well with us and have gone out of their way to be accommodating,” Reagan said. We are trying to do the best we can.”
Losing a home
Rebecca Link, a school technology consultant, who is now running for a seat on the Town of Fort Myers Beach Council, had to demolish her home on Fort Myers Beach and completely rebuild after her personal house and guest house were destroyed by Hurricane Ian.
“Walking onto the island after Hurricane Ian was devastating — not just for our family, but for our whole community,” Link said. “Once we checked on our own homes, our focus quickly turned to our neighbors, many of whom couldn’t get here themselves. It was heartbreaking to take pictures of their homes in such awful condition and have to share the horrible news over and over, especially when cell service and power were almost nonexistent. Three years later, the pain of those first days is still with many in our community, some more than others,” Link said.
“I had just finished refurbishing the whole house, but losing brand-new furniture didn’t compare to losing a lifetime of family photos,” Link said. “Those pictures told our story — especially of loved ones who are no longer with us, like my parents. That loss can’t be replaced, and it’s what still hurts the most.”
She is in the middle of rebuilding her homes.
“An event like this changes you. On the positive side, we’ve also seen resilience take root. Rebuilding has been long and difficult, but month by month, our community is coming back more beautiful than ever,” Link said.
“I can say with all honesty that things are looking up for us. We’re so close to getting back into our brand new home,” Link said. “It’s stressful when hurricane season comes around. We’re immensely grateful that we were able to build a new home, high enough to hopefully not experience anything like Ian again. But for some of our friends and residents on the island, their recovery still isn’t complete. And that breaks my heart.
“Some say we’re not moving fast enough, but all you have to do is look at those pictures immediately following the hurricane and anyone can see how far we’ve come. I think we should be proud of what we’ve accomplished and I’m looking forward to watching this town become one of the most beautiful places in our country, again,” Link said.
Mayor’s view
Fort Myers Beach Mayor Dan Allers has been involved in heading and shaping the town’s recovery since being appointed by the town council as mayor a little more than a month after Ian struck.
“Three years ago, Hurricane Ian changed our town forever,” Allers said. “The days and weeks after the storm are stuck in my memory, the courage I saw from neighbors helping neighbors, and the heartbreaking losses many families endured.”
Allers said the town was “fortunate to make it through, but many paid the ultimate sacrifice, and I will never forget what I witnessed in those moments after the storm, both the best of our community and the most difficult scenes.”
Recovering from Hurricane Ian, Allers said, “requires time, money, and coordinated effort. Today, we’re making steady progress. Our immediate and ongoing priorities remain getting people back into safe, secure homes and supporting local businesses as they reopen and rebuild. We are also investing in infrastructure improvements to better withstand future storms, and building reserves and emergency plans so we can respond faster and more effectively should there ever be a next time.”
Allers said that while some may want the recovery to go quicker, he said patience and “thoughtful investment” are required now.
The town has been battling budget woes and still awaits word on whether an $11.9 million state loan handed to the town after Hurricane Ian will be forgiven.
Fort Myers Beach Vice Mayor Jim Atterholt sees bright days ahead for Fort Myers Beach. “The future of Fort Myers Beach is bright after a three year long struggle to rebuild after Ian,” Atterholt said. “We have over twenty different substantive projects in the pipeline that have already been approved.”
While Atterholt is optimistic he is also realistic. “We have a ways to go before we reach the phase that could best be described as normalcy,” he said.
Fort Myers Beach Observer Editor Nathan Mayberg can be reached at NMayberg@breezenewspapers.com