Church of the Ascension to hold Mass on Monday to mark fourth anniversary of Hurricane Ian, with new rebuilding plans
Four years ago almost to the day, Father Bill Adams was crawling out of the monastery on the Church of the Ascension property where he had been holed up during one of the worst hurricanes in Florida’s history.
He lost nearly everything he owned in the storm, which took the lives of 16 people on Fort Myers Beach, and more than three dozen others throughout the county. Adams had to identify some of those people, who were parishioners at the Church of the Ascension.
On Monday at 9 a.m., Adams, along with Bishop Rev. Emilio E. Biosca of the Catholic Diocese of Venice (Florida), Monsginor Stephen McNamara, local pastors and members of the congregation will gather at the scene of the destruction for a mass under tents on the property for a Mass to mark four years since Hurricane Ian. It will be the first time a public Mass has been held on the property since Hurricane Ian tore through and wrecked its buildings and way of life for the leadership and congregants of the church.
Adams said he expects an announcement to made about the plans for the rebuild of the Church of the Ascension on Monday.
While the precise plans for a rebuild are still being formulated, officials from the church and the Diocese of Venice (Florida) have been in touch with the town as they prepare to submit plans for permitting.
Adams said there will be one centrally-located building for the church, which is expected to seat 738 people.
Several of the structures on the property will need to be torn down so that the new structures can be built to a higher elevation to meet the existing FEMA codes.
The main monastery building, where the nuns lived, will be restored. The sisters of the Church of the Ascension, who were housed on the property before the storm, will not be returning when the church is finally rebuilt, Adams said.
The rectory, where Adams lived, will be repaired. The monastery chapel, an old retirement home, will be razed.
The monastery was the old home of the late Leo Santini, who donated the land for the church. Adams said the home took in 17 feet of water during the height of Hurricane Ian. “We took refuge on the top floor,” he said. He and the nuns stayed there until 5:30 when the surge started to subside, Adams said.
“You just became numb,” Adams said of those hours of fear, that began around 11:30 with the surge from the Gulf.
When he and the nuns finally went outside as the storm let up, they saw homes and cars that had washed up on the property from around the neighborhood, knocking down the fence.
“It was surreal,” Adams said. He said there were parts of more than a dozen homes on the church property, with another home washed out in the middle of Estero Boulevard. Adams, who had been on Fort Myers Beach since 2001 and in Southwest Florida since the 1970’s, said he had “never seen anything like it.”
Adams recalled the grim task of having to identify some of parishioners of the church who lost their lives on Fort Myers Beach during Hurricane Ian. Like them, he stayed on Fort Myers Beach through the storm, not expecting Hurricane Ian to hit the island. “Nobody expected the surge,” Adams said. “I went to bed watching the evening news, we were told it was going to Tampa.”
Adams said it is has been tough returning to the church site. “You relive (Hurricane Ian) when you go back there,” he said. “It’s sad. People are still suffering. People still can’t get into their condos.”
He laments the way that he believes Hurricane Ian and its impacts on the lives of the community, has been forgotten by some.
“I think it’s the way of the culture,” Adams said. “It’s yesterday’s news.”
All of his belongings were in the church rectory where he lived. “We lost everything we owned,” he said of himself and the sisters who also lived on the property. “We walked out with the clothes on our back,” he said. “It was absolutely surreal. Fort Myers Beach was ground zero. It looked like a warzone.”
For days after Hurricane Ian, they were without running water or electricity, until they were able to be transported off island.
Adams has been living with his own sister off Daniels Parkway in Fort Myers since Hurricane Ian.
Despite some delays in the planning stages for the new church which are being handled by the Diocese of Venice, Adams said he is confident the Church of the Ascension will rise again.
“It will be rebuilt,” Adams said.
Former Fort Myers Beach Mayor Ray Murphy, a longtime parishioner of the church, said “we’re excited down here on the beach with our new Bishop Reverend Emilio E. Biosca (of the Catholic Diocese of Venice) coming. We’re excited that he’s coming down to say mass on the fourth anniversary of Ian.”
Murphy said that Bishop Biosca is expected to be joined by Monsginor Stephen McNamara and other local pastors.
“There has been a big hole in the community without the church being there, with all of the parishioners dispersed,” Murphy said. “We are very mindful of those we lost.”
Among the parishioners lost to Hurricane Ian was Damon Utterback, one of Murphy’s close friends. “I lost a good fishing buddy,” Murphy said. “That was particularly hard.”
Murphy said the loss of the church was “not only our spiritual needs but our social needs.”
Fort Myers Beach Observer Editor Nathan Mayberg can be reached at NMayberg@breezenewspapers.com