Sanibel residents return to unrecognizable island
FORT MYERS - The aftermath of Hurricane Ian left Julie Emig and Vicki Paskaly devastated when they returned to what was once their "dream home" for the first time since the storm hit one week ago.
Residents of Sanibel Island, which remains cut off from the mainland, were allowed back for the first time Wednesday, with a warning that they could be shocked when they returned to their hard-hit community. Emig and Paskaly, who have lived on Sanibel for the last two years, said they did not expect it to be unrecognizable.
"I can't believe the destruction," Emig said through tears as she and her wife looked at the field of debris in front of them. "It's incomprehensible that a storm, a hurricane, can wipe us all out like this in just a few hours."
The walk from the shoreline of Sanibel Island to Emig and Paskaly's home was less than a mile along a windy, sandy road. On the way, the couple saw a familiar bright blue street sign lying mangled in the mud in a pile of twisted gutters, blankets, and branches. They also passed a large banyan tree that had many of its branches twisted and snapped, with one large branch lying in front of a neighbor's garage.
As they neared their home, Paskaly said with a heavy sigh: "I'm afraid to turn the corner."
When Emig and Paskaly finally made it to their house on Sanibel, they were in awe of the damage.
Their "dream home" was still standing, but the lower level was "unlivable."
As Paskaly walked around the debris that was their front yard, Emig looked over the couple's pool, now covered with warped metal and trees.
"It's gonna be a long time before we swim in it, huh?" Emig said, adding they need to be careful of displaced alligators.
The chaotic scene left Paskaly in a trance. She had only expected parts of their screen enclosure to have fallen, she said, covering her mouth -- "How do you ever start with this?"
In their garage, the couple found an item on top of a shelf filled with water, leading them to believe the surge reached at least 5 feet. The floor was slippery from being covered in sludge. Their Mini Cooper -- filled with mold and water -- was ruined.
"I knew I was going to lose it, but you just look at all of this and it's like 5 or 6 feet of water in here and it's like where do we start?" Emig said through tears.
Inside, they discovered the refrigerator in their lower level apartment was on top of the counter and their kitchen island was on its side.
Others also felt the wrath of Ian. Andy Garcia, the owner of property management company Sanibel Home Concierge, had to tell several clients what they had been dreading to hear, that their homes were beyond saving.
"It's totally devastating to hear them on the other end of the phone, just gasping for air, and you're telling them their home was destroyed," Garcia said. "It's totally heart-wrenching for me."
Steve and Lori Schulz rode out the storm at their friends' house on the island. They were securing homes for neighbors who weren't on the island, and by the time they finished, they no longer felt like they had time to leave.
The Schulz's home took on several feet of storm surge and "pretty much everything" in the house is ruined.
Despite all the destruction, Emig said she remained hopeful her community would rebuild.
"Sanibel's full of a lot of working people who care about the island and we'll be back," she said. "Sanibel will be back."
For now, many homes in that once-tranquil island community "are not livable," Sanibel Fire Chief William Briscoe said previously, also noting many homes are off their foundations and alligators and snakes are present across the island.
In addition to the devastation on the island itself, Ian ripped away several parts of the causeway that was Sanibel's only access to Florida's mainland, leaving dozens of people stranded and hindering recovery efforts.
On Wednesday, Gov. Ron DeSantis toured the damage on Sanibel for the first time.
"You can go over it in a helicopter and you see damage, but it does not do it justice until you are actually on the ground, and you see concrete utility poles sawed off right in half, massive power lines everywhere, massive amounts of debris," he said.
Officials said most electrical poles, transmission lines, and wastewater systems remain down, meaning a return to normal is still a while away.
It could take a month or longer just to restore power to some areas of Sanibel and Pine islands, said Lee County Electric Cooperative spokesperson Karen Ryan.
"It will be much easier to restore power once we can gain access to the island," she said.
An estimated 6,400 people lived in the City of Sanibel as of April 2021, according to the US Census Bureau. The island is also home to a number of hotels and resorts and sees a significant amount of tourists each year.
DeSantis has directed transportation authorities to prioritize the repair of the Sanibel Causeway.
Ninety-five percent of homes on Sanibel Island have been visited by urban search and rescue teams, said Sanibel Vice Mayor Richard Johnson, adding that the city is now looking forward to rebuilding, which brings its own concerns.
"We're absolutely concerned about rebuilding. This could happen again, and it will happen again," Johnson said. "However, we will be prepared. We will rebuild, and we will rebuild stronger and better than we were before."
Search and Rescue teams will begin secondary searches of damaged and destroyed homes on Sanibel Island Thursday, according to city manager Dana Souza. Teams will not enter homes unless they have reason to believe that someone needs assistance.