Although the eye of hurricane Ian came in directly over Ft Myers the worst part of a hurricane is just to the right side of the eye where the winds are blowing directly into the land and in this case it was Naples that got hammered the hardest especially with the storm surge.

If you have been keeping up with it, the back side of Ian pushed all of the water out of Tampa Bay for a short while.

My BIL from California bought a house about 6 months ago on the barrier island across from Englewood, FL and just finished having the whole house remodeled before they moved in a month ago. They fled to a friends place in S. Carolina, talking about terrible timing,

My evil MIL was suppose to spend Christmas at her sons place in FL this year, if his place is destroyed that means I will have to put up with her for one day.
You bet your azz I am hoping the BIL house is in great shape

My friend that has a house in Naples only had some minor tree damage. She's busy trying to find out about her friends that live there year around, so far it's mostly flooded cars, but that's the people she can get a hold of. Cell service is spotty her neighbor had to drive a ways to get enough signal to text her.

Choices have consequences. Many appeared to have made the wrong choice. Sad but true.

Having lived in Florida and traveled 90% of it for business reasons back in the '70's ...when you hear that the approaching Hurricane is gonna do this or that, and go here or there ..... A. you don't NOT pay attention & B. you double the weather guesser's estimates of what's gonna happen where and when. BTDT and we got outta Dodge ASAP. OTOH we shoulda bought the house west of Daytona & east of the St Johns River and Orlando for cent's on the dollar by a bankrupted Builder, 7 years later had sold again for 5 times what I could have bought it for. In those days in the mid '70's Jacksonville was a disaster waiting to happen in more ways than just weather. and I was not gonna live in Jax no matter what.

The Federal guy who lived up stairs from us was tasked with surveying all of Duval County to see if it met Federal Standards to continue to receive Federal Funding for any projects. He stopped me one Friday evening as I had just rolled in from South Carolina and said meet me at the swimming pool with a 6 pak of beer in his hand ... we need to talk Big Time. First he asked when my wife was s'posed to deliver our 2nd child and could I afford to buy a house if I was gonna stay in Florida. ...with no mention of buying a house for the long term in Jax, as the apartment house had a 1 baby Rule , against Federal rules since they had taken Federal funding to build the project

Typical Federal guy -say as little as possible - then he said in the Monday newspaper he was going to publish his survey results on the front page....1. of the 400 acres of the CBD - Central Business District- his recommendation was to scrape it clean and start over, 2. Duval County had 3/4th's of the City & County's dept heads - City & County law enforcement & legal systems and school systems that were probably going to be indicted for Graft. . No school system in the County met State of Florida standards and no students from any Duval County school system would be accepted to any Florida State funded college or university, and finally it was his estimation that 75% to 85% of the Duval County dept head leaders would be convicted of graft and other illegal issues.

Before we moved out of state 10 months after the new baby was born, Duval County was reorganized into being the largest land holding County in the Florida, and finally met Federal standards, and so many dept heads were convicted of graft they had to double & triple up with the Honest dept heads doing double & triple duty.

I always liked Florida and made some good money down there, and had a future that looked bright and potentially long term ...but ever move back down there again ....doubtful 'cause I never would play the "Mordita" ( Little Bite ) graft payoff game necessary, based on the 1st time we lived there and I really doubt if anything has changed enough even now. Re: the condo collapse in Miami that killed lots of long term condo owners, is still too common for me.
Ron

Just saw a video of folks biching because a gas station in Ft Myers is out of gas. Why didn't they fill up every car BEFORE the damn storm like normal people? Not like they didn't have a freeking week to prepare.

Same reason you see people here during a tornado that don't heed
official warnings, then they don't have anything left but the flip flops
and shorts they were wearing when the tornado roared through
their neighborhood

My brother in-law's house is on S. Casey Key Rd Nokomis, FL. on the barrier island facing the gulf. They were about 26 miles north of direct impact and only suffered minor damage from some trees down. Their house was on the backside of the storm where the wind was blowing into the gulf fortunately, their house is okay and they will host Christmas dinner for their mom, my MIL

...they will host Christmas dinner for their mom, my MIL

Just saw on FOX news that Florida Power & Light is saying they expect to have all power restored to the hardest hit Lee County by COB Tuesday. That is after Ian knocked out 100% of that county on Thursday. I'd say that's a great job by all the linemen working there. Kudos!

Just saw on FOX news that Florida Power & Light is saying they expect to have all power restored to the hardest hit Lee County by COB Tuesday. That is after Ian knocked out 100% of that county on Thursday. I'd say that's a great job by all the linemen working there. Kudos!

They had hundreds of outside line crews staged in Georgia before the storm hit. Here in MN I saw a convoy of Asplunth Tree Service trucks heading south. I don't know were they were going but there were five trucks heading south. They are nationwide and do a lot of power line clearing commercially

Well crap, now they're saying maybe 30 days for power to be restored to Ft. Meyers.

That is not on the linemen if that is the case.

Just local govt officials opening their yaps.