Earlier this month, Porter Goss strode to the lectern in a Sanibel auditorium to tell a few hundred fellow islanders what they likely already knew: “My theme is keeping on keeping on.”
Since Sept. 28's Hurricane Ian, Sanibel and sister island Captiva have scrambled to do just that.
The meeting, keynoted by former CIA chief Goss, a Sanibel founding father and its first mayor, was part reunion, part group therapy and part brainstorming session for two island communities that hadn't had a joint public gathering since the storm.
Sponsored by the recently formed SanCap Citizens for a Resilient Future, its title amplified Goss' theme: "Emerging from Hurricane Ian: Stronger and More Resilient."
"Back in the '60s and '70s, when we were all together thinking what should Sanibel look like in the years ahead? What do we want our future to be? I can absolutely assure you that nowhere in the process was anything envisioned that compares to the destruction and disruption we have seen in Hurricane Ian. It was simply beyond our imagination," Goss said.
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After Ian though, imagining the unimaginable is needed, said Sanibel Councilman John Henshaw. So is commitment. Half a century ago, the city founders were defending against overdevelopment, but now, Henshaw said, the mandate is to protect the islands from more frequent and intense storms.
As rebuilding and rethinking continues, so will the discussions. Meanwhile, traffic's picking up, dozens of businesses are open, and beaches, though battered, are reopening to visitors. Here are some snapshots of the half-year point.
Thanks to crews from all over the country, “Ding” Darling to open again
Visitors can once again tour Sanibel’s internationally renowned J.N. “Ding” Darling National Wildlife Refuge month. Repairs are ongoing, says director Kevin Godsea, but Wildlife Drive and the visitor center are patched up enough to be serviceable. The April 4 reopeningcomes thanks to crews deployed from other sites nationwide, said Godsea, who heads of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Southwest Florida Gulf Coast Refuge Complex, which includes “Ding.” More good news: The wildlife is coming back as well, he said, "especially the birds."
Traffic flows over causeway amid fixes
Even though Ian broke the islands' three-mile-long land-and-span connection to the mainland in three places, repairs happened fast. The bridge re-opened to workers in early October, to island residents Oct. 21 and to everyone else (with tolls restored) Jan 1. Last month, Lee County commissioners approved a $285.3 million resiliency plan for the county-owned roadway. In the joint agreement between the county and the Federal Highway Administration, the feds will cover$239 million of the cost and the county will pay $46 million for rebuilding and another $5.5 million for amenities along once-popular beach strips on the causeway’s islands.
Sanibel’s lighthouse shines with one prosthetic leg
Though early rumors were the lighthouse was gone, Ian only washed away the two historic buildings at the Sanibel lighthouse’s base as well as one of the structure’s iron legs, It was later found in three pieces nearby. The missing limb was replaced with a temporary wooden support, which City Councilor Holly Smith calls the lighthouse’s cast. A new leg will eventually be grafted on. Last month, the U.S. Coast Guard, which maintains the lighthouse, re-lit it, which gave islanders a huge psychological boost, Smith, who was the island city's mayor in the storm's aftermath, told The News-Press.
More:Sanibel Island's ‘Ding’ Darling announces reopening of Wildlife Drive
Sanibel Lighthouse:Sanibel Island Lighthouse glows again. Iconic structure making comeback after Ian
Some businesses battling back
In the early days after the storm, re-opened businesses were few and far between, but now, the Sanibel Captiva keeps an ever-expanding list that now runs to more than five printed pages. Captiva's 'Tween Waters was in the vanguard, but has since been joined by Sanibel's Island Inn and others including Jensen's on the Gulf. Restaurants back up for business include Timbers, Mud Bugs, Traders and Doc Ford's, with others not back in their permanent locations running food trucks, like Blue Giraffe and Gramma Dot's.
Animal populations: Questions remain, research ongoing
In the early days after the storm, rumors flew: All the islands’ gopher tortoises were gone. Sanibel’s four crocodiles didn't make it, according to the gossip mill. Fake news. There have been multiple sightings of both types of reptiles since the storm, including not-too-close encounters with the famed ninth green croc at the Sanibel Golf Course.
That’s not to say all of the islands’ creatures fared well. As far as the Sanibel-Captiva Conservation Foundation’s Chris Lechowicz knows, no one has seen armadillos or opossums since the storm, and he’s pretty sure amphibians have been greatly reduced. “Frogs were hit drastically because of all the saltwater,” says Chris Lechowicz, wildlife and habitat management program director for the Sanibel-Captiva Conservation Foundation.
Though “Ding” Darling’s Godsea worried aloud early on that Sanibel’s endemic rice rat population might have been destroyed, Lechowicz isn’t ready to declare them extinct just yet. Sampling is planned for over the next few months, he says. Citizen reports with photos have helped keep track, he says, and continue to help scientists track creatures. “We’re going to have to wait for the rainy season before we know what’s actually still here, but we’re documenting everything.” To help, report sightings to https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSefmNg1n_81jrbGSQ4BGpWj_U-3XDBVtEdEkU_7r9_A0_5rGw/viewform
Plant communities salt-scorched, which may be a good thing
The hurricane may turn out to be helpful for some of the island’s plant communities, says Lechowicz. Before the hurricane, a huge land management challenge was overgrowth of the native buttonwood which, even though it’s a Florida plant, can take over areas and make it harder for other species and animals to make a living. “So our battle was to get rid of buttonwood,” Lechowicz said. Then came Ian. “The saltwater just sat and didn’t drain, so it killed the buttonwood.” That’s the good news. The bad? “Now we’ve got acres and acres of dead buttonwood,” which can fuel wildfires, as well as dead cabbage palms. He’s hoping to get grants to remove the tree carcasses.
Real estate sales crank back up with a historic trade
For Sanibel native son Evan DuPont, it was sweetly fitting that he was able to shepherd the biggest commercial center transaction on Sanibel in nearly two decades. Even sweeter is that the $6 million sale of Rabbit Road Center, on the corner of Rabbit and San-Cap heralds a new restaurant: Rosalita’s Cantina. He calls the deal “a classic mutually beneficial transaction.”
“The property had been held by the previous owner for darn near 30 years,” he said, and probably wouldn’t have happened without the hurricane he says. "The main tenant was ... not going to be able to make it out on the other end after the storm." Seller Sean Niesel also owns Sanibel's Shalimar and properties on Fort Myers Beach, duPont said. "(The sale) wasn't something they were after six months ago, but now they can focus on their main thing: rental properties and small resorts."
