By: Amelia Valery

On September 28, Hurricane Ian devastated the west coast of Florida. Ian was a category four hurricane with winds that were as high as 155 mph.

Over the last 30 years, there have been three historic hurricanes to hit the state of Florida, and Ian now makes four.

There has been a lot of attention directed toward the west coast of Florida over the past month, and even though the spotlight has drifted; residents and businesses are still struggling to fully recover. Including David Joyner, owner of Joyner Family Insurance, who dealt with hurricane recovery on the front lines.

“For perspective, we are now well over 800 claims that we have submitted here in our office, which is an incredible task,” Joyner said. “I mean it took all hands on deck, everyone being involved, to get that done.”

Lots of residents experienced severe wind damage due to something known as tropical tornadoes, which are tornadoes produced by hurricanes. There were 70 tornado warnings issued throughout the time of the storm and 11 were confirmed in South Florida.

“I had almost my entire team without power for at least five plus days, yet all of them were coming into the office to help clients, you know, to answer phones, to meet people in person and it was just absolute chaos,” Joyner said. “You did not have a moment to yourself because of how quickly the phones were ringing.”

1.8 million cubic yards of vegetative debris was collected in Sarasota County thus far, which is enough to fill 544 Olympic-sized swimming pools.

Hurricane debris usually piles up in landfills quickly due to the lack of properly separated materials. There was five times more debris collected than in Hurricane Irma in 2017.

In the southern part of Sarasota County, you can still find piles of debris and ruined belongings that line the street. There are initial estimates of $135 million worth of damages.

One of the most used examples to demonstrate hurricane damage in Sarasota County is the Venice Theatre, which has been a centerpiece for the community for the last 70 years.

Even though the main stage will be under repairs for months to come, they are hoping to have their black box theatre up and running in a few months.

The city of Venice is 54.58 miles north of where the storm made landfall in Fort Myers Beach, FL in Lee County.

One resident, Lisa Hutto, of Fort Myers Beach recounted her decision to evacuate leading up to the storm and what it was like to come back to her home in pieces.

“It was very surreal because, I mean, it was just destroyed. You kind of ask each other like ‘Is your house still standing’ because a lot of people it’s not even,” Hutto said. “We took some wagons and trash bags and things like that and went into our house and that was just you know… heartbreaking, so it was just a disaster. It’s almost like you picture you fill it all up with water and you just shake it around and stuff just kind of settles wherever.”

There was severe damage to roadways and bridges that restricted travel to the area. Only residents were allowed past certain check points and could walk around two miles to see the damages that were made to their home and community.

Hurricane season lasts until November 30 and with the recent strike of Hurricane Nicole, residents are hoping that the end of the month comes quickly.

Recovery efforts are still being made for Hurricane Ian, and Florida’s residents are assessing the damages made by Nicole. We will continue to update the story as it unfolds.