He survived Ian on Pine Island. Then his granddaughter lost contact.

[Brenda]

At least this story has a happy ending but it's not good to hear the coast guard officer say it's worse than Katrina.
They should not rebuild on these islands.


By
Hannah CritchfieldTimes staff
Published Yesterday|Updated Yesterday

PINE ISLAND — Rocky Lane spoke to his granddaughter through sobs.

Supplies were dwindling in his powerless apartment on Pine Island, a Southwest Florida island near Fort Myers. The 81-year-old was running out of water, he told his granddaughter Stephanie Williams on Saturday. Food was close behind.

There were rumors of evacuation sites on the island — where about half the residents are 65 or older — but Lane, who is physically impaired, had no way to reach them.

Then the line died. Williams’ attempts to reach her grandfather were met by silence.

Hurricane Ian has cut Pine Island off from the rest of the world. Islanders feel it.

~~snip~~

In neighboring Matlacha, the only bridge into Pine Island collapsed. It’s now unreachable by car, leaving residents stranded.

Gone is Wi-Fi or cellphone service. Florida’s largest Gulf Coast island lacks streets or drinkable water. One resident said the area looked like the movie “Mad Max.”

~~snip~~

The Coast Guard was doing what they could.

Until earlier that day, they lacked transportation to maneuver around the debris-laden island.

Then, a veteran they rescued from the rubble was flown out by a helicopter, needing immediate medical attention. He loaned them the keys to his silver Ford pickup.

“I did response after Katrina,” said Julian Bell, chief warrant officer for the Coast Guard. “This is worse.”

[https://www.tampabay.com/hurricane/2022/10/03/he-survived-ian-pine-island-then-his-relative-lost-contact/]

[Ferrets are Cool]

1. I don't know how it is there, but in lower Alabama, people pay PREMIUM prices to live

close to the coast or on barrier islands. The KNOW the risks and yet, they still pay the exorbitant prices to live there. I feel for them...I really do, but each and every one knew what they bought...RISK of hurricane damage. Don't build on islands.

[GoCubsGo]

2. That's the case all along he Gulf and Atlantic coasts.

Most of the barrier islands are at least partly built up with expensive beach houses. There are some exceptions, but that's the general rule, especially on the ones near coastal cities like Savannah and Charleston.

It's not just the hurricane risk, either. Barrier islands naturally erode on one end, while expanding on the opposite end. Eventually, everything that gets built on it winds up in the ocean, unless it gets moved, as has been the case for some of the lighthouses. Nobody should be building on them.

[rubbersole]

3. As long as insurance is available people will live/build there.

[Ferrets are Cool]

4. Rich people will.

Most working class can't. And that is fine. Having money should have perks. I just have a problem with our tax money bailing them out because they "choose" to take that risk. Not that my problem with it matters. I have a problem with so much of my tax money going to weapons of war, but it is what it is.

[rubbersole]

6. 70 cents of every tax dollar goes to "defense"...

by some accounts it's more. An insane waste of resources, but with no end in sight.

[Brenda]

8. Hah

I agree with everything you wrote. I used to scream every time I heard the Pentagon budget. Then I figured it just ain't worth my blood pressure spike to yell, so I just don't read it.

[LeftInTX]

10. Florida is a peninsula with water on both sides

I kinda got on cases when people were having trouble evacuating, because in Texas, all you gotta do is go 20 miles inland and bunk at an elementary school gym. (Rita was our evacuation disaster. The entire city of Houston tried to evacuate, when in actuality only Galveston and coastal areas needed to evacuate and they could have evacuated to Houston, not San Antonio) The motto is: Run from the water. Shelter from the wind. Unfortunately, it was very difficult to run from the water in Florida's case.

Coastal Alabama should be easy to evacuate.

[slater71]

12. I left in March and was paying 4600 a year for flood and house insurance.

I was 5 miles from the ocean.

[snowybirdie]

5. Pine Island

had a population of regular folks living in mostly manufactured housing. Sanibel/Captive was the millionaires enclave. FMB was the party island to the north, evolving into rich folks land on its southern end. Of course, Pine Island is the last one to get help. But they all collectively shouldn't be built on again. Going to miss this delightful area.

[rubbersole]

7. We used to camp and snook fish on the south end of Cayo Costa Island...

Captiva Pass and Pine Island Sound. Beyond paradise. This was the '70s and early '80s.

[radical noodle]

9. I was about to say the same thing

Around the Ft. Myers area there were shrimp boaters who lived on their boats who were native Floridians. Now those boats are in pieces. People forget sometimes that there are some really poor people who live in these places because those in the area can overwhelmingly be rich or at least very "comfortable." Where I live if you drive through the back roads, there are big beautiful homes right next door to a run-down rusty trailer. And while the natives have benefited from employment due to the influx of northerners, they also resent them for slowly shoving them out by making them irrelevant and life there unaffordable for them.

[Ferrets are Cool]

11. There is that in southern Alabama also, but fewer and fewer of the middle class....

especially right on the coast. And if you go to a place like Ono Island, there are NO homes less than 650-700 and most are in the million dollar range.
Dauphin Island is not the "rich" enclave that many other places have become, but insurance is so high nowadays. If we receive another storm like Fredrick, which center-punched us, it would look like Ft Myers. And, tbh, it's only a matter of time till we do.