Did you know that during hurricanes asphalt roofing shingles act like flying blades?  More on that momentarily….

Today Florida Governor Ron DeSantis was in the Punta Rassa area of South Fort Myers to celebrate a remarkable accomplishment.  The Sanibel bridges and causeway are open to civilian traffic. {Direct Rumble Link}

The massive, albeit temporary, repairs to the three spans and spoil islands have been completed three weeks after Hurricane Ian wiped them out.  A genuinely remarkable feat of engineering and git’ r done roughneck effort.  Truly an incredible accomplishment.  To check out the scale of it see PICTURES HERE.

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — Today, Governor Ron DeSantis announced that emergency repairs to the Sanibel Causeway have been completed in 15 days, more than a week ahead of schedule. As of this morning, access to Sanibel Island has been restored for residents, reconnecting Sanibel Island to the mainland. WATCH:

“The work that has been done to restore vehicle access to Sanibel Island has been historic,” said Governor Ron DeSantis. “Cutting through bureaucratic red tape and delivering on our promise to get Sanibel Island up and running has been a top priority. By restoring access over the causeway, repair crews, first responders, emergency vehicles, business owners and residents will be better able to expedite recovery from this storm.”

“I am grateful for our dedicated team members who quite literally built a road in the Gulf in 15 days,” said FDOT Secretary Jared W. Perdue, P.E. “While the bridges were largely undamaged by the storm, portions of the causeway which connect bridge structures together were washed away by Hurricane Ian, leaving the bridges unconnected to the mainland or the island.

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Rumble CEO @Chris Pavlovski and Rumble Video Creator @SteveWilldoit stepped up in a major way to help survivors of Hurricane Ian today by sending a convoy of 12 travel trailers and generators into Southwest Florida to support a dozen displaced families.  This is a blessed contribution to the recovery effort.

The convoy traveled to Fort Myers where they will be transferred to a dozen families who have lost their homes, providing a temporary housing solution that is much needed.  Just an awesome job by the Rumble Video company and a content creator for the platform.

Thousands of people are displaced from their homes in Fort Myers, Cape Coral, Pine Island, Fort Myers Beach and Sanibel Island.  There isn’t an empty hotel room within 100 miles of Lee County as families struggle to find housing.

There are tents set up in parking lots in the South Fort Myers area as temporary shelters for those unable to find alternative housing.  This type of private sector support is very much needed and appreciated.  Rumble is headquartered in Longboat Key Florida, and CEO Chris Pavlovski extends his belief in civic stewardship with generous support for those families most severely impacted by the recent storm.  Awesome Job.  #FloridaStrong

Video of the convoy arriving, below:

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Florida Governor Ron DeSantis has spent the past several days in/around the western impact zone of Hurricane Ian, the areas hardest hit.

Restoration and recovery work continues overcoming serious obstacles with infrastructure destruction particularly around Fort Myers Beach, Sanibel Island, Captiva Island, Cape Coral, Pine Island and up toward the Boca Grande pass. These western coastal areas were impacted by sustained 150+ MPH winds for multiple hours as slow-moving Ian crept inland; hence the scale of the destruction.

The power infrastructure is slowly returning to Fort Myers Beach, however, most of the properties are a total loss and/or so heavily damaged power restoration to the structure is unsafe. The work on Sanibel Island is reconstructing the physical power transit system, which will take a long time. According to state officials, approximately 80% of the mainline power grid on Pine Island is now rebuilt; however, many homes are heavily damaged (like FMB) so lines to structures will take longer.

Governor Ron DeSantis gives an update from Burnt Store Marina, which is located between Cape Coral and Punta Gorda on the west. WATCH:

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Governor Ron DeSantis also announced an official request to The Dept of Commerce and NOAA to declare a federal fisheries disaster which would provide relief to families and businesses impacted by the loss of economic activity in the fishery sector.

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MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell travelled to Fort Myers to join with Samaritans Purse in the Hurricane Ian recovery effort.   Mr. Lindell went door to door in various neighborhoods passing out pillows and blankets along with prayers and well wishes for the community. {Direct Rumble Link}

Mr. Lindell appeared with Steve Bannon to discuss the recovery effort.  WATCH:

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“The damage is incredible—these people need our prayers and our support,” said Samaritan’s Purse President Franklin Graham. “We’re going to need an army of volunteers. Prayerfully consider joining us to help in Jesus’ Name.”  [ Website Here ] 

To give an idea of what happened to the coastal area, there is some pretty incredible drone footage of the damage done to Fort Myers beach and Sanibel/Captiva. Below:

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No one imagined this was feasible. Every expert put the timeline for repair at around a year.  However, the git r’ done crews and the Florida Dept of Transportation have accomplished a massive feat of reconstruction in phenomenal time.  Major kudos to Florida Governor Ron DeSantis and the construction crews who worked every hour of every day, day and night, for two straight weeks and have created/built a temporary bridge to Sanibel Island. [Videos below]

Trust me, having seen the aftermath, this is absolutely remarkable.  The causeway is made up of three bridge spans (A, B, and C) and three spoil islands.

The rapid response construction crews just kept bringing truck after truck of everything imaginable including rocks, concrete slabs, gravel, sand and more to fill in the missing parts of the roadway and spoil islands.  Then they surfaced the road and are now working on paving it in record time.  Today restoration emergency crews drove across the bridges, and they anticipate opening the causeway to residents of Sanibel for civilian use on October 21st. WATCH:

Today the construction crews moved aside to allow, over 200 bucket trucks, 150 electric line and pickup trucks (LCEC, FP&L, Duke Energy) towing 50 trailers and two tractor-trailers carrying first responders to the island.

Additionally, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis was on the Fort Myers side of the bridge to celebrate the accomplishment at a press conference.  WATCH:

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Thank you for all the prayers and support over the past two weeks.  Your prayers and encouragement have lifted many, including myself.  The physical and emotional strain has been challenging; but we are okay and getting a little better each tomorrow.

Power was just restored to casa del Sundance, and thankfully the electrical restoration did not encounter damaged internal wiring as reconnection was accomplished.  Many others are not as fortunate.  When the power comes back on it is always a mixed blessing. Thankfulness is accompanied by a sense of guilt in knowing there are so many still without basic utility services.

According to the LCEC utility company 42,906 homes are still without power.  There is zero restoration on the barrier islands (7,400 homes on Pine Island and 10,946 on Sanibel).  Major infrastructure repair work is underway on the islands as the effort to remove debris continues.  Fort Myers Beach, Sanibel and Pine Island will be rebuilding for a long time.

Water restoration services are still underway throughout the county and boil water notices still present for many areas.  There is joy in the simplicity of taking a hot shower in your own home and having the ability to wash clothes changes the outlook on a task many consider a chore.  My prayers continue for those who have a long way before that simple joy returns.

There are no words adequate enough to express appreciation for those volunteers who organized field hygiene stations, portable showers, cooling tents, and even laundry services in community parks and neighborhood parking lots.  Trust me, this is an underappreciated and valuable resource needed during emergency operations. Related to this, please remind yourself to include topical antiseptics and skin creams in your own hurricane or emergency kits.

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Florida Governor Ron DeSantis was in the devastated town of Fort Myers Beach today to deliver an update on the aftermath from Hurrican Ian.  Incredibly we are ten days post storm while search teams are still conducting operations to locate and recover bodies.  The collapsed and unstable buildings are very challenging and rescue workers are almost always kept out of unstable buildings.  {Direct Rumble Link}

Fort Myers beach is about 7 miles long (+/-) and about a half to three-quarters of a mile wide (average), a large percentage of the compacted homes have still not been searched.  It’s not the distance of the damage taking time to search, it’s the actual scale of the damage in this zone.  So many structures collapsed and flooded with storm surge.  WATCH (remarks begin at 7:15 of video):

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[Florida Gov]  TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — Today, Governor Ron DeSantis traveled to Fort Myers Beach to give updates on recovery efforts in areas that have been impacted by Hurricane Ian. Floridians continue to show resiliency through communities coming together to help each other. Full remarks can be found here.

Governor DeSantis was joined by local officials to announce that access has been cleared for residents to return to Fort Myers Beach. Portable showers and restrooms were brought in for residents to use while the clean their homes. Governor DeSantis was also joined by Eric Silagy, CEO of Florida Power and Light (FPL) to give an update on the progress they have made in restoring power to their customers. FPL has already restored power to 99% of the households they cover in Lee County and Southwest Florida that can receive power.

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There is a particular texture and smell familiar to those who have trekked through saltwater marshes.  In ordinary times the moment when the greyish matter takes custody of your shoe, you quickly ponder whether to stick your hand into it or just buy another pair of sandals and move on… often it’s the latter.

The sand, sediment, dirt and decomposing nature -to include fish bits and wildlife food sources- creates a blended muck and grows slowly over years.  The moist muck does not like to be disturbed.  It has a very particular smell when it is disturbed, until it dries, almost like a natural defense mechanism.  Hurricane Ian disturbed the backwater shoreline inland and introduced that sludge mix to places it was never before, like inside buildings.  Thankfully it is drying out now.

The officials in charge of Fort Myers Beach have determined that almost every structure on the island is unsafe after the storm pushed a massive surge of water onto the island while the wind destroyed the buildings.  Residents are being carefully managed and kept away from areas where search crews are still looking through rubble.

A plan for a limited number of residents to be bussed into one part of the area to look for belongings has been released [link].  Beach officials are calling it, “debris management and the effort to locate our friends and loved ones.”  It is now a full ten days later, and no one wants to use the real words, ‘dead people.’   I think about Ms Veronica being so clear and true in her point a few days ago, “there are dead people and there are survivors.”

Further north and to the west on Pine Island there are lots of survivors.  With the temporary road giving access, there are lots of people picking up bits, fragments, and other important stuff that holds their memories; each bit revisited in the handling of it, many bits thought about tenderly for the first time in decades.   Fragmented bits hold memories, and those memories are exactly what make up the invisible links of our lives.

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I just received the following message from Sundance…

“Camped on Pine Island.  No electricity, water, or internet, and limited cell service.  Hopefully, I’ll be able to provide an update tomorrow.”

The following photo and video show the utter devastation that occurred on Pine Island.  The only bridge to the island was heavily damaged, so earlier it could only be reached by boat or air.  Out of respect for those who may be involved, I’ll let Sundance describe what he’s seen take place throughout this past day….in his own words.  They decided to take a pass on the last boat out.  🙁

I do, however, take great comfort in knowing that a caring God is watching over him and his team.

Aerial View of Hurricane Ian damage on Pine Island and Matlacha taken today…

It was a week ago Wednesday, around 1:00pm, when Hurricane Ian first approached the coast of southwest Florida.  In the aftermath, once again the coastal topography has changed.

Incredibly, rescue workers are still going through rubble on Fort Myers Beach, Sanibel Island, Captiva Island, Pine Island and Matlacha while recovery operations continue in Fort Myers, Cape Coral, Arcadia, Punta Gorda and Port Charlotte.  Approximately 50% of Lee and Desoto counties are still without power and water.

The closer to the SWFL coast, the more devastating the infrastructure is damaged.  However, the inland areas were also heavily impacted by wind damage and historic flooding.  Hurricane Ian left a wide swath of chaos in his slow and sizeable wake.

On a positive note, there are fewer helicopter flights crisscrossing overhead, which would indicate most of the barrier islands have been searched and residents rescued in one of the largest air mobilizations in Florida hurricane history.  The flights seem more focused on delivering personnel, equipment and supplies for recovery efforts.

The rednecks and roughnecks also delivered a remarkable accomplishment today, opening a temporary bridge to Pine Island.   A few days before Governor Ron DeSantis announced the State DOT effort to help build the temporary bridge, locals from Honc Marine were already in ‘git r done‘ mode.

Incredibly a week after Hurricane Ian took out the bridge connecting Pine Island to Cape Coral, the temporary bridge was finished and five semi tractors/trailers from Publix Supermarket were first to cross into Pine Island with relief supplies. {Direct Rumble Link}  WATCH:

Matlacha, the small area between Cape Coral and Pine Island that encompassed the bridge, has been devastated.  However, the ability to drive into (and out of) Pine Island is a major cause for celebration amid the blue-collar working-class community.

Pine Islanders are known for their grit and independence.  The devastation on the island is large from Saint James City (south) all the way to Bokeelia (north), but these are hardworking and industrious people. They will rebuild and restore their community street by street, and the bridge will speed up that process.  An exceptional outcome in only a week.  Many joyful tears flowing.

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