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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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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Shortly before sunset this evening, as the search and rescue missions continue throughout the western impact zone, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis held a press conference in Cape Coral to provide the latest updates and new information for the people in Southwest Florida (SWFL).   Toplines:

♦ Cape Coral, Pine Island and Sanibel only have 3% power restoration.  Lee County Electric Cooperative (LCEC) is overwhelmed and refusing to pay the mutual aid costs for assistance. LCEC is making people suffer.  The Florida Governor has seen enough. The state is stepping in.

♦ Effective tomorrow, up to 3,500 personnel from Duke Energy are being redeployed into Cape Coral and Lee County, the State of Florida will pick up the bill for the mutual aid payments LCEC is unwilling to support.  As a result, the power restoration timeline for Cape Coral is now moved from October 23rd to October 8th.

♦ Effective tomorrow, 50 generators from the Florida Dept of Emergency Management are being moved into Cape Coral to service water and sewer issues created by LCEC unwillingness to restore power.  Lift stations will be powered by state generators until Duke Energy personnel take control and do the work LCEC is unwilling to do.

♦ Effective tomorrow, The Florida Dept of Transportation and the Florida Army Corp of Engineers will begin rebuilding an interim bridge for Pine Island Road access.  A temporary bridge is expected to be completed by the end of the week, allowing Pine Island residents to cross into the mainland.  Lee County can then figure out a permanent solution.

♦ Effective immediately, the Florida Dept of Transportation will begin a parallel operation with Lee County Transportation to outline a temporary bridge and transit system to reconnect access to Sanibel Island from Punta Rassa (South Fort Myers).  Governor Ron DeSantis said there’s no reason to wait a year for a permanent fix to begin.  The state will pick up the tab for a temporary bridge system, as Lee County begins the process of figuring out what to do.

♦ The Florida National Guard will begin airlifting utility crews into Sanibel and Captiva Islands to begin restoration assessments.

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All good decisions by Florida Governor Ron DeSantis.

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First things first.  We are blessed by a loving God who continues to provide the greatest nourishment we need, food for the soul.  You’ll find it all around, including in the gift of a temperature irrelevant shower, the first in five days, and a belly full of beef stew, Dinty Moore of course. 🙂  Finest gourmet dining in years. Perfect.

Airborne search and rescue efforts continue with particular emphasis on the barrier islands and back bay region.  If you haven’t watched the video of U.S. Coast Guard MH-65 Dolphin aircrew from Airstation Miami, you should [See Here].  It’s a great example of the hundreds of rescue flights taking place all day, and the kid who used the mirror to signal the flight crew and protect his grandma is, well, sharp.

Again, if you evacuated the coastal region of Southwest Florida (SWFL), stay put where you are.  There is no power and no water system; literally nothing to sustain you that you do not bring yourself.  If you do enter this region to check on your property, do so with the intent to leave again because there’s no current timeline for any restoration. A strict sundown curfew remains in effect throughout.

Rescue ferry service from Sanibel Island continues for those who can make it to the Western side of the destroyed causeway.  The entire island is being evacuated leaving only the national guard in place to provide security.  No reasonable estimate for any recovery.  Officials need everyone off the island.  Earliest estimates for repair of the major damaged infrastructure are being made in terms of years.

Air and boat rescue from Matlacha and Pine Island continues.  Like Sanibel Island the bridges are gone.  State and county law enforcement resources are too stressed to operate in a location now inaccessible by road.  Mandatory evacuations have been ordered.  See Graphic for how to leave Pine Island today (Sunday):

Residents are asked to make their way to the location above and national guard trucks will take you to Coast Guard boats.  Evacuees will leave their vehicles at the pick-up point.  This is a mandatory island evacuation until interim recovery efforts can take place to make returning the island possible.  My heart goes out to the people forced to leave their homes, some, likely many, with no place to go after the shelter stay.

It’s a mess.  Pine Island is mostly salty good people with working callouses and a mix of retirees who just wanted to live quietly in an old Florida location.  Now this assembly of people need to figure out where to live with no available housing for 50+ miles.   According to local media every hotel and motel within 50 miles of the western impact zone are full of evacuees.   Long term, I don’t think anyone knows what this is going to look like.

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The Lee County Electric Cooperative (LCEC) provides power utility coverage to approximately 200,000 homes in Sanibel, Cape Coral and Pine Island: three of the hardest hit western zone regions in the Hurricane Ian disaster.  Hundreds of people have asked me in my extensive travels why there are zero power trucks visible in Cape Coral working on the power grid, downed power lines and broken infrastructure.  Now, it looks like we have the answer.

What LCEC is intentionally doing is jaw-dropping.  In all my years of hurricane recovery, there has never –NEVER– been a more crystal-clear example of a decision to put profits over people.  LCEC is literally taking advantage of tens of thousands of vulnerable residents. Tonight, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis is calling them out [LINK].  I will explain what is happening, but first check out the DeSantis message:

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — Today, after receiving a briefing at the State Emergency Operations Center on current efforts to restore power in Southwest Florida, Governor DeSantis called on the Lee County Electric Cooperative (LCEC) to accept additional mutual aid to expedite power restoration to the residents of Cape Coral, North Fort Myers, Sanibel and Pine Island.

At this time, Florida Power and Light (FPL) has restored power to more than 45% of their accounts in Lee County, while LCEC has only restored power to 9% of their accounts (18,000 out of 183,000 customers). To assist in restoration efforts, the Florida Electrical Cooperatives Association has readied resources from its members around the state that are available to deploy on mutual aid.

Mutual aid would allow the LCEC to expedite power restoration, especially to Cape Coral and North Fort Myers as residents return to their homes and begin the road to recovery. Power restoration in these areas is also essential to resume the full use of essential services such as health care facilities, operation of schools and ensure access to running water. (link)

Please share this part far and wide.  You know me to call the baby ugly when warranted; this is one such time. People in the impact zone need to know what is happening.

The Lee County Electric Cooperative (LCEC) purchases energy from Florida Power and Light (FP&L).  LCEC then passes along the energy cost to the Sanibel, Cape Coral and Pine Island residents in the form of traditional electricity billing.

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Florida Governor Ron DeSantis pointed out the difference between Hurricane Charley (’04) and the current Hurricane Ian, with both of them projected to follow a similar path, yet both delivering a different threat.  Charley was a fast-moving category 4 storm carrying lots of wind damage.  Ian is anticipated to be a slow-moving Category 4 storm pushing a lot of water damage and dangerous storm surge.

Additional information provided in the briefing, including 28,000 pre-staged power and utility workers.  WATCH:

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With the forecasted path of Hurricane Ian anticipated to bring high water and winds to the west coast of Florida there is the potential for major storm surge in specific regions. Florida Governor Ron DeSantis held a press conference from Pinellas County to outline the latest information. WATCH: 

 ~ Florida Disaster Website as Outlined ~

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — This morning, Governor Ron DeSantis issued updates on Hurricane Ian at the State Emergency Operations Center with Florida Division of Emergency Management Director Kevin Guthrie. Full remarks from this morning’s press conference are available here.

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Tropical Depression #9 has Florida officials paying attention as the storm is forecast to become a major hurricane early next week (Monday/Tuesday) in the Gulf of Mexico near Florida’s west coast.   [National Hurricane Center Advisory] In the background several Civilian Emergency Response Teams (CERT) have been activated.  Due to the confluence of events, everyone is taking this storm very seriously.

After two years of relatively uneventful hurricane activity, and with two years of massive migration into the state since the COVID pandemic, there are millions of people potentially going to experience their first hurricane.  Thus, Florida emergency officials are being proactive in their alerts.

(NHC) – At 500 PM EDT (2100 UTC), the center of Tropical Depression Nine was located near latitude 14.7 North, longitude 71.3 West. The depression is moving toward the west-northwest near 15 mph (24 km/h). A westward motion is expected to begin tonight and continue through Saturday night, followed by a turn toward the northwest and north-northwest on Sunday and Monday. On the forecast track, the center of the cyclone is forecast to move across the central Caribbean Sea through Saturday, pass south of Jamaica on Saturday night and Sunday, and approach the Cayman Islands on Sunday night and early Monday. (more)

With this much advanced notice residents along the west coast of Florida should begin reviewing their prior supplies and updating their hurricane preparations.  Much could change over the next 72-hours, but a review of supplies and locating stored material is a prudent approach.

Check your hurricane supplies of shelf-stable food, water, medicine and don’t forget pets.  Prepare for the worst and hope for the best.  Everything is replaceable, except you and your family.  We have a lot of Treepers in the path of this storm. If you need assistance, use the comments section of any ‘Update thread’ to reach out, or use the email address in the upper right of the site.

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The DeSantis Crew, formerly the 2016 Cruz Crew, is up in arms over a selectively edited soundbite from Jared Kusher, President Trump’s son-in-law. {Direct Rumble Link}

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis went shopping for South American aliens at an El Paso migrant processing facility in Texas.  The DeSantis people took the aliens to a hotel with plans to fly them to Delaware, Joe Biden’s home state.  However, facing backlash over the legality of spending Florida funds on a previous operation to move Texas migrants to Martha’s Vineyard, the DeSantis team abandoned the recruited Venezuelan aliens at the hotel, leaving them confused and stranded.

Jared Kushner noted in a Fox appearance that he did not like the approach of recruiting, manipulating and using arriving aliens as political pawns.  Immediately the DeSantis supporters pulled an 8-second soundbite from a one-hour Fox News appearance and proclaimed Kusher was criticizing Ron DeSantis, which in the world view of Team DeSantis makes Kushner an enemy.  However, the full statement with context is not controversial at all, and in my opinion Kusher is correct.  WATCH:

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The fact that Ron DeSantis sent people to Texas to recruit aliens from an El Paso processing facility with the promise of a flight to Delaware, then abandoned them when the political heat started, literally leaving them at the hotel confused and waiting for a bus that never arrived, shows the operation itself was using aliens as “political pawns,” and it is unseemly.

The DeSantis people can try to spin this against Kushner, but the outrage should really be toward the people working for DeSantis who pulled this stunt.

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For those who have followed the deep weeds of republican political games and schemes, the DeSantis flights from Texas to Martha’s Vineyard had a specific familiarity to them.

The transfer of Venezuelan migrants, illegal alien border crossers, from Texas to Massachusetts via Florida taxpayers and Ron DeSantis was/is, well, something republican strategist Lee Atwater would have come up with.  The protege’ to Atwater is a person more familiar to modern republican followers, Karl Rove.  Yes, the migrant transfer operation held all the political benefits of something very Rovian in its construct.

Take an issue like border security, central to the majority of republicans, add an element of targeted benefit and overlay an establishment playbook carried out by shadow constructs giving plausible deniability to the central planners in the backroom, and you get this type of operation.  However, there’s always a risk of taking things just too far and losing control.  An investigative article in the Miami Herald today has the elements of a looming backlash that needs to be avoided by the principle.

The Miami Herald is a notoriously left-wing super narrative machine, but when it comes to using their investigative resources to target a vulnerability in their opposition, they are akin to the New York Times in the sharpness of their attack.   If the story as outlined in the Miami Herald is even remotely accurate, the thirsty people behind DeSantis may have just set themselves up for a problem and created an ‘own goal‘ scenario.

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