Damage around Bonita Beach after Hurricane Ian

Reporter: Andrea Guerrero Writer: Paul Dolan
Published:
Damage done by Ian at Bonita Beach. CREDIT: WINK News

A long road to recovery for a lot of Southwest Florida, and in particular Bonita Beach, four weeks after Hurricane Ian.

Looking down onto Hickory Boulevard, it’s hard to make out what used to stand there. The trailer park is gone and pieces of homes are piled onto the side of the road.

Debris and damage caused by Hurricane Ian by Bonita Beach. CREDIT: WINK News

Trailers, cars, and other debris up against the mangroves is a sight that Jim Grant knows a whole lot about.

“We jokingly said there’s a mailbox sitting over there and it’s our neighbor who lives on Hickory Blvd., and we called him up and told him, hey, you recognize this mailbox? He’s like, hey, that’s mine,” Grant said. “Somebody’s property washes up onto my land I don’t know whose it is?”

Grant and his wife were born and raised in Florida, so they’ve lived through their fair share of hurricanes. And their home has made it through several in the last 25 years.

But, of course, everything they went through was nothing in comparison to Ian.

“There’s a hash mark right there, which is about six to seven feet,” Grant said. “You can probably come here under the deck and see where the water lapped up under the deck.”

Since the day they were first able to make it back to the island, they’ve been at it nonstop.

“We’re trying to whip back into shape,” Grant said.

But, just down the road, getting things back to what they used to be won’t be so easy.

“This beach will recover, but it will look like a different beach once it does recover,” Grant said.

WINK News reached out to see how long they think clearing the roads may take and who would be the one picking up all the debris. But, WINK News has not gotten any response.

Damage near Bonita Beach after Hurricane Ian. CREDIT: WINK News

As for Grant and his wife, everything on their first floor was destroyed, and a lot of it was pushed out onto the road by the storm surge. But, they had an angel ornament in their game room that made it through the storm and was right by their door on the ground untouched.

It’s a small sign that can remind people like Grant and his wife to be thankful it wasn’t much worse.

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