Ever since he opened Suncatchers’ Dream in 2005, Daniel Thompson has taken pride in handpicking inventory for his shop on Sanibel Island.
Barely a mile from the nearest beach, he curates a mix of affordable yet unique American-made goods: delicate jewelry crafted with local sand and shells, coasters molded from Mississippi mud, colorful ceramic tiles etched with Sanibel scenes. There’s a science to the careful selection process — a chemistry Thompson has perfected. It’s all in the name of ensuring his longtime customers, coming from near and far year-round, walk out with one-of-a-kind products they’ll treasure for a lifetime.
Working in paradise comes with a price. The 25-plus-year Sanibel resident has seen his share of hurricanes, dating back to Hurricane Charley’s warpath in 2004. But nothing came close to the devastating beast that was 2022’s Hurricane Ian, Thompson says.
The Category 4 storm pitched into Southwest Florida on Sept. 28 that year, spitting 150 mph winds and summoning up to 15 feet of storm surge. In its wake, it left 12 million cubic yards of debris across Lee County — enough to fill more than 3,600 Olympic-sized swimming pools. It destroyed 5,076 homes and 284 businesses there, leaving thousands more damaged. More than 450,000 people were ordered to evacuate their homes, including Thompson.
Around two weeks after the storm, he finally laid eyes on his Sanibel Island properties — or what was left of them.
Water infiltrated his home up to its countertops, and black mold followed, forcing Thompson to gut the building and start from scratch. The devastation in his beloved store was even more shocking to him. A wave of storm surge had breached a wall, flushed inside and swallowed about $1 million of merchandise. Aside from scattered remains — a piece of jewelry here, a glass figurine there — Thompson lost everything except for his Jeep, two dogs and a small suitcase of clothes.
“The real loss was I don’t get a penny back,” he says. Thompson didn’t carry flood insurance for Suncatchers’ Dream, and even if he had, he says the maximum payout he would’ve received pales in comparison to the value of his inventory. “It was in the middle of the island, so I never thought that I would have floodwater from the Gulf of Mexico in the store.”
With at least $112 billion in damages — most of which occurred in Florida — Hurricane Ian marks the costliest hurricane on record for Florida and the third costliest for the U.S. More than 150 people lost their lives during the storm and its aftermath, from drowning, storm-related accidents, medical emergencies exacerbated by power outages and other causes.
Fort Myers Beach and Sanibel, both popular tourist destinations in Lee County, were among the jurisdictions hit hardest. By all accounts, every structure on both barrier islands was impacted, forever changed by Hurricane Ian’s reckless abandon.
Sanibel is an island nature preserve sharing space with million-dollar homes, while Fort Myers Beach is a more densely developed strip of land and is generally viewed as more affordable. Two years later, they’re both rising from the devastation, showcasing parallel but distinct recovery arcs guided by regulations, developer interests and community engagement. The towns emerging from the rubble may look different than their predecessors — but they will persevere, locals insist.
“We took a horrible punch in the face, and we’re going to get back up off the mat,” says Dan Allers, mayor of Fort Myers Beach. “We’re going to shake it off, and we’re going to continue on.”
Writing a new narrative
Thomas Houghton started working as a waiter at La Ola Surfside Restaurant, a Tex-Mex destination on Fort Myers Beach, in 2011. He gradually rose in the ranks to bartender, manager and then owner when he bought the restaurant in 2015.
It was a staple of Times Square, the downtown area marking the heart of Fort Myers Beach’s Estero Island. Retail stores and restaurants branched out in every direction like veins, dotting the landscape with pops of color. Palm trees adorned the walkways and streets leading out to the pearly white sand beach cherished by visitors. A pier stretched into the Gulf of Mexico — an ideal spot to watch the summer sun dip below the horizon.
The pulse of that iconic downtown, pumping thanks to businesses like La Ola, flatlined after Hurricane Ian.
“A friend of mine who was staying down on the beach ... he called me and said it was gone,” Houghton says. “Everything in that square got sucked across the street. The other buildings on the beachside got pushed into ours. ... It was just a big pile.”
The storm shattered decades of history.
Before Fort Myers Beach was a municipality, it was an unincorporated community on Estero Island battling to preserve its small-town character in the 1990s. Lee County officials approved construction of the DiamondHead Beach Resort by SunStream Hotels & Resorts, a 12-story high-rise with 100-plus rooms built in 1998 that persists to this day. Many residents felt the resort defied the eclectic mixture of culture, nature and nightlife that drew folks to the barrier island.
To prevent another infringement of their identity, they banded together to officially incorporate Fort Myers Beach in 1995. By 1999, the town adopted a comprehensive plan and land development code. It restricts certain characteristics like building height (which is limited to 35 feet, or three stories, depending on the area) and density (which is limited to six dwelling units per acre, in general) to fit the community’s vision.
Hurricane Ian tumbled through that vision, churning out about 3 million cubic yards of debris across the 7-mile-long Estero Island and expediting Fort Myers Beach into its next chapter.
This time, there are new characters: Various developers itching to purchase decimated beachfront properties, whispering proposals for new projects. Their additions could help revitalize the area’s economy — but many worry whether a rebuilt Fort Myers Beach will retain its old-Florida charm.
“We know we can’t go back to what we had on Sept. 27,” says Allers, the town’s mayor, who lost his 9-month-old golf cart rental business to Hurricane Ian. “But that doesn’t mean we have to become the next Miami Beach, or the next Clearwater, or the next whatever-tourist-town. We want to make sure that we keep this a family-friendly place to live.”
Some properties started changing hands shortly after Hurricane Ian. Stan Stouder, chairman of the Lee County local planning agency and founding partner of local commercial real estate firm CRE Consultants, calculates more than $150 million in commercial property sales have already occurred. As of May, there were an additional $126 million worth of active commercial listings.
How will that land — once an array of historical resorts and restaurants — be reimagined? Developers are starting to shed light on their plans, some of which deviate from Fort Myers Beach’s current development code.
Naples-based London Bay Development, for instance, has proposed a tiered eight- and nine-story hotel and a tiered 11-, 13- and 15-story condominium rising from two floors of parking. They would replace the former four-story Outrigger Beach Resort which was destroyed by Hurricane Ian and purchased for $38.2 million. The developer estimates the project, coined the London Bay Outrigger, could cost more than $200 million between the costs of construction and acquisition. London Bay also plans to develop the property across the street where Charley’s Boathouse Grill & Wine Bar once stood.
Similarly, Fort Myers-based Seagate Development Group has proposed a condominium complex rising 15 stories and featuring 137 units, a beachfront club, three pools and a restaurant. The project would replace the Red Coconut RV Park, formerly the biggest property on the island, which was purchased for $52 million — setting a record-high sales price for the town.
As of press time, neither project had received approval to move forward with construction.
Jacki Liszak, president and CEO of the Fort Myers Beach Chamber of Commerce, speculates that other developers are hanging back to see how the first few approval processes unfold. Most importantly, they’re waiting to hear how the community — a mighty force amidst any proposal, as evidenced in the town’s incorporation — responds to such developments.
“There’s a lot of strong interest from other developers wanting to come in ... They’re not going to spend this kind of money on sand unless they know that they can get a return on their investment,” she says. “It’s important that we get some of these projects moving forward so they can start to show the way for what is acceptable in public opinion and what is not.”
The Fort Myers Beach Town Council approved its first post-Hurricane Ian hotel in June. Roland Weinmann and Beverley Milligan, owners of the incoming four-story, 54,000-sq.-ft. Myerside Resort, were granted zoning changes to allow an additional three feet of height, a density increase to 45 units, and a 30% reduction in parking on the 1-acre lot. The development will also feature four workforce housing units and 9,000 square feet of retail space, where the husband-and-wife duo hopes to house medical services.
A hotel will replace the Myerside Resort and Cottages, a group of historic beach cottages with 13 units that were wrecked by Ian. Allers was the sole vote in opposition, citing fears of the project catalyzing more development that would overwhelm the beach town.
For Weinmann and Milligan, the island residents behind the new project, sizing up their business was the only way for it to survive. Keeping the new structure compliant with building codes and fortified against future hurricanes takes a bigger budget. Construction may require as much as $20 million — a price tag the couple needs to recoup.
“We needed to build something this size in order to pay for what it was going to cost to build. As you build more and more, and as you add a unit, the cost comes down, so then you can actually carry the business,” Milligan says. “We felt pretty strongly that every project is different, so no precedent was set with us... (Developers) have to make their case and demonstrate their public benefit. And that’s what we were able to do.”
Although it will look different than its predecessor, Weinmann and Milligan say Myerside Resort will still be a boutique hotel, representing the start of a new age in the recovering Fort Myers Beach.
“Everybody recognizes that the old Fort Myers Beach is gone,” Milligan says. “But the vibe and the feel of Fort Myers Beach is something that is unique and representative of the community that we attract ... A community where it’s okay to walk down (the main street) in your bikini and flip flops.”
Sticking to the script
The Island Inn’s history traces back to 1895, marking the first hotel and restaurant on Sanibel Island just 50 years after Florida became a state.
The 10-acre beachfront property was strategically stationed at the island’s southernmost point, where deep-sea currents scatter more than 400 species of seashells across the beach. The inn was so prolific for its shelling that it hosted the first Sanibel Shell Festival in 1937 — an annual tradition continuing today, cementing the island as the Seashell Capital of the World.
For more than a century, guests donated their seashell treasures to the inn, curating an extensive collection once displayed in the main building. Those shells, though, returned to the sea when Hurricane Ian swept through, says general manager Chris Davison. The entire building, plus 14 other historic ground-level structures, ranging from a 31-unit building to cottages, were washed away.
It took $500,000 to demolish the wreckage and clear debris from the property. Even so, the Island Inn was the first accommodation on Sanibel to reopen just a month after the hurricane. It offered its surviving 20 rooms to first responders and displaced residents.
The inn’s shareholders, including Davison, plan to build back the rest of the property. Once they get the $35 million needed to rebuild, they must trudge through 11 permit applications in accordance with city and state regulations. It will be a long, complicated process — exactly as Sanibel’s founders intended.
“It’s a little bit more difficult to rebuild here,” Davison says. “But in the end, it’s going to be the same Sanibel that everybody has always loved. You see some places that experience this level of devastation, and it changes them forever. I don’t think you’ll see that here.”
Like Fort Myers Beach, a fear of development catalyzed Sanibel’s incorporation. County leaders were willing to let developers poach every square inch of the 18-square-mile barrier island, envisioning around 90,000 inhabitants, says Sanibel Mayor Richard Johnson. Residents saw their small peaceful town — a lush paradise abundant in native plants and wildlife — threatened beyond belief.
The island community banded together, and Sanibel was successfully incorporated in 1974. Its first action as Florida’s newest city? Hit pause on development and codify community priorities.
The Sanibel Plan emerged — a document detailing the town’s “tenuous balance” between development and ecological preservation. Today, two-thirds of the island is protected from development in perpetuity, housed in ecological safe havens like those managed by the Sanibel-Captiva Conservation Foundation and the J.N. “Ding” Darling National Wildlife Refuge. That leaves about a third of the island open for development, most of which belongs to local owner-operators.
That small window for development is curtailed even more by the city code, which has varying regulations depending on the area.
Sanibel limits building heights to three habitable stories and sets the maximum density limit at five dwelling units per acre for most properties along the coast. Structures along the Gulf Coast must be elevated or floodproofed above projected wave heights from a 100-year storm — or a storm that has a 1% chance of happening any given year. The city also encourages landowners to plant dense vegetation along properties to protect against waves and winds.
Code variances are given sparingly — and only if the final vision aligns with the Sanibel Plan. Only four variances have been approved since Hurricane Ian, including two cases involving historic structures.
While those codes set a standard for Sanibel’s development, some are seen as obstacles to full recovery following Hurricane Ian, constituents have told Johnson.
The town’s “build back” provision, for example, stipulates that structures damaged by natural disasters can only be rebuilt to their previous dimensions — no higher or larger. The Sanibel Planning Department is reviewing those regulations to potentially allow residents to make resiliency changes, like elevating their structures, to properties that predate the code.
“It’s not that we’re anti-development. It’s that we’re pro-environment,” says Johnson, who lost his own 125-year-old family business to Hurricane Ian. “We feel that we need to strike a balance with the environment and development, and we’ve been really successful at that. ... Our code has set us up for a defined path in our recovery.”
Given the code’s restrictions, Sanibel isn’t seeing the developer interest that Fort Myers Beach is, says John Lai, president and CEO of the Sanibel and Captiva Chamber of Commerce. Most of Sanibel’s commercial properties have retained the same owners since Hurricane Ian struck, giving little opportunity for outsiders to buy in.
The town credits its founders’ vision and land development plan as guiding beacons for keeping the island lush and lavish. The overwhelming sentiment from residents and businesses is to uphold those values at all costs, community leaders say.
“When you have large private equity firms that want to come in and do these large-scale projects, and they realize that they can’t, it becomes a non-starter for them,” Lai says. “They know that the Sanibel Plan is what really sets us apart from any other vacation destination in our state, and that not preserving would be a detriment to our community.”
Resilience — at a cost
Christopher Daly’s first days as an assistant professor of coastal geomorphology at Florida Gulf Coast University came mere weeks before Hurricane Ian struck. The natural disaster — with its sheer magnitude and destruction — launched his first research project at the college: an investigation into how past and future storms are changing coastal landscapes like Lee County.
His team is using drones to map storm impacts across Southwest Florida, particularly where storm surge intruded most in areas like Sanibel and Fort Myers Beach. The researchers found that water crept inland through weak spots in dunes or along beach walkways and side streets — the paths of least resistance. As it receded, it followed those same routes, sucking inland debris away and carving 12-plus-feet-deep scours into beaches.
Thanks to his data and modeling, Daly is helping predict coastal towns’ vulnerability to future storm surge so they can better protect themselves with solutions like seawalls, elevated footpaths and dunes. Because he didn’t need to consult his research to know one thing for certain: A hurricane will come again.
“With climate change, we’re looking at a few key variables” changing, like sea-level rise contributing to worse storm surge and erosion, he says. That’s why resilience needs to be top of mind for Fort Myers Beach, Sanibel and other coastal areas.
Local leaders say it is — and that adds time and capital to the rebuilding process.
In Fort Myers Beach, for instance, a beach renourishment project should be completed by the year’s end, combating erosion and fortifying the coastline with 1 million cubic yards of sand. The town has already erected a 15,000-foot-long, six-foot-tall emergency berm around its perimeter — a top priority as hurricane season rolled around once again, Allers says. It’s also investigating additional flood-control measures, like a seawall system surrounding the island.
Nearby on Sanibel, every day for months, hundreds of trucks hauled sand for beach and dune renourishment projects, totaling 400,000 tons of sand by the project’s completion. The island, with about 70% of its land under conservation, also harbors natural protections like mangroves, marshes and beach dunes that attenuate storm surge. SanCap Resilience — a citizenled group formed in the aftermath of Hurricane Ian — focuses on fortifying Sanibel and the neighboring Captiva Island in the face of climate change impacts.
“This will not be a once-in-100-year storm looking forward... We’re seeing more devastating impacts after storms, so we desperately want to build back resiliently,” Lai says. “It is a tension that we are all living in down here. Do we build it back more resiliently and double the time of recovery? Or do we put it back the way it was so that we can open in six months?”
On top of local building codes, the barrier islands also must adhere to the Florida Building Code. It includes special provisions for development in flood zones as designated by the Federal Emergency Management Agency. Both Fort Myers Beach and Sanibel lay entirely in flood zones.
Those provisions, including elevation requirements, help minimize future flood damage and qualify communities for the National Flood Insurance Program. Should communities meet the program’s minimum requirements, they’re rewarded with discounts on their flood insurance — a much-needed boon amid skyrocketing rates in Florida.
Navigating a new normal
The road to recovery for Thompson and his Sanibel shop, Suncatchers’ Dream, has been long, winding and messy.
Between the initial tear-out, prolonged insurance battles, permit applications and contractor shortages, his rebuild took five months longer than anticipated. All the while, he had no income coming in. He watched neighbors and other small business owners pack up and move away, too financially paralyzed to start anew on the barrier island.
But this year, the pieces have finally come together for Thompson. He moved back into his home in June. And in March, more than 18 months after Hurricane Ian, Suncatchers’ Dream reopened in its original structure.
Thompson is still working on finalizing his store and rebuilding his inventory. Using lessons learned from his losses, he’s planning to stock less merchandise at a time and to secure them better in future disasters. The chemistry and customers that he cultivated — that he loved — are slowly returning.
“I felt very strongly that I wasn’t done here,” he says. “No matter how long it took... I wanted to just keep working at it — to try to find a way back to this.”
Hurricane Ian came on the heels of unprecedented tourism in Florida after the onset of COVID-19. Visit Florida, the state’s marketing corporation, estimated that Florida welcomed 137.6 million visitors in 2022 — a record high at the time. That success was reflected in Lee County, where almost half of surveyed visitors stayed in Sanibel or Fort Myers Beach that year.
That stream of revenue, abruptly cut off due to the hurricane’s devastation, is slowly filtering back to the barrier islands. Both Fort Myers Beach and Sanibel are reporting higher levels of tourism as businesses open their doors once again.
About 83% of Sanibel and Captiva’s non-accommodations operations, like restaurants and retailers, are now welcoming guests, Lai says. The stream of visitors has picked up to about 7,500 a day this January, when tourist season typically peaks, creeping closer toward the pre-Hurricane Ian average of 11,000 daily guests.
Fort Myers Beach is slowly reopening, too. Liszak estimates about 65% of Estero Island’s bars and restaurants are open, many of which are operating out of temporary structures like food trucks or shipping containers, like Houghton’s La Ola Surfside Restaurant. It was among the first establishments to start serving food after the hurricane and likely the first to purchase a food truck just over a week after the storm.
Short-term rental capacity is the barrier islands’ biggest handicap now, local officials and business owners say. For every two hotel rooms or vacation rentals open on Fort Myers Beach, roughly three are still closed. On Sanibel, it’s closer to a one-to-three ratio. Those rooms and the tourists they could house are the lifeblood of the local economy — the key to bringing more money to the islands and their businesses that desperately need traffic.
Several areas on the islands still face power outages and lack operational equipment in the face of supply chain issues. Construction and renovation projects face a shortage of available contractors. And on top of all that, many residents are still battling insurance claims — especially flood insurance claims — two years after their property was destroyed.
Insured losses from Hurricane Ian added up to $21.4 billion from nearly 777,000 total reported claims, according to the Florida Office of Insurance Regulation. As of April, 6.3% of those claims had not been closed yet. Of the closed claims, a quarter did not result in any payment.
Some home and business owners are pursuing litigation over their insurance claims. Earlier this year, the Office of Insurance Regulation issued Tampa-based Heritage Insurance — one of the state’s largest homeowners insurance companies — a $1 million fine for its slow and improper response to claims after Hurricane Ian.
Without capital from insurance — totaling tens of millions of dollars for some properties — some owners in Sanibel or Fort Myers Beach can’t afford to rebuild yet. Lai suspects that’s what has prevented some condos and resorts from rebuilding, tying up hundreds of rooms that could house paying visitors. That delay pushes a full recovery back even further.
Despite the struggles, the barrier islands want the public to know one thing for sure: They are welcoming visitors with open arms.
“We are very much open to business right now,” Lai says. “We’re going to make sure that we are beginning to set the expectations of the public as to what they can expect when they get here ... so that we can put this community back on its feet as quickly as possible.”
Coastal Contrast
Fort Myers Beach and Sanibel, although neighboring barrier islands, are separated by a $20,000-plus gap in median household income. Two of every five houses on Sanibel are valued above $1 million, according to the 2022 American Community Survey. On Fort Myers Beach, 90% of homes are under the $1 million mark. Both communities are comprised of residents near retirement age.
Financial Assistance
Rebuilding after disaster comes with a hefty price tag, especially when doing so resiliently. Elevating living or working spaces above flood threats can cost $200,000 or more on top of other rebuilding costs, depending on the size and type of the property. Thicker concrete walls require additional funding, as does retrofitting buildings to face hurricane-level winds.
Here are some funding resources dedicated to post-Hurricane Ian recovery:
- FEMA*
$1,149,864,326 – Individual & Households Program dollars approved
$2,276,643,323 – Public Assistance Grants Program dollars obligated
$18,849,853 – Hazard Mitigation Grant Program dollars obligated
- U.S. Small Business Administration*
$804,493,677 – Economic injury and physical loans dispersed
- U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development
$910,624,000 – Community Development Block Grant - Disaster Recovery
- State Funds
$338,000,000 – Hurricane Recovery Program
$61,054,500 – Florida Disaster Fund
$50,000,000 – Florida Small Business Emergency Bridge Loan Program
Sources: Volunteer Florida, state press releases, Florida Department of Commerce, Florida Division of Emergency Management, FEMA
*Note: Totals include nationwide funds dedicated for Hurricane Ian recovery.
Tracking Tourist Taxes
Lee County’s tourist taxes — a 5% tax on accommodations rented for 6 months or less — nearly halved between fiscal years 2021-22 and 2022-23 after Hurricane Ian hit. However, county collections are steadily recovering this year.
Sanibel Causeway
A three-mile causeway stretching over the San Carlos Bay is Sanibel’s only connection to the mainland. That link was fractured after Hurricane Ian, when the islands connecting the series of bridges suffered seven breaches due to storm surge.
“Boy, that was a wake-up call,” says Sanibel Mayor Richard Johnson. “It’s vitally important to have that link to the mainland.”
Initial estimates projected that the Sanibel Causeway would reopen 12 months post-Hurricane Ian, he says, leaving first responders and residents to rely on boats to access the barrier island.
Thanks to the Florida Department of Transportation and contractors Superior Construction and de Moya Group, a temporary roadway was constructed in 15 days. The temporary repairs required over a hundred crews, four barges, five boats, two dredges, seven cranes and more than 10,000 loads of dirt, rocks and asphalt. Officials in the area credited Gov. Ron DeSantis for prioritizing the repair and expediting the process.
Continued repairs are making the Sanibel Causeway more resilient to future storms. The roadway will be raised three feet higher and will be paired with an adjacent drainage system. Several layers of sheet pile walls — complete with a protective concrete cap — will help reinforce the causeway islands and bridges. Marine mattresses, or rock-filled containers, will be installed underground to help the islands absorb wave energy and stay intact.
Margaritaville Beach Resort
Among the newest developments in Fort Myers Beach is the Margaritaville Beach Resort — built on a slice of downtown acreage pummeled by 2004’s Hurricane Charley. It has 254 rooms, six restaurants and a public access beach club complete with frozen concoctions.
Minnesota-based developer TPI Hospitality first proposed the project in 2014. Residents clashed with the design, citing issues over its size and the traffic it would attract. The initial plans sank, says Liz Morris, the company’s director of sales and marketing in Florida.
After hosting focus groups, battling lawsuits and getting an updated plan approved by the town, the resort was finally under construction when Hurricane Ian hit. With its exterior walls complete and up to code, Margaritaville emerged relatively unscathed and opened to the public in December 2023 — nearly 10 years after it was first proposed.
It now provides about 450 jobs for locals and is one of the largest accommodations open to visitors on Estero Island following the hurricane.
“Fort Myers Beach’s community is a strong, resilient, honest, brutally loyal clientele. They love the island that they live on, and rightfully so,” Morris says. “People are scared of change. What we have been focused on and will continue to focus on is being a good neighbor, continuing to show people that we want to be a part of the community.”