Following Irma, Bonita Springs community strives to rid area of excessive flooding

When Hurricane Irma struck Southwest Florida, Bonita Springs was already dealing with flood damage from days of relentless rain.

Several homes could only be accessed via boat for weeks, and some businesses were shut down for months.

However, nearly one year later, the river is flowing without debris thanks to a determined community.

“I gotta say, a year later you can barely tell it even happened,” said John Paeno, CGT Kayaks CEO.

Paeno has delt with struggle first hand.

“We were shut down till December,” Paeno said.

His business, CGT Kayaks in Bonita Springs, took a hard hit right after weeks of heavy rainfall, then Hurricane Irma.

The downtown area and homes along the Imperial River flooded out.

“We had issues with dumping of debris in different areas and we worked with the city so we got them out of the central part of the community,” Paeno said.

Nearly one year later, this community is standing strong on land, and on the water.

“City council and the City of Bonita Springs have figured out to do more with less,” said Bonita Springs Mayor Peter Simmons. “We continue to work for the citizens to help them recover from Irma.”

Simmons says they’ve been working to make sure the flooding we saw last year doesn’t happen again, without raising your taxes.

“We’re going to dig deep, we’re going to do more with less,” Simmons said.

Some are using clever ways to continue this community’s ongoing teamwork of recovery.

“If you rent a kayak, it’s normally an hour and a half rate, if you bring back one piece of trash, you get an extra half hour on the river,” said Aaron Thomas, a Calusa Waterkeeper ranger. “By doing that, we glean that river everyday of trash.”

That’s definitely a creative solution to getting rid of debris.

The city is working with the state to come up with better drainage systems for Bonita Springs.