Rebuilding and improving SWFL Barrier Islands

What is it going to take to rebuild our Barrier Islands so they can withstand another hurricane as strong as Ian? This is a simple, straightforward question that many in Southwest Florida are asking.

It’s also one of the Florida Building Commission is trying to answer.

The good news is, everyone WINK News spoke to from contractors to real estate experts to engineers agree it can and will be rebuilt. It’s just not going to look and feel like the Fort Myers Beach people knew about before the storm.

Joe Orlandini is a builder on Fort Myers Beach, he rode out the hurricane on the Barrier Island in a house he just finished building.

“I wanted to stay close to my projects, my properties, I wanted to be able to protect all the contents,” Orlandini said. “So I felt, decent decision, we get a foot, I can save it.”

But the storm turned out to be far more intense than Orlandini could have possibly imagined.

“We got 13 feet above sea level,” Orlandini said.

Seven and a half feet of stormwater washed through the ground floor. Orlandini and his two kids watched it all from behind hurricane-proof windows on the second floor.

“When we were in the house, right at the peak, you could actually open the door, and realize what you’re in and realize a cat five outside, but when you close the door, it feels like a typical thunderstorm with excessive wind,” Orlandini said.

But, it didn’t look like it, as neighbor’s homes and buildings began floating by.

“What I’m thinking is a piece of that wall came off, and part of the roof came off, you don’t realize that the whole building is gone,” Orlandini said. “Two hours go by, all of a sudden the buildings stop floating by.”

“What I then realized, when the pieces stopped coming by, there’s nothing left at the beach,” Orlandini said.

Orlandini said his building survived because it’s concrete from the ground to the roof.

“It’s definitely built with the ability to take that impact,” Orlandini said.

A hurricane-grade glass railing on the second floor was damaged, but that’s the worst damage Orlandini’s facing. It’s also something he noted that he would change in future builds.

“It was a railing that was pre-fabricated and put in place and it just probably wasn’t as ideal for the conditions,” Orlandini said.

Orlandini took WINK News through the devastation in his beloved neighborhood, and while he’s sad, he’s also confident in a strong redemption.

“Oh, without a doubt. We’re going to rebuild,” Orlandini said. “There’s no doubt we’re going to rebuild.”

The Florida Building Commission, responsible for developing and changing building codes is sponsoring a study to learn more about what did and didn’t survive the storm.

Professor David Prevatt, of the University of Florida’s Department of Civil and Coastal Engineering, is the principal investigator on the study.

“I suppose my research will show that rebuilding all the structures to the building code, the current building code, the seventh edition, and the next one to come, we’ll make it more resilient. Okay. But at the same time, placing all this treasure and resources right at the coastline means that we’re probably gonna have to give up something. All right. It is going to place the houses in a position where my it might be unaffordable for a certain level of the population. Is that what we want to see in Fort Myers? That’s a question for the Fort Myers community to answer for itself,” Prevatt said.

A question real estate expert Denny Grimes has been discussing with local agents.

“I mean, we’re talking there’s some people that did not have the right insurance, they may not have had flood insurance, and so the insurance proceeds will not allow them to rebuild. And so the silver lining, in my opinion, for those people, the people who own the land are going to benefit because the land will be more expensive than ever. Because now it’s like a brand new discovered Island is going to be recreated,” Grimes said.

While some businesses won’t be able to afford to rebuild, Grimes thinks new businesses will take their place to meet the demands of the people who will live and visit Fort Myers Beach in the future.