Damage costs in Collier County from Hurricane Ian

Damage in Collier County left by Ian. (CREDIT: WINK News)

Collier County has given initial estimates for the impact of Hurricane Ian, with billions of dollars in losses and thousands of homes damaged.

WINK News discovered Hurricane Ian created approximately $2.2 billion in damages across Collier County, and most of that damage was in homes that were ripped apart. Ian also left 7,000 homes that need some level of repairs.

Russell Thomas lives in East Naples in Collier County, and his family lost almost everything in the storm.

“We went from having no water in the ditch across the street to having it come up to about three to four feet of water on the house within 20 minutes,” Thomas said.

Beno Rowe lives in Naples, where data shows the most damage occurred, costing more than $989 million.

“My wife said, ‘I thought you said there was no water!’ I walked out here and here comes the water! It just kept on rising,” Rowe said.

Thomas was relieved earlier this week when he saw crews hauling some of his debris off the sidewalk.

“They came and got some of our stuff, and I’m seeing them in the neighborhood, which is great,” Thomas said.

But Thomas knows Collier County will have to be patient before home truly looks and feels like home again.

“Countywide, we’ve had to wait a bit for pick up. But we do also understand the scale and magnitude of this disaster,” Thomas said.

And that reach is extensive. Marco Island had $256 million in damages and Everglades City was hit hard by Irma five years ago, suffering another $7 million in losses.

The data you can see below that shows damage numbers and prices is credited to Collier County.

City of Naples:

$989 million

22 homes destroyed, 2,645 damaged

Unincorporated Collier:

$948 million

8 homes destroyed, 3,892 damaged

Marco Island:

$256 million

262 damaged

Everglades City:

$7.1 million