Cleaning up the Fort Myers Yacht Basin

Many people hope the boats along the Caloosahatchee River in Fort Myers are cleaned up. But they aren’t all destroyed, and some still want to call the houseboats home.

Liveaboards are still not allowed to stay at the Fort Myers Yacht Basin, but they are allowed to come to collect their belongings.

Wayne Overly made the decision to stay on his boat when Hurricane Ian ravaged Southwest Florida.

“It was the most horrible experience,” Overly said. “You think you’re gonna die. And the one thing I can actually tell anybody is when they say a storm is coming, don’t stay on your boat.

Overly said he is lucky to be alive and lucky his boat survived, too, but others were not as fortunate.

“It was definitely the worst thing I’ve ever seen in my life,” Overly said. “And, like, you can see the damage behind me. Caused a lot of hardship. A lot of people live on their boats that are pretty distraught over that, you know; pretty, pretty hard for everybody in the whole area,” Overly said.

Boats were destroyed and sunken, and the yacht basin was left with no running water or electricity, with fuel in the water exposed.

It’s not safe to live there.

Overly is staying with friends, but others don’t have anywhere to go and are upset they can’t stay at the yacht basin. The city did provide them with open shelters they can go to in the meantime, as experts assess all the damage and make a more permanent plan for those who call the yacht basin home.

The clean-up is well underway. Those who have boats at the Fort Myers Yacht Basin are working with insurance companies. There are two cranes working on getting the boats out of the water, patching them up to prevent them from taking on any more water and getting them floating again. Then they will get towed to a nearby boatyard.