Lee County learning lessons from Bay County’s Michael recovery

At times, coming back after Hurricane Ian may seem insurmountable.

But each day, as Southwest Florida continues its recovery, there are stories of hope.

There are more businesses reopening and people making progress on their homes and lives.

In 2018, Category 5 Hurricane Michael wiped out parts of the panhandle, delivering a devastating blow to Bay County.

“We went weeks without power,” said Bay County Commissioner Robert Carroll.

Despite the Hurricane hitting four years ago, just in the last two weeks, they received money from FEMA.

The images post-storm on Mexico Beach look similar to the aftermath of Ian on Sanibel and Fort Myers Beach.

WINK News reporter Gail Levy was on Mexico Beach when Michael hit. It was devastating, she said.

“You couldn’t even put words to it looking at it every day,” Levy said. “It was hard to grasp almost.”

Being on Fort Myers Beach after Ian passed, Levy said, it immediately reminded her of Mexico Beach.

Like the Sanibel Causeway, US-98, which goes along the coast, was washed out, Levy said.

Those similarities, in part, led Carroll to Lee County.

“We, on our own, drove down just to meet with your county commissioners, they’re your staff just, hey, we’re here to help,” Carroll said. “We’re here to give advice. We’ve been through this, and we’d love to help in any way. And they were open arms. So we were grateful to kind of pay it forward.”

Bay County offered insight and advice while also sharing the successful formula of its task force for recovery.

“By having the task force, we actually had a representative from each of our cities, from the school district and from the county that way, we all collaboratively work together. Because it didn’t matter what city you lived in, or an unincorporated, you still had a housing need,” Carroll said. “You still had to get our businesses back in online. And so we as we basically came together as one community.”

Bay County identified more than 300 projects, including hardening existing infrastructure and building new fire stations and community centers, Carroll said.

Lee commissioners hope to do the same with the county’s newly approved task force, building off the community’s drive, determination and resilience.

“It’s a hard and hardworking community down here,” said Smokin’ Oyster Brewery Chef Reid Freeman.”You know, we like to party hard, but we also work hard. So, it’s gonna get cleaned up. Take time, like everything, but we’ll be back up, you know, all these old favorites around here. There’ll be back eventually. It’s going to take a long time, though.”