Sen. Rick Scott tours Cape Coral to see progress after Ian

U.S. Sen. Rick Scott visited Southwest Florida to see recovery efforts after Hurricane Ian slammed through the area.

Scott, a Republican, visited Cape Coral to receive an update from the city’s mayor, John Gunter, and other city officials on the community’s efforts to recover from Hurricane Ian. They meet at the Yacht Club Park.

There was plenty of damage to see, and it was impossible to miss. The yacht club is still closed off.

Senator Scott’s visit aimed to see what the federal government could do to help those still recovering nearly four months after the storm.

Cape Coral Mayor John Gunter, Lee County Commissioner Brian Hamman, and other city and county officials joined the senator.

When he spoke, Scott emphasized FEMA must be a good partner when working with the governor’s office.

WINK News asked the senator, who has been making trips to other parts of Southwest Florida, what stood out to him on his visit to Cape Coral.

“What you feel sorry for is that you know not everything is going to be covered by insurance. So they’re struggling, and you know all the contractors are busy, right? So it’s hard to get people in to fix things,” said Scott.

WINK News also asked the senator if the federal government is doing enough to help.

“Everybody would like their house back in a day. So but I know everybody is working hard. And the nice thing about Florida, people are resilient, work together well we’ve been through hurricanes. We just take when Ian hit you had emergency management from all over the state firemen and women from all over the state police FEMA. Everybody shows up, but you got to keep it up because you drive around the neighborhood, you see there’s a lot of work to do.”

Scott said debris still needs to be picked up in Cape Coral and work needs to be done with insurance companies to get contractors in, and it takes time to rebuild everything.