Crews clean up Hurricane Ian mess at marina in downtown Fort Myers

Crews are working on finally clearing out the mess in a marina near downtown Fort Myers after Hurricane Ian.

On Wednesday, a big boat tossed ashore in the storm was moved back into the water.

There’s plenty of work to be done at Legacy Marina, and crews plan to be there all day on Thursday and Friday. People who live nearby told WINK News they’re happy to see the Hurricane Ian reminders finally disappear.

Hurricane Ian did considerable damage to Legacy Marina, but the marina became known as a boat graveyard since the storm. Wednesday, a huge sign of progress was when crane operators removed a huge barge.

“Good repairs, and then it’s supposed to go straight to work right here locally,” Craig Argo said.

Argo is the lead operator for Barcelona Equipment. His job is to remove boats sunken by the hurricane.

“Have anything to do with hoisting and lifting and that’s what we do. That’s what we’re good at,” Argo said.

Jim Harshbarger lives near the marina. He told WINK News the crane operators like Argo at work.

He told WINK News about the state of the marina.

“Very disruptive. And I think people have grown very, very tired of it,” Harshbarger said.

Likewise, Ross Webb, the founder of the Edison Sailing Center, offered similar thoughts.

“We’ve lost everything here, including our docks, and their equipment and everything else and our lift and hoist and, and so we’ll start rebuilding as soon as we can. But we got to get that other stuff off,” Webb said.

“The material that’s still out in the canal is still there. And nobody’s come through and cleaned up any of that yet, but the large carcasses of the demolish boats and disappeared for the most part,” Harshbarger said.

Webb founded the Edison Sailing Center 40 years ago, he told WINK News that he hopes to never have to deal with something like this again.

“Nothing as extreme like this hopefully, we’ll never have to do it again,” Webb said.

Webb told WINK News he should be able to resume his sailing classes and summer camp program in June if the cleanup goes as planned.

As for Argo, his crew has been taking apart the 600-ton crane used to move the barge back into the water.