Fort Myers Beach family recovering after Hurricane Ian destroyed their home

It’s impressive to see just how far Fort Myers Beach has come since the devastation of Hurricane Ian.

But, of course, there’s still a lot of work to be done. That’s the case for Susan and Jasmine Haynes, who lost their Fort Myers Beach duplex to Ian.

“It was on pillars as well, but the thing is it took out the homes up– forward more, anyways– and it was a domino effect,” Jasmine said.

Their home wasn’t the only thing destroyed after the storm.

“It was heartbreaking,” Jasmine said. “Susan especially had everything that she cared about, stuff from her children. It was just everything she had left in life.”

Like many others on Fort Myers Beach, the Hayneses live in a trailer where their house used to be and are simply asking for a new home.

“We just want what we had, to be honest with you,” Susan said. “I mean, not asking for any more, any less.”

They plan on rebuilding it all. Just them, no contractors.

“We can do the foundation. We’re going to do, I mean, all the work, everything you need 100%,” Jasmine said. “Yes, luckily, I have an extensive background in electrical.”

They haven’t started just yet because, like so many others on Fort Myers Beach, they’ve run into permitting delays.

They hope, by this time next year, their new forever home will be just about done.

“All we want is the dream that we worked so hard for, to come back and be a part of the life that we wanted for ourselves,” Jasmine said, “and I must say it– there’s a lot of things that came up positive in this and all the neighborhoods, it is very, yeah, it’s very much closer than it ever was before.”

Jasmine and Susan said they wouldn’t be able to rebuild their duplex, so they drew up plans to build a two-story, single-family home.

And they believe Fort Myers Beach will get through this, one step at a time.