Demolition acts as a breath of fresh air

Construction crews working on the roads and metal cranes picking up debris are the signs of progress for the people in Matlacha.

“It just makes you smile. Matlacha and Pine Island, they took a pretty hard hit from Hurricane Ian, and just to see the businesses and the residents of the islands come together and help each other. It’s just amazing,” said Stacy Artis, general manager of Matlacha on Shoreview Waterfront Vacation Rentals.

It’s been a long time coming.

Carrie Grainger, the owner of Barnhill Seafood Market and More, said she feels like Hurricane Ian just happened yesterday.

“After the storm, the best way I would describe it almost felt like it was a war zone. Because everyone was just kind of in shock. Like what do you do now?” said Grainger. “Our home was flooded. So, I lost my home in the storm. And then, with not having a bridge, our work and home were both down at the same time.”

For 20 months, the community came together.

Rebuilding on their own the best they could while crews continued to work demolishing the destroyed home and repairing their bridge.

“People who didn’t see it right after come in, and they’re like, ‘Oh, there’s still houses that aren’t cleaned up. Your road is still being worked on.’ It’s been two years, but it’s been two years, but we’ve accomplished a lot in two years,” said Grainger.

Hurricane Ian didn’t stop Grainger from reopening her market weeks later.

It’s like her grandfather said: “‘You can’t worry about what happened yesterday, you got to just keep going,'” said Grainger. “And that’s what we did. We know we had to get kind of get life back. And any sense of normalcy for any of us is I think what we needed. And I think that’s what everyone in the community was just trying to do.”