Inside look at memorial honoring Hurricane Ian victims

At least 149 people died when Hurricane Ian washed onto Southwest Florida’s shores almost two years ago.

Now, a group of people in Fort Myers wants to honor those we lost.

“The community wanted to have the Hurricane Ian memorial in Fort Myers to honor the victims and the families and those that lost everything as well,” said Wendy White.

White works as a paralegal for the city and helped design what the memorial could look like.

She said the idea was brought to her by a Fort Myers man, Jason Schwartz, and his children.

“They reached out to their schoolmates to propose the idea of a memorial, and quickly, it kind of went viral, in a way, I mean, 300 signatures in the school,” said White.

Early renderings show an image of a wave, meant to show resiliency, outside a maintenance building in Centennial Park. The image will be accompanied by a plaque, bench and information about the storm surge in each county.

“The idea was to have a big impressionist wave that’s a flowing hurricane but also uplifting. So this [is a] space for hope,” said White.

While Fort Myers city council members said they certainly understand the desire for a memorial, not all of them are certain downtown Fort Myers is the right place for it.

“I know there’s people who want to kind of honor the experience that that people went through,” said Darla Bonk with the Fort Myers City Council. “The last thing I would want to do is do anything that would make Sanibel or Fort Myers Beach or our other partners just feel slighted.”

“There’s one thing for us to have a little bit of flooding and do repair to buildings, but it’s another thing to have your home washed completely off the island. And I don’t want to upstage them by having a memorial here,” said Fred Burson with the Fort Myers City Council.

Following the council’s recommendation, White and the rest of her group will ​present their idea to the public art committee, the county and other nearby groups for feedback.

But she’s hopeful something will come out of it.​

“I think it’s a brilliant idea, and I think it’s a great one, and I would like to see it happen and come to fruition, and I feel it will, and I would love the community support to make it happen,” said White.

Not everyone on the council was as wary of a memorial.

Councilman Liston Bochette said that clearly enough people want a memorial to bring it to the council’s attention.

He said that something should go up downtown. It’s just a matter of what and where.