Fort Myers Beach cleans up after Helene

For many, Fort Myers Beach has been the epicenter of hope and recovery after Hurricane Ian. Now, people are looking back at the island town again after Hurricane Helene.

Fort Myers Beach is no stranger to cleaning up.

Brian Thompson, who works at Yo! Taco in Times Square said Hurricane Ian and other storms taught them to be ready.

“This time around, I think we were a little bit better prepared,” said Thompson.

When Hurricane Helene passed through last week, rain and flooding damaged homes and businesses on Fort Myers Beach.

Thompson said he wasn’t surprised at all.

“We knew what to expect, which is exactly what we got. You know a lot of wind and sand,” said Thompson.

Thankfully, Yo! Taco had a plan.

“We got the trailer off, like you said, we took it off the island. No matter how much you prepare anything else, Mother Nature is going to do what she wants,” said Thompson. “So we come back to what we thought, and a tidy spot we had all tied together was all pulled apart. So we lost a few things, nothing major, but we were able to maintain it well enough to keep 90% of everything when we came back.”

Crews are out working on clearing the sand up and said that, hopefully, they will return to “normal” soon.

Other people WINK News spoke to who were visiting the beach said it wasn’t as nearly bad as Ian, but it was still sad to see the damage done.