How the South Seas Resort in Captiva is recovering after Milton

With 95% of the electricity on Sanibel and Captiva restored, recovery efforts have shifted from fixing power to cleaning up the damage left by Hurricane Milton.

At the South Seas Resort in Captiva, dozens of crews are working hard to restore power, remove trees and clear roads.

According to South Seas General Manager Shawn Farrell, the resort was left with substantial damage in the wake of Hurricane Milton.

“We saw a significant amount of storm surge in our marina and all the backfill behind the sea wall, so we knew that that was significant,” said Farrell.

Taking in the sight of the scattered debris, tall piles of sand, blown-out walls and washed-out buildings was difficult.

“As we’re here recovering from Ian, then Helene had another little impact, and we got hit (again). Milton came in, and we had significant storm surge throughout the resort,” said Farrell.

While the damage can leave those affected feeling helpless, recovery efforts are keeping spirits high.

“The fire department was out there kind of doing their thing. It’s like, ‘OK, they’re out here doing it. We got this. We know what it is,’” said Farrell.

Farrell is especially grateful for the work done by the Lee County Electric Cooperative to restore power in Captiva.

“LCEC did an amazing job. They started powering stuff up yesterday to make sure the space is safe, then get the teams in there and assess what the real damage is,” said Farrell.

Though South Seas will be closing its doors to focus on recovering, Farrell said the resort will not have another year-long closure like it did after Hurricane Ian.

“That’s just hard. Nobody wants to see employees not working,” said Farrell. “And, guests or owners, this is their special place. They should be able to come back and spend the special time there.”

Farrell said South Seas has already canceled reservations up to Nov. 26 and will keep guests updated as to when it will reopen.

As for the Starbucks and provision store on the property, Farrell said the goal and hope is to have those up and running by the end of the week.

“The focus is getting back up and operational,” Farrell explained. “We’ll have a food truck going so that we can support the workers that are out here doing that clean up and get that stuff going and then get our team back to work.”

Another piece of good news for the resort, the new-builds they’ve worked on since Ian made it through.

“They are so much more resilient. That stuff is still in place, and it’s just got some sand and surge on it,” Farrell said. “… As long as we’re building it back the right way, we’ll get through all this stuff. We can work through that a cleanup for a week or so and then get back to work.”