LCSO tours damage on Boca Grande after Milton

Reporter: Annalise Iraola
Published: Updated:

An island community was almost completely underwater after Hurricane Milton.

Now, the streets are caked with mud and lined with debris, but so much work is being done now to repair the island.

We went out on a ride-along with the Lee County Sheriff’s Office to assess recovery efforts on the island.

Sludge and debris are outside of so many businesses on Park Avenue, and a water line marks the height of the storm surge.

We spoke with Glenn Scarpa, owner of Scarpa’s Coastal, about Milton’s devastating impact on his restaurant.

We asked him what it was like when he first came into the restaurant after the storm.

“It was like a bomb went off, sludge, everything disheveled. We knew something was coming and we have, we’ve marked Helene, where that storm surge was, so we said, ‘OK, we’re going to put everything up on tables and try to minimize any, as much damage as we can,’ but it went up over the tables.”

Scarpa told us the biggest thing that keeps him going is his love for this community.

Now, businesses like his are scrambling to reopen before the season is over.

We’ll keep in touch with Scarpa and hope to get news soon about a reopening date and recovery efforts on the island.

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