Building Resilience: How Sanibel businesses recover from hurricanes

Operating a business in Sanibel is difficult enough; however, recovering can become a monumental feat when Mother Nature interferes.

Residents and business owners alike are familiar with how impactful hurricane flooding can be on the island, which inspires creative ways to deal with recovery.

Residents and business owners are encouraged to raise their buildings to better deal with floodwater.

While encouraged to do so, many face financial issues preventing them from building their properties upward.

WINK News anchor Lindsey Sablan spoke with Rachel Pierce, a Sanibel business owner, and Sue Van Oss, the director of communications at St. Michael and All Angels Church, about their recovery methods and how they can circumvent this issue.

Pierce’s art gallery cannot be raised, as it is made from concrete. However, Pierce creatively dealt with flood waters from the latest hurricane to hit the island.

“Someone comes in with a push broom and gets momentum of water going, and then other people take the squeegee and squeegee it out,” said Pierce. “This is an epoxy floor. You could drop a sledgehammer on it and not see any damage, so we did that on top of the concrete.”

In 2022, Hurricane Ian devastated Sanibel, flooding many homes and businesses. Van Oss faced nearly 5 feet of floodwater, forcing St. Micheal and All Angels Church to rebuild with resiliency in mind.

“We have a four-foot high oven. And when we installed it at Ian, people said, Wow, that’s a tall oven,” said Van Oss. “We intentionally replaced all of our kitchen equipment, all of the cabinets, everything after Ian, with stainless steel.”

Nearly everything inside the church is equipped with wheels, allowing for easier transportation. Now, Van Oss is looking to the future.

“Instead of drywall, use Dura Rock or other types of waterproof drywall. There are removable sections of drywall that you can use. There are flood barriers and flood dams,” said Van Oss.

The art gallery and St. Micheal and All Angels Church reopened 10 days after Hurricane Milton impacted Florida.