Fort Myers city leaders discuss long and short-term solutions to Caloosahatchee River flooding

It’s no secret… after any major storm areas near the Caloosahatchee River take on water.

The storm surge from the Caloosahatchee River was so bad that Michael Griffin with River Garden Condominiums said it took two years before they could fully open the bottom floor of the property to residents.

“Our first floor throughout, pretty much the whole complex was wiped out. We had to gut the entire every unit, pretty much in the whole development, and we’re just now, almost more than two years later, are back open again and these places are finally habitable,” Griffin said.

It’s a storm that hit in 2022 but they’re still dealing with the impacts at the end of 2024.

“We just got appliances back in our unit just last week, so you couldn’t stay, you couldn’t live in them. We had to rebuild every unit. So, it’s been two years of paying taxes, insurance and maintenance, you know, per month at the property, but not being able to use it at all.”

It’s a problem that spans back over a decade. It’s an issue city leaders are aware of which is why they discussed possible long and short-term solutions at a workshop Monday.

Two of those solutions include grants that will help raise the seawall.

“For the two main seawall elevation projects, those do look like they will be recommended to FEMA and based on where they are with the county’s priority list, it does look like they’re likely to be funded. So that’s about $31 million of potential seawall elevation funding.” Jessica McElwee, the Director of Grants and Special Projects division for the city of Fort Myers said.

Those projects look at raising the seawall from Billy’s Creek to Edison Ford Winter Estates and then from the Edison Ford Winter Estates to the midpoint bridge for a total of over $31M in grants. Marty Lawing, the city manager did mention with permitting, environmental studies, and design and construction, it could take 5-10 years before this is completed. Lawing highlighted the need for further research and potential funding sources. Concerns were raised about the elevation of certain areas and the challenges of implementing new solutions which will be discussed by city leaders at a later date.

In terms of short-term solutions, the city proposed having each business set up temporary barriers that they can remove, and backflow filters for Dean Park to prevent flooding ahead of the next storm.

Solutions people like Griffin are on board for.

“We have to take this seriously. If there’s things that we can do to mitigate that, I think, you know, we should do whatever we can,” Griffin said.