Hurricane stories

The message to people hit hardest by Hurricane Ian on Fort Myers Beach is, knock it down we will rebuild.

Places like Fort Myers Beach and Sanibel, shaken to their foundations when Hurricane Ian swept through, can learn a lot from the rebuilding efforts in Mexico Beach after Hurricane Michael steamrolled the Bay County town in 2018.

Picking up all the pieces after a devastating storm like Ian can take a long time, and a large portion of Fort Myers Beach is still destroyed and needs to be rebuilt. But there is help out there. People are waiting in long lines getting drywall put back in their homes. 7,000 sheets of drywall […]

A popular restaurant in downtown Fort Myers is giving WINK News an exclusive look inside its new spot. Bruno’s shut down nine days before Hurricane Ian but then had to gut the entire place after the storm. The owners of Bruno’s told WINK News the new location would feature all of the exact special touches […]

Leaders in Charlotte County are transforming temporary sites into FEMA villages after the commission unanimously voted in favor of the FEMA villages. This comes despite a commissioner telling WINK News he didn’t want to create these villages because of all the crime they attracted after Hurricane Charley. As of Tuesday, there are still more than […]

The destruction of Ian cost so many people their homes or jobs in Southwest Florida, and it’s intensified the already massive affordable housing crisis. Social workers are out across Southwest Florida, completing what’s called a ‘pit’ count, which means counting the number of homeless people. The first goal is to estimate the number of homeless […]

Recovery efforts continue at Fort Myers Beach in the wake of Hurricane Ian. But some of the hardest-hit areas might be out of the line of sight. The North side of the island, if you make a right at the base of the bridge instead of a left, is still living in a world of […]

  Since Hurricane Ian, one woman, with the help of volunteers, has been distributing supplies to communities in desperate need. Nearly four months later, the unique circle neighborhood near San Carlos Park is still recovering from the storm. Most people are done with the cleanup phase and they’re progressing to the next step, rebuilding. Reminders […]

Trash is all over the place, the dock is still stuck in the mangroves, and things spread across the ground, making a beautiful area look less aesthetic after Hurricane Ian. The Tarpon Street Pier and Riverside Park were wrecked in the surge from Ian, and there has been no visible effort to clean or repair […]

Saint James City was hit hard by Hurricane Ian, and even in mid-January, the evidence can be seen everywhere. It’s not uncommon to see tents set up around the city or entire sides of buildings devasted by the storm. Many people living in Saint James City are waiting on help while they survive where they […]