Woman finds pictures across Bonita after Ian, looking for owners

A woman found family mementos on Bonita Beach but doesn’t know who they belong to. People save all sorts of gifts and mementos like birthday cards because of the personalized note left by your relative or your friend. “The signatures, the specialness of these cards,” Bonita resident Beata Lieders said. We save pictures to remember […]

Tuesday’s Child, a boat a couple called home, sank after Ian

A Vietnam veteran and his wife are putting the pieces of their lives back together after Hurricane Ian. They lived full-time on a boat docked at the Legacy Harbour Marina in Fort Myers, which Ian destroyed. People who live on their boats no longer have a place to call home. In the boating world, nobody […]

Southern bridges passable opening up the barrier islands in SWFL

Fort Myers Beach is now open to everyone since the southern bridges are now passable. The bridges opened on Wednesday for the first time since the storm and it’s all happening while clean-up and recovery are in full force in Southwest Florida. But, like many things, not everyone is happy about the opening. Driving to […]

Researchers inspect Gulf water on seven-day voyage

When exactly will our water be safe, allowing people to return to the beaches in Southwest Florida? Researchers are about to set sail on a seven-day trip to discover what the hurricane did to the Gulf waters. The W/T Hogarth is a 78-foot research vessel that’s owned and operated by the Florida Institute of Oceanography. […]

Group of kids in Amsterdam helps couple in SWFL impacted by Ian with bake sale

A couple whose home was devastated by Hurricane Ian got a bit of help from a group of kids on the other side of the world. Lori and Andy Sievert lost everything in Hurricane Ian, even the belongings of their son who passed from cancer when he was just 9-years-old. After the hurricane, they slept […]

Cape Coral continues picking up the pieces left behind by Ian

A couple is sleeping on a pool table after Hurricane Ian passed by their home in Southwest Cape Coral. Stephen Weir is making progress while he works to fix up his home for the past 27 years in Cape Coral. The roof of Weir’s home was torn up and walls ripped off from where they […]

Lee County Commissioners move forward with new clean-up contract

Getting all the debris off the streets will not be cheap and on Tuesday, in a split decision, Lee County Commissioners decided to move forward with a clean-up contract. WINK News recently reported this comes with a fair amount of questions. Particularly, one item, where the cost to haul waste out of town spiked from […]

Businesses in SWFL looking to recover after Ian

Shops and restaurants were severely damaged by Hurricane Ian, and one of the locations hit very badly was Fisherman’s Wharf near Fort Myers Beach. Business owners in the area are heartbroken watching all the time and energy they put into the businesses literally get washed away. We’ve seen all the damage to peoples’ homes, but […]

How the SWFL tourism season might take a hit after Ian

One of the big driving forces behind Southwest Florida’s economy is the season, which is rapidly approaching. Many destination cities are still reeling from Hurricane Ian making life a bit different lately in Southwest Florida. Paul Beirnes is the executive director of the Everglades Convention Visitors Bureau in Naples and Marco Island and he shared […]

Officials voting on $40-per-mile debris cleanup cost Tuesday morning

Tuesday county leaders are expected to vote on a nearly 80,000% increase for a portion of possible storm clean-up. Lee County’s original contract from 2017 shows it costs five cents a mile to take the debris out of the county. In the new contract being discussed on Tuesday, the cost jumps up to $40 a […]