Now what? Rebuild or leave? If history is any judge, Floridians will stay and adapt. After the Junkanoo on the Beach – a legendary restaurant and bar on Fort Myers Beach – was levelled, its owner immediately pledged that he would rebuild and do it better. That’s not a rare response fromFloridians, who accept summer storms as part of the package. In fact, since the onslaught of the eight-hurricane “nightmare years” of 2004/2005, Florida’s population has continued to race ahead: going from 17.8 million in 2005, to about 22 million currently. Leaving does not seem to be a favoured option. But learning from adversity does, and that’s what keeps Florida moving ahead. In 1992, Hurricane Andrew raced westward from the Atlantic into south Miami-Dade County with 165 mph wind speeds, the strongest andmost damaging since the 1935 Labour Day storm (185 mph peak winds) that killedmore than 400 labourers building the overseas highway from the mainland to KeyWest. Andrewwas small, tightly coiled, and it cut a swath of devastation straight through to Homestead and Florida City, completely destroying more than 50,000 houses, damaging more than 100,000 others and destroying 99 per cent of the mobile homes that stood in its path. The devastation was as complete as it could be – the costliest ever in Florida, estimated at US$26 billion ($50 billion today) and taking 43 lives. I visited the site within a few days of Andrew’s passage and no streets were discernible for rubble, houses were completely sheared from their solid concrete foundations and, along a clear east-to-west line of sight, it appeared as if some giant reaper had gleaned a field of corn. Taking lessons from Andrew, government leaders at state and municipal levels, guided by structural engineers and their peers, devised and implemented the toughest building codes in the country requiring all newly built structures to withstand hurricane force winds and applied the standards to rebuilds, replacements and refurbishments. The lesson paid off: after Ian tore through Punta Gorda, many evacuated residents who had been watching TV or social media reports of damaged properties and debris left behind were astonished when they returned home to see only minimal exterior damage to their dwellings. One such resident told local media, “I can’t believe all these homes are still standing.” It was clear that homes built and refurbished to the new codes have consistently fared better during hurricanes and other storms than older homes. Another survivor of Ian reportedly referred to Andrew as being “like a spring-cleaning event.” Still, hurricanes have erratic footprints and residents of homes left standing on one street, can sometimes see neighbours’ homes a block away knocked off of their foundations. For survivors intending to stay put, or for newbies planning long-term commitments to Florida living, the pluses and minuses of RVs, mobile homes (with or without wheels), manufactured homes (built whole in factories or assembled on site) or traditionally built dwellings constructed from the ground up, are important variables to consider. So is location, as much of Florida is low lying, with many communities built on sand, silt, vegetation and gravel soils compacted from previous storms. And, in their quest for more land upon which to build dwellings and businesses to accommodate incoming residents, developers have pushed deeper into floodplain areas to meet demand, especially so in the southwest coastal area, much of which is at virtual sea level. Fort Myers Beach’s main thoroughfare, Estero Blvd., is but one metre above sea level in some places. Special Report Punta Gorda 20 | www.snowbirds.org
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MzMzNzMx