WINK News asked if Isaacson would be going anywhere anytime soon. “The business community has really dug in and gotten things going quickly,” Isaacson said. So people like Keith Isaacson could sit down and enjoy a good meal again. It’s astounding to see,” Preece said.Īfter the cleanup, and less than two months after the storm hit, Cielo became the first restaurant to open on Sanibel. Everything was brown, the dirt, the mud everywhere. “Just getting dropped off and walking up and down Periwinkle. When he returned to the island, Preece didn’t know if his restaurant would even be standing. “One of our dumpsters floated out from his cage across the parking lot and was about 10 feet back in the trees,” Preece said. Since the Causeway is open, places like Cielo have sprung new life. It’s up to about 8,000 a day,” Marcus Preece, general manager of Cielo, said. That was construction workers, residence employees, and things like that. “There was about 5,500 cars coming on the island. 19, 2022, three weeks after Ian washed away two major parts of the Causeway, Desantis announced it would reopen to the public. “Two days later, they started digging that dirt, and four days later, they were able to get the power trucks over,” Councilmember Smith said.

It would be an understatement to say they went on a mission. We didn’t know… it could take months, it could take a year… we didn’t have a timeline, really,” Councilmember Smith said.

“In my conversations with the Governor, we were talking about having a Ferry. Smith, now the former Mayor of Sanibel, loved the governor’s idea but didn’t know how he could get it done. “He turned to me, and he said we’ve got to get that bridge built,” Councilmember Smith said. In the room, the Mayor of Sanibel at the time, Holly Smith, and Governor Ron DeSantis. “Seriously, whenever you say that, it still gives me chills,” Councilmember Holly Smith said.įriday, for perhaps the first time, we know what happened behind closed doors in the days after Hurricane Ian. The amount of traffic on Sanibel and the Causeway, rebuilt in less than a month after Ian, it’s clear that the people of Sanibel can, and will, do whatever it takes for their community.Īfter Hurricane Ian, many people wondered how Sanibel and its Causeway would come back and how long would it take? The remarkable grit and resolve of the people on Sanibel are evident after seeing how the island came back. Sanibel and Fort Myers Beach, in particular, since those communities became almost unrecognizable after overwhelming flooding, damage, and devastation. The Barrier Islands are an exemplary demonstration of that effort. Friday marks seven months since Hurricane Ian made landfall in Southwest Florida, and in that time, many people have gone the extra mile to help others in their community.

Sanibel flats