Fort Myers beach ‘no longer exists’ as popular tourist getaway destroyed by Hurricane Ian

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Fort Myers Beach “no longer exists” after Hurricane Ian ripped through the town last week causing irreversible damage.

Florida’s Senator Marco Rubio said in a sombre interview on ABC’s This Week yesterday (2 October) that the town “will have to be rebuilt”, the Daily Mail reported.

He stated that “Fort Myers Beach no longer exists” as it was hit so badly by the storm, which has been likened to an ‘A-bomb’. Of plans to rebuild, Rubio added: “It’ll be something different. It was a slice of old Florida that you can’t recapture.”

The hurricane struck parts of southwest Florida on Wednesday last week (28 October), flooding homes and businesses, before ripping through Florida’s middle and upper regions. Winds of around 150mph hit the southwest coast, cutting power for over two million people.

But popular tourist destination Fort Myers was among the most seriously affected, with dozens of residents left stranded and in need of rescue and floods sweeping the city. Of the 87 reported deaths, 35 were in Florida, and another 11 in its neighbouring counties.

A further 10,000 people remain unaccounted for, but it is believed that many are safe and without power. Rescues are still underway for those citizens in flooded areas.

Federal Emergency Management Agency Administrator Deanne Criswell, who joined Rubio on This Week, said: “There is a lot of devastation. Significant damage in the point of impact on the west coast of Florida.”

She added: “I spent the whole day with Gov. DeSantis on Friday and wanted to really hear what his concerns were and what resources he might need to help support this. I committed to him that we would continue to bring in resources to meet the needs, not just for this response and the stabilisation but as they go into the recovery efforts.”

The cost of repairing the damage is predicted to come in at between $28 and $47bn, making it the costliest storm in Florida since 1992, Skift reports.

The storm has been referred to as a Category 4 hurricane, and is one of only 15 storms of this scale to hit the state. Speaking of Hurricane Ian’s scale, Rubio noted: “I don’t think it has a comparison, not in Florida.”