FORT MYERS BEACH, Fla. — Margaritaville Resort in Fort Myers Beach has reopened its beach club after cleaning up from Hurricane Helene. The hurricane hit last Thursday, and while the resort seemed prepared, the Gulf of Mexico had other plans.
"The water started rushing in from the Gulf," said Marin Asher, the resort's Marketing and Communications Manager. "Pretty soon it was all the way over, and you could just see the sand kind of filling into the pool."
The team estimates that two to three million pounds of sand swept into the pool area, burying parts under three to four feet of sand. Staff from every department came together to help with the cleanup.
"We had people from every department... Everyone was all hands on deck," Asher said. "We just came in and did whatever we could do to prepare."
There's hope that future storms will have less impact, thanks to a beach renourishment project underway in Fort Myers Beach. The project is expected to widen the beach by about 150 feet, which should help reduce the amount of water reaching the buildings.
"When it's all said and done, we're going to have about 150 more feet of beach," Asher explained. "It's going to help that water crash a lot further out and hopefully keep the sand out of this area."
The Pink Shell Resort, where the beach renourishment has already been completed, shared photos showing less damage after Hurricane Helene.
They were able to remove all the sand in just two days, compared to the eight days it took for Margaritaville.
Now that the resort's beach club is open again, Margaritaville is hosting a "Welcome Back Weekend" to invite people back to the beach. Resort representatives are also looking into other ways to keep water and sand out, such as plexiglass and flood walls, but they are hopeful that the beach renourishment project will make the difference.
