PUNTA GORDA, Fla. — The Punta Gorda Boat Club building has sat on the city’s Harborwalk since 1962, now due to damage from Hurricane Milton, the building might need to be torn down.
“I had tears, little tears come down because its just like losing your home,” said Ruby Ryan, Commodore of the Punta Gorda Boat Club.
Watch Fox 4's Alex Orenczuk report on the Punta Gorda Boat Club:
Ryan told Fox 4 that like others in Southwest Florda, boat club members had just got their building cleaned up from Hurricane Helene, when Hurricane Milton hit.
“All our members worked so hard and got it all ready, really it just needed a paint job and we were waiting for air conditioners,” said Ryan. “Then Milton came in and did the job.”
The since the construction of the building, it has always been able to recover from hurricanes with repairs. But the damage from Milton was more extensive than anything the building had withstood in the past.
“We haven't experienced this storm surge before, it was wild,” said Don Saboe, the club’s Director of Publicity. “It busted out all our windows and doors and swept away everything into the harbor.”
The building is more than just a clubhouse too, several classes have been taught there, and it was rented out by other local community groups that were headquartered in the Bayfront Center next door, which was closed after Hurricane Ian.
Now the club’s approximately 300 members wait for word from FEMA on whether the building will fall into the agency’s 50% rule, if so, it will need to be torn down. Despite potentially losing the building, Ryan told Fox 4 the club itself won’t be going anywhere.
“We will survive, as the song says, we will survive because we’re the Punta Gorda Boat Club and we’ve been here for 74 years and we’re not going to give up,” said Ryan.
The club expects to hear FEMA’s decision later this week.
