SANIBEL, Fla. — Like many of us in Southwest Florida, the islands of Sanibel and Captiva were covered in Hurricane Helene’s damaging storm surge Thursday night.
Right at noon on Friday the Sanibel Causeway opened back up, but city officials are saying that if you don't need to be on the island this is not the time visit; let them clean up and then you can enjoy the beach.
"We still have flooding,” said Mayor of Sanibel Richard Johnson. “We are still doing emergency recoveries at this point."
Mayor Johnson Held a press conference Friday after nearly 3 feet of storm surge flooded the island. He asked people not to come to the island to go sightseeing. City Spokesman Eric Jackson says surge left some spots impassable.
"There were lots of places, intersections, main arteries, that you could not get through with a regular passenger car," said Jackson.
So, Meteorologist Andrew Shipley went over as soon as the causeway opened back up, so you didn't have to.
First stop, the Sanibel Lighthouse. It's still standing. But the beaches remain closed.
That's also where we found a family from Delaware visiting the island.
"Not as bad as I anticipated,” said Dave Colleran. “The building we are in is masonry. We didn't hear the wind too much, but flooding was a lot worse than we thought."
"Around 5 o'clock it was getting a little worrisome with the tide coming up,” said Jake Colleran. “It was at least 3 or 4 feet in the evening."
The aftermath of surge water was everywhere on the island, from boats knocked off their lifts to neighborhoods still full of surge waters.
As we headed up Periwinkle Way, flood waters still covered parts of the road, including in front of the well-known Jerry's Grocery Store.
As we continued up Periwinkle and on Sanibel Captiva Road, we saw more flooded roadways and flooded out neighborhoods. The city of Sanibel told me a number of homes were intruded by flood waters.
At blind pass, another road closure, as folks try to get back to Captiva, as well as a wall of sand.
That sand was washed up from Helene’s surge, similar to what happened at Fort Myers Beach, piling up in front of a home. Even the for sale sign out front was nearly covered.
Right along the gulf, an eroded sea wall, which likely protected the roadway. With the road closure, we didn't make it all the way to Captiva, but Blind Pass opened later in the day.
And while we all want to get back to the fun, the city of Sanibel says give them a few days.
"It's going to take some time,” said Jackson. “Let the crews finish what we need to do to get us back in shape. Also, all of our beach parking lots are closed."
Jackson says it could be a few days before those beaches are back open and will likely open in stages.
