SANIBEL, Fla. — Fox 4 Meteorologist Andrew Shipley got a first look on the ground at Sanibel after Hurricane Milton. Many of side streets are still covered from Milton’s surge. The island received somewhere between 3 to 5 feet surge.
Nearly 48 hours after Hurricane Milton made landfall along Florida's gulf coast, the Sanibel causeway was reopened to the public. And like Shipley did right after Hurricane Helene, he traveled to the island to get a look post-storm. And what he found surprised him.
Unlike when he returned to island after Hurricane Helene, you could see periwinkle, no longer covered in flood waters. But still many of the side streets off periwinkle were covered in flood waters.
One example is off Jamaica Drive. The surge waters were still covering the road and inundated some of the homes. The same homes that were flooded two weeks ago during Helene. Despite back-to-back storms, Councilmember and former Mayor Holly Smith says the city has a sense of optimism.
“I think we were very fortunate,” said Smith. “This community has seen a lot worse. And I think this community was so anxious as we always compare things to Ian. And I can tell you with a big ole smile on my face this is not Ian. And I know we are only 48 hours past this storm, but I know we are moving at a pace that is much faster.”
And that faster pace is already being seen with places like Blind Pass, which is already open to traffic despite being undermined by Helene and now Milton's storm surge. Shipley was able to cross the pass onto Captiva and saw some damaged vegetation along the roadways. But further down, the road crews are still digging out sand covered roads and fixing a buckled Captiva Drive.
Across both islands, power crews were everywhere. The City of Sanibel tells me that LCEC was able to restore the substation on the island on Friday, the first step to restoring power. As Friday afternoon, 99% of Sanibel and Captiva were still without power. But when will power be restored? It is the number one question Councilmember Smith is getting from residents.
“Everyone is working very hard to get that power on,” said Smith. I think it was very encouraging listening to LCEC today, to tell us that the substation is going to be powered up and that we can now start looking at the zones. But the Mayor said something very important. I think our citizens on Sanibel need to hear this and anyone who has an outage. Someone is going to first and somebody is going to last.”
As power crews work to turn the lights on, the City of Sanibel also says that they need the power to be on for two days before they can get the sewer system running. And due to the power outages, Sanibel Police has issued a curfew of 9pm to 6am.
One more note, the Sanibel Lighthouse is still standing, our shining light that we will recover once more.
