What's the damage in Sanibel?
 

I think I must have missed it on the news -- was there a lot of hurricane damage in the Sanibel/Captiva area?

We're supposed to go there to visit friends in Sep. but have no clue about the status of those islands.

Anyone have an update?

The hurricane basically cut a 400 yard swath right through the island. The Sanibel Causeway was declared safe, but many many homes are damaged and debris is everywhere. I am sure it will be nowhere near "normal" anytime soon.

This info is from family living in the area. We were finally able to get a hold of them last night via cell phone.

My grandparents live on Sanibel Island. The initial estimate is $175,000 damage to their house. State Farm has been by to see it. They still aren't allowed in and my grandmother is a wreck.

That last statement about cutting a 400 yard swath is WRONG. No new swath was cut through Sanibel Island. There was a new channel cut by the storm through Upper Captiva -- a whole separate island which was not connected to Sanibel and Captiva anyway.
But there is extensive damage. At this point even residents are still not being allowed onto the island due to the danger -- many live electric lines down and debris blocking roads. There is no firm estimate of when they will regain power, but it will be at least a week -- probably more.
The closer to the beach and the further north, the worse the damage, but generally speaking nearly every building right along the beach has some damage, either windows blown out (which of course also means water damage) and some or all of the roof blown off, to major structural damage.
There is incredible landscape damage --thousands and thousands of trees uprooted or snapped off.

I honestly can't imagine visiting Sanibel in September for a "vacation". It will be like a war zone for some months to come.

Patrick, a "swath" isn't a new channel, it's a path of destruction.

Yes, but that doesn't describe what happened on Sanibel. The eye that cut a "swath" was north of there. And I suspect the confusion was caused by the new channel which was cut by Charley is 400 yards wide -- through Upper Captiva Island -- so I suspect that's what Mazey was referring to, and had probably misunderstood the original location. When people hear the word "Captiva" they usually assume it means the same as "Sanibel" or the semi-joined islands of Sanibel and Captiva (which incidentally were divided by Hurrican Donna in 1960 when a similar new channel was created, and a bridge was built to link them back together.

Check out nbc-2.com for close up aerial views of Captiva and Sanibel ... It looks really bad. I think a September trip would definitely need to be canceled. Lots of severe property damage on both islands; many, many trees destroyed; it looks like the storm surge was pretty bad also. It will take a long, long time to clean up those islands, and many, many years for the vegetation to come back. I heard that because the ground is so saturated now with salt from the sea surge, that some types of vegetation will not be possible for a long time as well.

Here's an update page on Sanibel. No power or water. No one is allowed on the island. The photos look pretty bad.

http://www.mysanibel.com/

Thanks to all who replied. Sorry to hear the the news -- for a lot of reasons other than my (inconsequential) proposed trip.

Here's hopjng to a speedy recovery for Sanibel and the other stricken areas.

I too had reservations for Sanibel in September. I was planning on spending most of my time in Ding Darling - I'm an avid birder/naturalist/photographer- Can anyone tell me how I can find out how the wildlife refuge has fared?
Thanks. So so sad!

This from my earlier post under "Resource..."

Check the Ft Myers News Press,
<http://www.news-press.com/index.html>
-- I went to the site, and they seem to be doing a stellar job of providing information. They are also updating frequently as news becomes available -- kudos to them doing this with no electrical grid, they must have been well prepared.

I notice they have a link there for "forums", so you might be able to ask about the refuge. We wondered about Ding Darling too, and about all the creatures being cared for by CROW.

I live on Sanibel Island and we were able to return to the island yesterday. From what I saw of the island things were certainly bad, but not devastated. The roads I were on were completely clear, electricity and water have been restored to parts of the island.

Swimchick-my understanding was that South Seas Plantation on Captiva, as well as private homes on SanCap suffered little to no damage. It should be up and running for business shortly.

City officials have indicated that while many homes on Sanibel have sustained roof damage, that no roofs were completely destroyed and that no structure was flattened on our island.

The progress that has already been made is amazing. For those of you who know the island Bailey's is up and running with full power; the Lazy Flamingo is open.

SwimChick, I heard rumors (a boat captain there talking to a boat captain here in Tampa, so...) about South Seas and Tween Waters, and it wasn't that they weren't damaged. Do you know any more?

Swimchick, glad you're ok. My parents live in Ft Myers Beach and also had little damage, though they have a first floor walkout and no hurricane insurance. (They're both crazy and lucky).

Any word on Cabbage Key? Hard to believe the main building would survive a hurricane!
Thanks much.

I've heard that Tween Waters and South Seas got hit hard. This from newsies who took boats to the island.

We have a business on Captiva and our understanding is that we will be able to access that island today. You know, I've heard that South Seas was hit hard, and then I've heard that it wasn't. I will post when I have news.

They've shown a lot of aerial views of South Seas Plantation on local TV. A lot of the buildings have roofs partially torn off and there were a lot of windows broken out, but certainly no building leveled or even close to that. Of course, that doesn't mean that the rain and wind haven't caused really significant damage to the buildings. A week without air conditioning and soggy drywall means you really need to gut the apartment.

I work for an aerial photography company and we flew down South Tuesday to photograph our clients sites that were damaged. We also made a side trip & took lots of pics of Sanibel & Captiva. Although those two did sustain damage, it was not as extensive as I first thought it would be. 'Tween Waters has one bldg with roof damage, and South Seas has several with roof damage plus all of them have lots of debris strewn around. The areas we shot around Punta Gorda were much, much worse.