Aftermath
Below shows some photos from before the storm when we were here last year, the aftermath upon my arrival and progress to date. I tried to line up photos so they show the same perspective, but I hadn’t planned on documenting the state of the yard before I left in March. Plus, the yard was so unrecognizable upon my arrival, that I had a hard time placing locations of the damage pics after I took them.
But first, my son’s return home from his evacuation location the day after the hurricane…
The kids evacuated to inland Naples at the last minute after I convinced a newly opened AirBnB to accept them and their dogs despite me making (and paying for) the reservation. The whole process was very anxiety producing as all hotels were full by that point and a friend in Clearwater already had a full house of evacuees. They absolutely could not stay due to the potential 18′ surge predicted (that didn’t hit us, but did hit Fort Myers Beach). The next day, this scene greeted them upon returning home. The flooding is from the rain, not the river, which did flood badly upriver from the house. I’m still not sure how we were spared.
Below is half of the back yard (the middle yard?), which is between the back of the house and the river yard section. The first pic was taken in September 2021 largely because the yard flooded after a downpour (and the cute dog). The middle pic is immediately after Ian. The 3rd pic is my cute dog and how it looks today after cleanup. This is where I park our van while “living in a van down by the river” 🙂 It’s currently parked on a mound where I had a lightning struck tree removed last year because it’s somewhat elevated from yard flooding and not under any trees as there’s another storm, Nicole, headed this way overnight. (I’m not terribly worried about Nicole).
