Hurricane Milton damaged homes, devastated beaches in Bonita Springs

Hurricane Milton’s water and winds damaged about 1,300 homes in Bonita Springs, destroying beaches.

The worst damage from the recent storm was in four areas: Hickory Island, Spring Creek, Imperial Shores and the corridor from West Terry Street to Pennsylvania Avenue, west of Old 41 Road, near the Imperial River.

Milton made landfall near Siesta Key in Sarasota County as a powerful Category 3 storm on October 9 with a devastating impact. Its punches were felt far and wide before and after impact, with an outlet on Florida’s east coast.

The City Council heard about the effects in Bonita Springs from Tony Beckhurst, the city’s director of services and emergency management, at a special meeting Wednesday night. With the Imperial River, property owners nearby have to deal not only with the approach of the hurricane, he said, but also with “the flood of letters that follows it.”

“That was the key to it,” he said.

The river came “pretty close to 12 feet” at one point, he said. At 11 feet a small flood begins.

At 14 feet, there is a lot of flooding, as seen in Hurricane Ian, which just a few years ago caused much more damage to homes and businesses in the city.

On September 28, 2022, Li Yang made landfall as a nearly Category 5 storm with winds of at least 150 mph. The storm came much closer to Bonita Springs, hitting Cayo Costa, about 40 miles away, and the town is still recovering.

In comparison, Yang damaged 3,796 homes in Bonita, with more than 1,300 severely damaged.

Milton comes on the heels of Hurricane Helen, which made landfall in the Big Bend area of ​​Florida’s Gulf Coast on Sept. 26 as a Category 4 storm and left a trail of destruction in the southeastern United States, as well as in Florida, Georgia, the Carolinas and Tennessee.

In Bonita, Helen didn’t do as much damage as Milton did.

According to an initial assessment, 159 Bonita Springs residences sustained severe Milton flood damage, with standing water of 18 inches or more on the first floor or enough water to cover electrical outlets, Beckhurst said. These properties will require extensive repairs, with damage to everything from electrical systems and appliances to doors and cupboards.

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Milton also flooded city roads, causing temporary closures. The highest point was seen in Imperial Shores, off Bonita Beach Road, west of US 41, but the water didn’t take long to recede, Lt. Rush Brewton of the Lee County Sheriff’s Office told the council.

One of the hardest-hit roads: Hickory Boulevard, which had to be closed for cleanup after Milton flooded it with water and sand. In some places, the shifting sand reached 4 to 5 feet, and some of the sand turned to mud as it mixed with the water, Brewton said, requiring the efforts of a yeoman to sweep it out of the way.

While law enforcement set up roadblocks on the two-lane street for several days, deputies offered rides to area residents who had evacuated and wanted to return to their waterfront homes to see the damage caused by Milton.

“We’ve transported dozens and dozens of citizens back to their homes so they can do their own damage assessment and do it safely,” Brewton said.

Residents heeded the order to evacuate to Milton

Fortunately, most city residents in flood-prone areas heeded Lee County’s mandatory evacuation orders for Zones A and B, which included parts of Bonita Springs, Brewton said.

“There may have only been a few calls and some of them were just health checks on people who lost power in the storm and we were still able to get to them with our high water vehicles and contact those residents and make sure they’re safe,” Brewton said.

One of the biggest complaints he heard from residents after the storm was that there was no deputy or police officer at every stoplight that went out. It wasn’t possible with so many lights out, he said, and there were more important priorities.

The highest priority for law enforcement after the storm, he said, is conducting health checks and checking on people whose homes have been flooded, as well as protecting vulnerable property from theft.

As part of the report, the Bonita Springs Fire and Rescue District distributed more than 14,000 sandbags to help property owners prepare for the storm, with seven loads of sand delivered to the station near Bonita Grande Drive.

John Dahlmer, the city’s director of community development, updated the council on the permits after the storm.

City officials waive Hurricane Milton recovery permit fees. The same was done with Hurricanes Helen and Ian.

Nearly 2,900 permits worth more than $912,000 have been waived through Oct. 20 to help with storm recovery, Dulmer said, and he expects those numbers to increase given the recent storms. Most of the exemptions were granted in 2023, after the Yan event.

Bonita Beach took a big hit from Milton

The damage in Bonita went beyond the property.

The city has also seen 30 to 35 feet of shoreline erosion along the southern edge of Bonita Beach, and Yang is set to begin repairs that are still needed, including adding protective berms, Matt Feeney, the city’s director of public works, told the council.

He said he would come back to the council in November with recommendations on how to address the new damage from Milton, which would require a gear shift.

“The good news is that our contractor is here. Equipment for this project is coming from the Gulf Coast, depending on the weather. So, we’re going to be able to get it back on track in unprecedented time,” Feeney said.

The storm, he said, “definitely changed the way this project was going to look.”

In response, Mayor Rick Steinmeier said, “I’m glad you’re on top.”

more: Only a handful of Lee County beaches have reopened after Hurricane Milton closed. See which ones

Councilor Chris Corry asked how quickly Bonita Beach could be restored and asked if it could be done before the end of the year. Feeney said it’s too early to tell.

“What I can tell you is that it’s two weeks after the hurricane and you’re going to have a dredging contractor on site, which is unbelievable. So it will be restored faster than any community in Florida has ever restored a beach without the dredging contractor physically there,” he said before the storm.

This article originally appeared on the Naples Daily News: Hurricane Milton left its mark on Bonita Springs, damaging homes and beaches