Declaring “we’re here to make sure the people of Florida get what they need,” President Biden stood at the wrecked fishing port behind Fort Myers Beach this week, joining his political rival Gov. Ron DeSantis in pledging an accelerated recovery after Hurricane Ian.
“We’re the only nation on Earth that can come out of something like this better than we were before,” Biden said in an informal, earnest televised talk after he and DeSantis were briefed on damage assessments and recovery efforts.
The setting was close to Trico Shrimp Company and other commercial docks on San Carlos Island, the maritime industrial side of the Fort Myers Beach resort community. Bulldozed by the storm surge as high as 18 feet, beach neighborhoods are still the scene of intense searching for victims.
Biden said the federal government moved more pre-positioned assets and rescue teams into Florida than for any previous emergency mobilization. He praised DeSantis for a “remarkable” effort speeding rescue and recovery.
Still, ongoing tallies by state and county authorities have place the death toll past 100, making Ian more deadly than Hurricane Andrew in 1992.
Acknowledging that “the insurances may not cover everything,” Biden repeated assurances that damage assistance grants through the Federal Emergency Management Agency could approach almost $80,000 to qualified households. The federal Small Business Administration has been ordered to speed up availability of low-interest loans up to $200,000, said Biden.
Some 200,000 residents of Southwest Florida had already registered with FEMA by mid-week.
The surge across Estero Island and Matanzas Pass left the Trico Shrimp Company and adjacent docks a tangled mass of overturned boats. Fishermen were doing what they could – pending arrival of heavy equipment – to clean up.
“We’re trying,” said Chris Gala, an owner of Trico along with her husband, George, and co-owner Dennis Henderson. “Most of the boats are not insured, probably 90 percent.”
There were around 45 shrimp boats around Matanzas Harbor including a dozen at Trico, Gala estimated. Fishermen struggled through the storm to keep them secure.
“Most of our guys stayed on the boats. They thought if they could adjust the lines, they could keep up with the water level,” said Gala. But the surge was simply too immense.
“We’re just jumping from boat to boat,” one fisherman told her during the storm.
“We’ve never seen anything like this,” said Gala. “Used to be in the old days we’d take boats up the river (when a hurricane approached) but you can’t do that now” with the loss of commercial docks and waterfront development over the years, she said.
Mostly fiberglass hulls with some steel vessels, the stranded shrimp boats will require cranes on barges to be disentangled, and roller bags to be moved across ground, said Gala.
“It has to be someone (contractors) who knows what they’re doing,” said Gala. The fishermen are talking to contractors and it is possible equipment could be on site in the next couple of weeks, she said.
“We’ve got people down there now doing what they can,” Gala said by cell phone Wednesday, as she waited by a police checkpoint while Biden and DeSantis did their briefing on the waterfront.
Gala said the shrimping has been good – and historically, after a hurricane passes offshore, the fishery bounces back.
“Our season is year round, and we’ve been doing pretty good,” said Gala. Now, “we’re just going to have to start scraping up some money.”
