Charlotte County and Punta Gorda officials were still calculating economic losses from Hurricane Ian, which devastated Southwest Florida two years ago, when Hurricane Helene arrived Sept. 26. Helene brought a massive storm surge to Charlotte County despite making landfall more than 200 miles away.
County-owned buildings remained relatively unscathed compared to Ian’s damage that has racked up losses of $362 million to date, county Budget and Administrative Services Director Gordon Burger said.
“In terms of Helene, we had very little building damage but are still in the early phases of assessment for damage to our parks, especially those along the water,” he said.
The county provided an update on the total damage from Ian and what monies have been received to date. So far, the Federal Emergency Management Agency dispersed $48 million of $242,300,833 to the county.
About 50% of repairs and replacements have been made, county officials said.
While Charlotte County did not need to take out loans, it established a hurricane fund to charge all of the initial costs for anything that isn’t reimbursed to the county’s ad valorem reserves.
“We are currently projecting that the county will need to cover about $26 million from ad valorem reserves,” Charlotte County Public Information Officer Brian Gleason said in August.
Like Charlotte County, city of Punta Gorda is still recovering from Hurricane Ian and now faces costs from Helene.
The city reported nearly all decorative streetlights in the downtown area and Historic District, as well as lighting in Gilchrist and Laishley parks, are inoperable. Pathway lighting along Harbor Walk and Linear Trail also are out of service.
Punta Gorda Mayor Lynne Matthews said a list of businesses affected by Helene is still being compiled. As of Sept. 30, she did not have a status update on that number.
Assistant City Manager Melissa Reichert said, “our building official has documented 50 businesses with damages, but there will likely be more.”
“When I visited numerous downtown shops and restaurants last week, the water lines in most of them were at least 4 feet up the walls in most cases. The residential properties were impacted by at least that much, as they are at much lower elevations than [Punta Gorda Isles], [Burnt Store Isles] and other residential communities,” Matthews said.
One of the city’s buildings seriously damaged by Ian is the now-shuttered City Hall building in the Historic District. In August, just weeks before Helene arrived, Reichert said the City Hall building had already contracted with a Construction Management Information System for the building’s rehabilitation. Insurance estimates put damages for that structure at $538,000 with a deductible of $65,000.
There has been controversy over rebuilding City Hall, which is located in a flood zone. Some residents addressed City Council, saying the new building would be too costly and should be located away from the Peace River.
But Vice Mayor Bill Dryburgh said, “We still want to rebuild City Hall. The historic part of it was built in 1894. Just think how many storms that that building has been through. And it will last for a very long time.”
In August, Reichert said the city has a spreadsheet of Hurricane Ian’s estimated costs and FEMA, state and insurance reimbursements. She said some of the numbers are still in question as the actual work has not been completed. At that time FEMA had yet to obligate the bulk of the dollars for the city’s reimbursement.
