In downtown Fort Myers, only the businesses and restaurants along Bay Street, Dean Street and Lee Street flooded from the effects of Hurricane Helene—and that was with a few inches of water, not a few feet like two years ago. By mid-morning Sept. 27, one day later and one day short of Hurricane Ian’s second anniversary, all standing water had been swept and/or mopped away.
Kearns Restaurant Group, which owns and operates Izzy’s Fish & Oyster, Cabos Cantina Taco & Tequila and Capone’s Coal Fired Pizza on First Street and Firestone Grill Room on Bay Street, only had to shut down Firestone on Friday because of the flooding.
Lessons learned from Hurricane Ian played a vital part in mitigating damage from Hurricane Helene, said Nils Richter, managing partner of Kearns Restaurant Group.
“This one was manageable,” Richter said, noting that inside Capone’s, the underground vault took in a few inches of water. “That’s ground floor water. Water came up through the ground, not in through the door.
“It’s slightly scary. But it’s not like the last time. We’re not going to have piles of debris outside on the sidewalk for days.”
WINK News Meteorologist Matt Devitt reported Helene causing the second-most amount of storm surge in Fort Myers since the records were kept, only to Ian.
Devitt had to deal with the surge himself. At about 8:45 p.m. Sept. 26, Devitt chose to stand on a cinderblock in the TV news studio, because waters from Billie’s Creek outside had intruded. WINK—and Devitt—stayed on the air providing uninterrupted coverage while building a makeshift studio within minutes in part of the building that did not flood.
Other downtown area businesses also had to adapt from lessons learned two years ago.
City Tavern, 2206 Bay Street, took in a few inches of water. It would have been worse, owner Kevin Offerman said, had he not affixed flood tape to the front doors. And when he rebuilt the restaurant over the course of four months after Ian, he installed epoxy flooring, which waterproofed the floor. He planned on reopening the bar later in the evening of Sept. 27.
“It’s heartbreaking,” Offerman said of when he watched the water seep through the tape Sept. 26 from on-site cameras. “To have to go through this again already, it’s sad.”
But his friends, family and business partners rallied to help him recover from Helene within 24 hours.
At 6:30 a.m., Chris Heyer, owner of Heyer Quality Construction, arrived and went to work, clearing the water from City Tavern.
Next door, Offerman plans to open a second bar, Hogwash, later this year. That building incurred 15 to 24 inches of water, which also had been cleared by the morning.
Next door, artist Leoma Lovegrove’s art gallery had a few inches of water inside. Lovegrove said she still should be able to do a soft launch before the end of the year and a grand opening in February 2025.
A few blocks west, Best Ice Cream had a couple inches of standing water inside, said owner Ali Perez. That’s better than about a foot and a half of water that had been outside. Perez sprayed the front entrance with watertight foam and stacked sandbags up against the back door.
“I sealed all the doors,” said Perez, who planned to reopen the ice cream shop as soon as the rest of her power was restored. She also closed her CBD ice cream shop next door and plans to reopen the space as Mermaid’s Cafe later within about a month.
Bay Street Yard, the new food truck park at 2136 Bay Street, planned on opening later on Sept. 27, co-owner Randy Henderson said. The adjacent office building had about 13 inches of water inside as compared to the 44 inches of water after Ian.
“It will be 30 days of cleanup versus eight months,” Henderson said.
And Firestone should reopen soon as well, Richter said.
“We have to learn how to manage it,” Richter said. “If you look around, almost everything downtown will reopen by the end of today.”
