Leaving Sanibel
Snow birds prepare to left off for Maine
To hear the related 5-minute audio file that I uploaded today as my Morning Journal flash briefing for Alexa devices, please click on the play button:
Hurricane Trauma, Revisited
Yesterday I watched two documentaries about Hurricane Ian’s terrible visit to Sanibel Island on September 28, 2022. The films were featured at the Fort Myers Film Festival.
“On Sanibel: The Hurricane Diaries” was screened at the Sidney & Berne Davis Art Center in Fort Myers. “Sanibel” was shown at Big Arts here on the island.
I preferred the “Diaries” documentary, because of its moving interviews with survivors of the hurricane and its insight into what Sanibel means to those of us who love it even more after the destruction of the storm.
Both films both triggered memories that had largely faded from my consciousness more than two years after Ian. They left me unsettled as we prepare to fly to Portland, Maine, tomorrow. We are closing up the house until our return in November, enjoying our last few days of warm, sunny weather and pickleball.
There will be more hurricanes, there is no doubt about that.
We and others on Sanibel have been hardening our homes and businesses for increased resilience. Nothing that can be damaged by storm surge is fewer than four feet off the ground in the garage and the lower level of our home. We have a new roof, hurricane glass windows, and Hardie board siding.
Restoration of the causeway is nearly complete after more than two years of construction. Even an Ian-sized hurricane will have difficulty destroying segments of the new three-mile link between Sanibel and the mainland.
Still, those images of towering piles of debris along every road on the island were haunting. So was the pain and loss on the faces of the people who told their stories in the two films.
When you’re my age, memory loss can be a real pain in the neck. But some things are better left forgotten.
That’s how you find hope to move on.