On Thursday, we enjoyed a rooftop social hour with the West Palm Beach Rotary Club at the Oceanic Hotel before our Friday journey across the state, Palm Beach to Fort Myers. It took three Ubers, an airport mover, a bus, a train, and some walking but we safely arrived at the home of our lovely Rotarian hostess, Susan Yarab.

Susan opened her home to us almost immediately after a room became available while in the midst of her own flood recovery. Even in the midst of all she is dealing with, her kindness and hospitality have put us in a perfect position to pay it forward and to be able to help as many people as possible.

Earlier today, she and some friends (Kelly Shimp Sawczyn and Read Sawczyn) took us out for a delicious lunch at Cabbage Key and on a boat ride to see the destruction to Fort Myers Beach from the water.

The view from the water was intense. The structural damage was more evident from there than on the beach itself. We could see the houses barely standing on what was left of the support stilts that had kept them out of the water and many houses completely leveled into the ground. We saw construction crews trying to put sand back in the water to recreate a beach that will eventually bring tourists back and whole docks and piers are now just stumps for birds to sit on and supervise.

Saturday Evan and I had gone out with a Rotarian crew to start working on houses on Fort Myers Beach. Though the large scale structural damage is less visible, the devastation from that standpoint is hard to put into words. Those who haven’t lost everything are working to gut their houses down to barebones with the hope they’ll even be allowed to rebuild. There are enormous piles of furniture, debris, insulation, wood, and more. Temporary landfills have popped up around the island to give people a place to start putting things so they can at least get it far enough from their yards to keep working.

It’s impossible to imagine living this as difficult as it is to even watch. We worked alongside homeowners while they weighed whether family heirlooms and other treasured possessions can be saved from water damage and mold, helping give support as they throw away years of photographs and furniture they’ve had since their first homes. There’s people going as far as digging through the rubble with the hope that valuable memories survived.

We heard a story about a woman who had spent days hoping to find her mailbox which had been hand painted by a deceased relative. It was found several blocks away from where it began. Everyone here has stories like that. Of little joys and small wins that they are clinging to. They lean on each other and share support with neighbors who understand, they give to others the resources they can even while they struggle, insist volunteers move onto the next house that’s “worse” than theirs. There is so much love and so much pride in their communities.

The strength and resilience of these communities resounds even louder than the stories of tragedy. Through all the good work happening, people also tell us about looters walking right into their garages in front of their eyes to try to take the only things they’ve saved, companies driving up prices so far that few can realistically consider paying the price for the work that needs done, the constant fear that their work won’t matter and the house will be condemned anyway.

Through it all they persist.

If you ask these homeowners if they are going to stay where they are, almost none of them know yet. The only answer they have is that the work they are doing now is what is coming first. Stability will be the first step to their decision making.

If you are able, we ask that you donate what/if you can. Words and pictures are not enough to explain the needs of the people here.

Click here to make donations via District 6990’s Disaster Relief Fund.

“While natural disasters capture headlines and national attention short-term, the work of recovery and rebuilding is long-term.” ~ Sylvia Mathews Burwell