NBC2 IAN RECOVERY - An aerial view of Sanibel and Fort Myers

what this doesn't show is the water damage to the homes, making them unlivable, the 10 foot surges are long gone, but they had waves crashing up to their rooves.

I have such respect for the engineers and architects that designed the buildings still intact. On a flat sandbar on the ocean in a Cat 4? That's amazing engineering. Well done!

Praying 🙏

0:42 was the Castaways beach & bay cottages, lot's of great time spent there. 😔

The beach and ocean for the most part are very peaceful and beautiful. However, I have lived in south FL all my life. Every June through November, I wait to see what hurricane season looks like. I have seen many hurricanes come and go. I see homes and property wiped out. Yet every year. I see more homes and condo's going up on beachfronts and barrier islands.

I live in Ca and thought earthquakes were bad im so so sorry

Warning always come before destruction

Just heartbreaking to see the vast amount of damage.

Hurricanes happen every year and unfortunately Florida is situated in the storm routes.These huge expanse of low lying areas will always suffer damage.

I can’t imagine the walking bridge to Bowman’s beach is even recognizable 😢. This place has so many memories to our family.

The cottages you see at 0:40 are The Castaways, a wonderful piece of heaven for decades. We’ve stayed several times over the yrs in a couple different cottages on the beachside. We hope the owners & staff are safe, and also hope that the surviving cottages can be restored. We look forward to returning 👍

When you see water on land, is due to the ground which has been removed by the surge. The elevation of the land in such points has been changed.

prayers 🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏

Hurricanes of this magnitude can and DO change the shape of barrier islands. I am pleasantly amazed that so many roofs on most homes survived. Unfortunately, the storm surge get in and ruined everything. If you are going to build at the beach, the the houses up on stilts. In this case, due to the height of the storm surge, stilts may have been insufficient in this particular area but other areas the interiors of homes would most likely have been spared. A lot of homes that are raised, have sacrificial rooms on the ground floor, garages, storage etc with walls that are designed to wash away and spare main part of the structure. As a native Floridian from a very OLD Florida family, the attitude is to build inland and on high ground. Thanks to those of us who now live in the 49 other states, you are welcome for the tax payer dollars that we will be paying out to you so that you can again build along the coast. It is time to rethink Federal Flood insurance laws to prevent payouts to places that are in hazardus flood zones.

the building next to the Lazy 'was' the Sunset Grill. We would take our dogs and have breakfast every Sunday on the porch. How horribly sad it is gone.

Beautiful sanibel and captiva 😢

It's the Castaways resort. They describe that area as Santiva. If the Lazy Flamingo is still standing there is still a vestige of civilization.

It’s awesome living on the beach until it isn’t. Cheers!!

The house or structure mentioned at 3:22 of the footage, appears to be a structure that resembles and sat on the left side of the Castaways Bait Shop that was reference at :30s to :40s of this footage. The roof is of the same nature that I observed from Google Earth, taken prior to the storm. If confirmed that this is the same structure: hurricane Ian ripped this structure from its foundation and carried it approximately over 2700 feet = to half a mile: where it now sits beside Runyan Key.

It would have been good if the girl had been quiet.