Bucketts Wings & More Hosting Benefit Nights For Employees Of Ft. Myers Beach Restaurants

Ft. Myers Beach and Sanibel Island suffered mass destruction when Hurricane Ian rolled through the tiny island towns on September 28th.

With him, he not only took down the shops, stores, restaurants and homes of those on Ft. Myers Beach and Sanibel, he also took their livelihood.  So many of Southwest Florida’s favorite restaurants were wiped out, leaving the employees with nowhere to turn for income.

Bucketts Wings & More in Ft. Myers wants to help, so they’re hosting staff benefit nights in the coming weeks.  10% of the days proceeds will go directly to the employees of that day’s featured restaurant.  To date they’ve already hosted days for Gramma Dot’s of Sanibel and Mantanzas on The Bay of Ft. Myers Beach.

If you know of a restaurant that was effected by Hurricane Ian, and could benefit from one of these nights, get them on the calendar.  According to a Facebook post from Bucketts Wings & More, they will be doing this for as long as it takes.  Reach out to Ainslie Walter at (408) 799-1391 to coordinate.

These new hurricane Ian photos from Fort Myers Beach are on the bay side, just before crossing the Matanzas Pass Bridge. San Carlos Blvd is littered with boats. Boats in mangroves, boats on sidewalks, boats on cars.

I went down to this part of the beach community to help one of my best friends look for anything that she could salvage from her parent’s mobile home. The drive was narrow and precarious. We creeped along watching trucks loaded with supplies and tools  slowly navigating the debris. Business owners were directing clean up. In a neighborhood leading up to our destination, homeowners were busy pulling out clothing and possessions to dry and save.

However, when we pulled over just a a couple of blocks down, it was eerily quiet. Looking around, I did not see one person. Nor one home that survived. It was muddy and slippery. The scent in the air was rancid. My friend’s family lost everything. We tried to pry open warped drawers in furniture, looking for sentimental and precious items.

Filling a few trash bags with things we thought we could save, we finally departed, in silence.

Her parents are now have  a suitcase full of clothing and a few trinkets left from their decades of living. What do you do next? Where do you go? How do you start over?  The sadness, the loss is profound.

The cleanup is underway in Southwest Florida but there is a long road ahead. If you suffered flood damage and do not have insurance, do not delay in filling out a claim with FEMA.

These new hurricane Ian photos from Fort Myers Beach mostly show where big boats ended up. You’ll also see a few photos from the mobile home park off of Main Street that was decimated.

The shrimp boat fleets have been decimated. This view is from Main Street

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