819 October 14, 2022 Everglades City

I walked loops around the campground and was lucky enough to have enough cell service to talk with my good friend, Vicki, and my mom. 

This hawk lives here. 

We decided to ride into Everglades City today.  We took our bikes but didn’t do much.  Tim is nursing a sore hip.  We did drive through the ravaged town.  Furniture and debris are in great piles along the curb…people’s belongings…

The grocery store is closed.  The hotel has been gutted.  The post office is operating out of two mail trucks. 

Hurricane Ian caused a three-foot surge to flood streets, businesses, and homes.

Only a couple of businesses were operating.  We went to City Seafood for lunch.  I made the mistake of saying that it looked like they were one of the “lucky ones.”  The woman behind the counter said that they were not lucky at all.  They had major flooding and damage to their kitchen equipment; fryers and coolers.  A lot of food was lost.  They have however been able to recover quickly.  Today was the first day that they were serving a full menu. 

This community is constantly exposed to dangerous wind and weather.  In September of 2017, Hurricane Irma swept through leaving incredible damage in its wake.  The blue line on the wall represents the water level during Irma.

On a beautiful day like today, it is hard to imagine what it must have been like here during the storm.

Our thoughts are with these folks as they attempt to recover…again.

We went to Monument Lake where we knew we would have good cell service and therefore WiFi.  I sat in the shade, working on the blog with a beautiful view.