'Dig it Deb!' Fort Myers Beach resident breaks ground for new home after Ian
Editor's note: Our journalists revisited Hibiscus Drive, a Fort Myers Beach street hard-hit by Hurricane Ian, around the one-year anniversary of the storm. This is one of two stories on turning-points in the rebuilding process for two Hibiscus residents.
Debi Szekely was the star of the day, but she had no desire to speak before the town dignitaries at groundbreaking for her new Fort Myers Beach home.
“I just want to smile,” said Szekely, mimosa in hand, at her empty lot on a rainy morning last month.
Her home was one of several on Hibiscus Drive entirely swept away, cleared to concrete slabs by Hurricane Ian’s winds and catastrophic 15-foot surge last year. Nearly a third of the more than 40 homes on the street were leveled.
Post-storm, when Debi and her husband Tim returned, they found little more than rubble and seashells. But the parents of six grown children were remarkably plucky in the face of loss.
They loved the beach, they loved the street, they wanted to stay. It didn't take them long to decide; they would rebuild. But it had been a trip – good and bad – to get to this groundbreaking.
And Debi had been counting down the days until she could pierce a shovel into the dirt where their new home would stand.
'I only have a quarter of my life left. I just want to live it.'
A few months after Ian, Debi Szekely moved into an old camper they parked on the lot. The family also has rental units that needed repairs.
Debi’s husband owns a machine shop in Pennsylvania, so she was the one to stay for Home Depot runs and make sure contractors showed up. The couple splits their time between the two states but even before the storm, Debi had been spending more time at the beach.
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The evenings she spent with her Hibiscus Drive neighbors as they began rebuilding their homes and their street helped make up for the cramped quarters of the trailer.
“We had a great set-up on the slab here: music, lights, Ping-Pong.”
She fed her neighbors dinner, “everything, anything, you name it.”
Neighbors grew closer, finding relief in community. Eventually, though, people headed back north for the summer. Or they finished repairs and moved from trailers to inside their homes. The vibe on the street shifted. “We don’t get together anymore.”
But the past year hasn't been all block parties.
Debi had trouble finding a local builder. “They would give me wishes and dreams and I never got a contract. They have so many other bigger fish to fry.”
The post-storm red tape even irritated the indefatigable mother of six.
“I got real cranky with the Town Hall and the permitting process, but it seems to have gotten a little better. And you know what the heck, yelling at people ain't going to solve anything.”
Eventually, she opted to go with Homebound, which describes itself as a technology-enabled homebuilder. It has responded after other natural disasters. She met the vice-president at an expo. They kept in touch and were now on a first-name basis.
She appreciated their streamlined process — “I need a house now, not two years from now” — and handholding. “I don't have to do anything,” she paused, “but pay for it.”
Insurance gave the Szekelys about $400,000 for the three-bedroom home they lost and they'll get a little more for building a new home to compliance, she said.
Their new home will also be three bedrooms, about 2,000 square feet, elevated on pilings and cost about $600,000, she said.
It was expected to take eight to ten months to complete.
Starting construction during hurricane season after her home was obliterated during the season before, didn’t stress Debi. She said, a few months before the groundbreaking, “I'm 53 years old. I feel like I only have like a quarter of my life left so I just want to live it.”
'Dig it Deb!'
Despite the drizzle, or "liquid sunshine" as the chamber president called it, a small crowd gathered on Hibiscus Drive near the Szekely lot, now cleaned of debris and groomed for something new.
Hibiscus did not feel like a ghost town like some other streets on Fort Myers Beach. Hibiscus is in a state of revival — not exactly the same but not distant from its tropical, modest roots.
The street belongs to a subdivision that began in the 1960s named Leilani. Most of the homes are single-story and about 1,000 square feet. About half of the original houses were in varying stages of renovation last month. Several were done with residents back home. Others, like Debi, were starting from scratch and building higher to account for future flooding.
The Fort Myers Beach chamber president spoke of how bringing families back to the beach was critical for making the community whole again.
The Fort Myers Beach mayor recalled visiting Hibiscus shortly after the storm.
“It was one of the first streets that really stood out to me,” Dan Allers said.
He thanked Homebound for "providing a solution for people that maybe don't have millions of dollars to be able to stay on the island.”
Homebound leaders expect to start construction on 30 to 50 homes on Fort Myers Beach in the next six months. Debi's was the first.
Though Debi had vowed not to speak, in the end, she felt compelled to express gratitude. “I appreciate you being here for me and for everybody else in the town and I am done.”
Cameras clicked as Debi and town and Homebound leaders posed with a golden shovel.
“Who’s doing the digging?” someone asked.
Debi was the consensus. Another person cheered, “Dig it, Deb!”
Her smile grew. She clutched the golden shovel and scooped. Applause erupted.
After the clouds and crowd cleared, Debi poured a mimosa for a neighbor and another for herself as they chatted in the shade.
Birds chirped. The sun came out. Gulf breezes softened the heat.
Debi sat and sipped. “This is why I moved here.”
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This article originally appeared on Fort Myers News-Press: 'Dig it Deb!' Fort Myers Beach resident breaks ground for new home
