Hurricane Ian recovery: Fort Myers Beach starts town hall demolition

Fort Myers Beach has begun the demolition of its hurricane-damaged town hall, marking a new chapter in the resort town's recovery from Hurricane Ian.

The old town hall has remained unoccupied since Ian made landfall in September 2022, rendered unusable by the storm's 15-foot storm surge and 150 mph winds. On Friday morning a worker in an excavator tore into the building's facade, as a small crowd including media, city workers and mayor Dan Allers watched.

It felt like a milestone, Allers said.

"We've been staring at this for ten months," Allers said. "It's hard to get moving forward full speed when you're staring at something that is holding up your progress. This being gone will allow us to really fast-forward hopefully some of the plans that we have in place."

Town government has been run out of temporary trailers on the former Topps Supermarket property since the storm, across the street from the old town hall.

Fort Myers Beach suffered extreme damage from Ian, which leveled homes, destroyed buildings and killed more than a dozen people on the island. The town is readying for the next tourist season, and Allers said they are ready for visitors as hotels, bars and restaurants continue to reopen.

"We've got places to stay," Allers said. "The beach is in fantastic shape, we were able to get that cleaned up fairly quickly after the storm."

The rebuilding of the town hall is largely being funded by insurance and the Federal Emergency Management Agency. The demolition is just the start of the process, Allers said, and no design decisions have been made. Officials tentatively plan to rebuild town hall on the same site, but nothing has been finalized, Allers said.

This article originally appeared on Fort Myers News-Press: Fort Myers Beach starts demolition of town hall damaged in Hurricane Ian