In Marco Island, was direct-hit Irma worse than Ian? It depends on who you ask

Marco Island has seen better days.

On some streets in the days after Hurricane Ian, it seemed like any other Saturday morning, save for the neat piles of vegetation along the streets, a fallen tree here and there and the occasional Pike truck restoring power.

An electronic messaging board alerted drivers that 911 was down and that boating was prohibited.

Elsewhere, residents dragged to the curb surge-soaked mattress, chairs, appliances, dressers — the list goes on.

Depending on who you ask, Hurricane Irma, which made a direct hit to the island city five years ago, was the most horrendous they’d experienced. Others, like 37-year-old Carl Johannes, say that title now goes to Ian.

“I would say Ian was worse. This is just–”

“This is catastrophic,” his son, Raymond, interjected.

A half-foot water mark lined his yellow home in a cul-de-sac on Fifth Avenue. The father-and-son duo carried fallen palm fronds and a red cushioned chair to the street, adding it to the pile of mattresses and couches.

“It flooded obviously for Irma, but nothing like this. It didn’t come inland this high,” he said. “I think Irma did more structural damage to houses and trees and stuff like that. But this one was more surge.”

He wasn’t expecting it. Many residents weren’t. The lack of Irma-like winds made him feel like the storm wouldn’t be as dangerous.

But as he walked the dog upon Ian’s approach, his daughter came rushing out of the house. The water was rising, faster and faster. He estimated it got from the street to 6 inches in his house in 20 minutes.

“We ran inside. We had to get whatever we could off the ground,” he said, adding that he was grateful to be home to salvage things like his college degree and photos.

People who evacuated and were flooded probably lost more, he said.

Snook Inn will rebuild

On the north end of the island, a portion of the parking lot of Snook Inn was overtaken by wet T-shirts, with employees laying them out on the pavement to dry. Those who lost everything in the storm will take what clothes they need, after they’re washed, said senior manager Megan Criser, and the rest will be sent to Fort Myers.

The almost 5-foot storm surge had spoiled the offerings from the gift shop and caused “extensive damage” to the beloved restaurant, senior manager Megan Criser said Saturday morning. The hut and the bar underneath it were gone, torn to shreds.

“We have a standing building, so we’re all grateful for that,” Criser said. “We have more water damage than wind damage.”

They plan to rebuild, with the process starting since Thursday, but the issue becomes the ability to track down resources. Once the power comes back on, they’ll work through the night, too.

“We’re definitely going to be doing a more extensive renovation than we expected, but we’ll get it done and we’ll get it done quickly,” Criser said. “And we’ll be back, hopefully, before season.”

Boardroom Tavern, Smith House

Down the block on Palm Street, Martina Smith was inspecting the damage at Boardroom Tavern and her Smith House restaurant and bakery.

“We lost everything in our kitchen, all of our refrigeration, so we’ll definitely be at least a month before we’re able to reopen,” Smith said. “But in saying all of that, we are blessed.”

She ran a restaurant and beach rentals business on Tigertail Beach when Irma hit, so the preparation before and clean-up after was much different and simpler.

“It felt like nothing to us,” she said of the direct-hit storm. “This was so much worse.”

This time, broken windows and flooded hardwood floors greeted them after the storm passed. Standing inside Smith House on Royal Palm Drive, it smelled more like a mangrove forest than a restaurant. She doesn’t know yet if her appliances work.

“I feel like there’s a lot to do, but I feel positive because I feel so many people had it so much worse. All our loved ones are safe and we have a lot of great, great staff,” she said.

Athena Mangan, the pastry chef at Smith’s bakery, was aiding in the clean-up efforts. She and her husband left their home before it was flooded, and she lost her Jeep. They were supposed to move out the day before, but she can’t find hotels anywhere. Her landlord still wants her out, she said.

“We’re pretty much homeless, so we’re here helping out. I have to,” she said.

She said she knew friends across Southwest Florida — Port Charlotte, North Port, Fort Myers — who were directly impacted by the storm, but they’re all going to face a lot of emotional trauma from Ian, she said.

“It’s going to be unbearable for a lot of people. The wind gusts were what got me. It was just terrifying. Sounded like a jet engine,” she said.

Before the storm, Smith wasn’t worried about wind or surge.

“I really, really expected a tropical storm, which we’ve been through lots of those. I grew up here, so I think you get a little bit maybe complacent,” Smith said. “You feel you want to just smack yourself. You have to know eventually your number’s going to be up.”

Wellness for Eternity Spa

A few businesses down the brick path, the scented products inside Karolina Dolecki’s Wellness for Eternity spa masked the smell of the storm surge. Muck had covered the marble tiles floors in her store, and it took all day and a dozen people to clean it out. Her wrist was wrapped in a brace after slipping on her garage floor trying to keep the water from coming in.

Dolecki moved to Marco Island from Chicago two years ago. Ian was her first hurricane. She had seen news coverage of hurricanes while living in the Midwest, but didn’t fully comprehend the destructive force a storm could have.

“Marco had a mandatory evacuation, but I was like, ‘how bad can it get?’ It was bad,” she said. “In my worst dreams I would never expect this kind of damage.”

She took her most expensive equipment from the spa, but still thinks she might have $20,000 in damage. Next time, she’ll trust her intuition and take better precaution.

“This is all new for me. I’ll be better prepared, that’s for sure,” she said

Car enthusiasts gather, reflect

In the parking lot of Marco Lutheran Church, under the sprawling shade of oak trees, a half-dozen muscle car enthusiasts gathered for their weekly hangout to show off their Mustangs and Corvettes. Not even Ian could stop that.

“The people who stayed here, me included, we gambled,” said Tony Constantino. “I really didn’t know how big a gamble it was. If the storm had turned a little bit, we’d be in the same position of Fort Myers Beach right now. So we gambled, we won.”

Asked if he would roll the dice again next time, Constantino said he didn’t know what he would do.

Randy Graham rode out Ian on his 50-foot Hattaras, where he has lived for the past two years. He placed knives on each line in case he needed to cut them quickly.

“It was fine,” he said. During Irma, he lived in Golden Gate Estates, saying. “It was worse than this.”

If the 2017 hurricane taught the group anything, it was that leaving home could mean that they potentially evacuate to a place that gets hit harder.

Overall, the enthusiasts felt that Irma’s strong winds made it the worse storm, despite the surge, some Marco Island homes are built higher than others, whether on the land’s natural or artificial elevation.

“I guess we were high enough not to drown,” one of the enthusiasts said.

In Goodland, neighbors help neighbors

Like others, the storm surge was unexpected for Angela Loduca.

“It didn’t seem like it was going to be that way,” she said, having remained at her home with her 17-month-old child, where the surge covered the floor. “If I knew it was going to be like that, I definitely would have split.”

Ahead of Hurricane Irma, Goodland was a ghost town. Residents fled anticip they would be a direct hit.

The city of Marco Island called for an evacuation from Ian on Tuesday, and by the time Wednesday morning came around, and “we were trapped. It was flooded with debris. We couldn’t get out,” Loduca said.

“It was already too late to leave,” added resident James Allen, with whom Loduca was checking on Saturday afternoon. “There was no way out.”

The surge took with it down the street boats and dining room and picnic tables. Had the waters risen another inch, it would have flooded Allen’s home, he said. Debris from his yard, his neighbor’s yard, his neighbor’s neighbor’s yard, was all piled up along the street.

“This was a roaring lion and that was a pussy cat,” Allen said, comparing Ian to Irma.

Another resident in a white pickup truck pulled up to Allen as he stood outside his home. They expressed how lucky they had gotten and to call if he needed anything.

Loduca doesn’t blame officials for the timing of the evacuation, and after the fact feels particularly blessed compared to other Southwest Florida residents.

“It’s just the way it shifted. I get it. It’s not like anybody said, ‘Oh, let’s screw Marco and Goodland and leave them there,’” she said.

Before Loduca left Allen to continue cleaning up her home and trashing what could get moldy, she told him to stop by if he smelled them grilling steak or corned beef.

“It’s all defrosted, so it’s got to get cooked,” she said.

Hannah Morse covers consumer issues for The Palm Beach Post. Drop a line at hmorse@pbpost.com, call 561-820-4833 or follow her on Twitter @mannahhorse.

This article originally appeared on Naples Daily News: Hurricane Ian: In Marco Island, was direct-hit Irma worse than Ian?