NBC's Lester Holt returns to SWFL for Hurricane Ian series

TV news anchor Lester Holt remembers the stream of ambulances pouring out of Fort Myers Beach after Hurricane Ian.

It was disturbing to watch, he says.

“We realized those ambulances were transporting bodies that had been recovered,” Holt says. “It was a kind of a haunting site.”

The NBC Nightly News anchor spent several days covering Southwest Florida after Hurricane Ian struck Sept. 28, 2022. The storm intensified to a Category 5 just before landfall, packing 160-mph winds, killing dozens and causing mass destruction along the coast.

Now Holt returns Monday, May 22, to check on Southwest Florida’s recovery. The episode − part one of a two-part series on Ian − will broadcast live from the Fort Myers Beach area.

“I think I spent three full days, maybe four, on the ground there,” Holt says. “And at the time we had talked about, ‘We need to come back here and see what recovery looks like from something this devastating.'"

NBC Nightly News: Live from Fort Myers Beach

They’ll be doing just that Monday, once again broadcasting from Getaway Marina, just across the bridge from Fort Myers Beach. Then they’ll move to Miami’s Telemundo Center on Tuesday.

Holt will be joined by a team of NBC Nightly News producers, camera operators and more from the TV news program's New York City headquarters, says executive producer Meghan Rafferty. Plus they’ll be supplemented by news reporters from local NBC affiliates, including Fort Myers' NBC2 News.

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The idea is to do more than just report on a disaster and then forget about it, Rafferty says. They wanted to come back to Southwest Florida eight months later − with the 2023 hurricane season about to start June 1 − and report on the recovery and the lessons learned.

“These stories happen,” Rafferty says about covering disasters, “ and we want to make sure that we kind of re-invest in those communities.”

Rafferty also plans to visit her Naples parents while she’s here. They survived the storm just fine, she says, although it was rough for her to watch Hurricane Ian as she oversaw coverage last year from NBC Nightly News’ New York City studio.

“Covering this one was so sad,” she said. “I had a pit in my stomach about it all. I can’t imagine what you guys went through.”

Lester Holt: Hurricane Ian was one of the worst disasters I've seen

Holt and the rest of “Team Lester” will check on people he interviewed last year and also cover Florida’s property-insurance crisis, Rafferty says. Plus they’ll talk about the ongoing struggle to rebuild, and how storms are getting more devastating due to global warming.

Holt says Hurricane Ian is one of the worst disasters he’s ever covered.

“In over 40 years in this, I’ve covered a lot and seen a lot,” he says. “But this is one of those you look at and you realize life is going to be altered here for some time.”

Still, he saw a common thread that he’s experienced with other people enduring disasters: Resilience.

“I’m always struck − whether it’s Fort Myers Beach or some other disaster zone − by how people find a way to pick themselves up and put one foot in front of the other,” he says. “And I certainly saw it there.

"I think that’s one of the things we hope to be able to tap into now, all these months later.”

NBC Nightly News airs at 6:30 p.m. daily on local NBC affiliate WBBH. The national newscast celebrates its 75^th anniversary this year.

Learn more at nbcnews.com/nightly-news.

— Connect with this reporter: Charles Runnells is an arts and entertainment reporter for The News-Press and the Naples Daily News. For news tips or other entertainment-related matters, call him at 239-335-0368 (for tickets to shows, call the venue) or email him at crunnells@gannett.com. You can also connect with him on Facebook (facebook.com/charles.runnells.7), Twitter (@charlesrunnells) and Instagram (@crunnells1).

This article originally appeared on Fort Myers News-Press: Hurricane Ian: NBC anchor Lester Holt revisits Fort Myers, Florida