5 Months After Ian, Battered Florida Beach Town is Abuzz by Day, Empty by Night

A smashed vacation-rental duplex with a marooned house behind it idles on a side street off Estero Boulevard in Ft. Myers Beach, Fla., in late February, five months after Category 4 Hurricane Ian made landfall nearby. John Haughey/The Epoch Times

SAN CARLOS ISLAND, Fla.—The sun is sinking into a bruised plum horizon and eastbound traffic is thickening on the Matanzas Pass Bridge as beachgoers head home from Fort Myers Beach on Estero Island before nightfall.

“When the sun goes down, the beach shuts down,” said Tina Tomasino, who owns Hurricane Tina’s 5-Star Dive Bar on San Carlos Island near the east end of the bridge. “You can’t see any light out there.”