MANASOTA KEY − The massive devastation wrought by Hurricane Milton on this hard-hit barrier island becomes immediately clear on the beach road that leads onto its north end, where two wrecked, lopsided fishing boats almost kiss each other on shore next to Sunset Point Marina and Resort.
“This is a big part of our life, and now it’s gone,” said Greg Johnson, tearing up as he looked at the 52-foot shipwrecked Hatteras he’d just restored after Hurricane Ian damage it in 2022. “It was a well-used boat. We really enjoyed ourselves, and we’re going to miss it.”
Johnson, a retired medical supply salesman, and his wife Lisa drove from their home in North Port Monday to get a look at Manasota Key. The island community of roughly 1,300 residents suffered some of the worst storm-surge damage in Sarasota County and Southwest Florida after Milton made landfall about 20 miles north on Siesta Key Oct. 9.
They also came to gather belongings from their boat with Greg Sharp, a friend who lived − before the hurricane − on the other boat that was shoved ashore at the marina.
A third boat bobbed half-sunk in the bay behind the marina, still tied tightly to a broken dock.
Sharp christened his 1985 Chris-Craft “Plan B.” Now, his Plan B is to live temporarily with the Johnsons, thanks to the huge surge that ruined numerous homes and businesses straddling Charlotte and Sarasota counties.
On the north end of Manasota Key, most homes had sustained heavy water damage, and several cars sat buried in sand. Work crews, contractors and others with pickups and trailers, hoping to make a buck from those in need, inundated the area. Huge piles of furniture and household items lined the main beach road, still covered with sand.
Jim Beeson, a retiree who splits his time between Virginia and Florida, rode out Milton in a hotel room in Punta Gorda. But on Monday, heavy sweat dripped from his brow as he dragged belongings and furniture out of a trailer at Gulf to Bay Mobile Home Park.
“I’m gonna cut the drywall out and do some mold remediation. It’s just what a 69-year-old guy wants to do,” he said smirking.
Beeson said residents there, all 55 and older, wonder how they will dig out again after Helene severely damaged the park just over two weeks ago. Everyone in the water-logged community, which includes dozens of destroyed or severely damaged mobile homes, was anxious to hear when power will be restored.
Beeson, a member of the community’s HOA board, said most residents don’t have hurricane or flood insurance. Still, most plan to stay and restore their homes.
After damage from three hurricanes in four years, however, residents in the water-logged community are wondering how much more they can weather.
“There are a lot of legacy folks here, people with a lot of pride and a lot of memories,” he said. “And now, a lot of concern.”
Kayaks in trees, a gun safe sucked through a wall
Near Indian Mound Park, not far away in Englewood on the mainland, many residents wondered the same thing.
There, the huge surge swept refrigerators out of homes, landed kayaks in trees and hurled couches from homes a football field away.
The water and wind not only destroyed Frank Cruesi’s home, which his family fully remodeled last year; it sucked an 1,100-pound gun safe through a wall.
Cruesi said he’d converted the safe to hold valuable musical instruments because it was supposed to be waterproof.
But the instruments were destroyed by Helene. After Milton sucked it through the wall, the gun safe now sits toppled over in a ditch next to his home.
The house, he said, is a total loss. He worked Monday to contact authorities because his electrical box still carries electricity.
Asked if he was going to give up or rebuild, he laughed and said, “Rebuild. Only higher.”
Others also clung to their humor awaiting rebuilding or remediation estimates.
Laura and Adam Baer sat stoically in fold-up chairs in the garage of their 30-year vacation home − with no walls around them. A warm wind from the bay blew through what used to be their newly remodeled kitchen and great room.
Laura Baer said she was in the hospital the day Milton hit, after taking a post-Helene fall that left her with a punctured lung and injured rib.
Adam made it back to Englewood from St. Louis on Saturday − just in time to see their house torn down to the studs and hear how ocean water sucked the family car through the garage door and dropped it at the mailbox.
Still, Laura smiled on Monday, recounting how she’d found her favorite tangerine Land’s End swimsuit hanging on an air conditioner behind a neighbor’s house a block from their home.
Yes, they will rebuild, she said, even if her husband wondered.
“I always say this is the Baers’ Kennebunkport,” she said. “It may not be fancy, but it’s ours. It’s got all the memories. It’s everything.
“We just need to find the money to pay for it.”
Lee Rood is a former investigative reporter and editor who has been the Reader’s Watchdog at the Des Moines Register since 2012.
This article originally appeared on Sarasota Herald-Tribune: Manasota Key, Englewood swamped by Hurricane Milton’s storm surge
