Sanibel community group discusses how to rebuild a more sustainable island

SANIBEL ISLAND, Florida — The recovery roadmap for Hurricane Ian can go in many directions. On Thursday evening, a group of citizens met on Sanibel Island to discuss the future of the coastal community.

There is no one-size-fits-all solution for restoring a sustainable community, but according to community members, this can be done in a number of ways.

“There will always be risk, and there are a few lessons you need to learn,” said Portor Goss, a former CIA director and Sanibel resident. “Now we are asking our citizens, our leadership to think about how we are going to solve the problems that we have.”

Goss spoke at a SanCap Citizens meeting along with other members of the community. They shared their stories of survival after Yang.

“Armageddon, total destruction,” said Jerry Minch, owner of Periwinkle Park.

Thursday night, the question “Where are we going next?” came up a few times. This is one of the many questions asked by the community and we hope it will eventually be answered by the group and local leaders.

“Trying to provide resources to the community about how you think about building better, how we think about things, how we handle emergencies, our transportation here,” said Carrie Shuman, Coastal Resiliency Manager areas of the Sanibel Captiva Conservation Foundation. “There are just a lot of things to think about.”

This kind of forward thinking comes quickly to business owners like Tracey Sharp.

“We have landlords and we are not sure which direction to go in order to do this,” she said.

Minch is currently addressing restoration issues and says the houses in Periwinkle Park need to be raised up to 13 feet.

“It will be difficult, but we will get there,” he said.

This is one of two meetings that the SanCap Citizens will host. The next one is expected to occur in mid-April, with local experts focusing on how the island prepared for the storm, recovery efforts, and lessons for the future.