She said their three children evacuated to Miami and she, her husband and mom stayed as the hurricane brushed the shoreline and eventually made landfall just north of them, on Cayo Costa. “If we do leave here, we don’t want to leave someone with a stinking mess.” "My plan is to at least stay until we can get the restaurant cleaned out and presentable," she said from the island Friday. The couple - she's from Wisconsin, he's from New Jersey and they met during Hurricane Charley - plan to clean the restaurant and throw out all the food. Their restaurant, like some others on Sanibel and Captiva, found muddy sludge "coated on everything." "That's what we do.” The Pecking Order Fried Chicken and Piesīridgit Stone said she and her husband, Dan, rode out Ian and survived along with their restaurant, The Pecking Order Fried Chicken and Pies. "I was very happy to be there and help some neighbors who were in trouble," he said. White said he stayed on Sanibel after the storm to help neighbors, especially those in medical need, to evacuate. "I apologize to you, The News-Press, your readers, our partners and our clients," he told The News-Press on Saturday. He said he saw photos of the restaurant later Friday and realized it's destroyed. "As far as I knew, (the Fort Myers Beach Doc Ford's) was great." “My wife and I had just gotten off the boat after being evacuated from the beach," White said. as part of its 2021 Travelers' Choice "Best of the Best" Restaurants awards. 1 restaurant for "Everyday Eats" in the U.S. Tripadvisor in summer 2021 crowned the Fort Myers Beach Doc Ford's the No. a year ago - survived but he said he was mistaken. Initially, White said Friday that the Fort Myers Beach Doc Ford's - named one of the best country's in the U.S. Powerful storm surge poured through its downtown streets, leveling many businesses and homes.īestselling Sanibel Island novelist Randy Wayne White White said the Sanibel restaurant sustained mostly mud and damage, but the Fort Myers Beach site wasn't spared, along with many other nearby Fort Myers Beach businesses. He said the Sanibel Doc Ford restaurant had some damage but the Fort Myers Beach one on San Carlos Island did not. Doc Ford is the name of the popular character in his novels, Marion “Doc” Ford, a marine biologist and former CIA agent living and working in Southwest Florida. My wife and I were absolutely safe in our house.” "I went through Hurricane Charley in 2004 on my house on Pine Island. “Some Navy SEALs picked us up off the beach," he said Friday. He said he and his wife, Wendy Webb, made it off Sanibel Island after riding out Ian for four hours Thursday. Randy Wayne White, a best-selling author and a partner in Doc Ford's Rum Bar & Grille restaurants on Sanibel and Fort Myers Beach, said one did well and the other did not. The original Doc Ford's debuted on Sanibel in 2003. “We will rebuild.Doc Ford's Rum Bar & Grille opened on Fort Myers Beach in April 2009. “There is hope,” said Cecil Pendergrass, chairman of the Lee County Commission. Power restoration, debris removal and other recovery efforts will be much easier with the temporary causeway repairs, they said. The Florida Department of Transportation will continue to work on a permanent fix for the causeway, officials said. Workers used 8,200 loads of fill dirt, 2,400 loads of rock, and 4,000 tons of asphalt. The governor's office said 100 crews worked around the clock to repair the causeway, which includes three separate bridges. “The causeway is our lifeline - it means everything to get it back,” said Thompson, operations manager at his family's Lazy Flamingo restaurant. One lifelong Sanibel resident, Troy Thompson, said having the causeway back will really help the barrier island because so much recovery work remains. The storm killed more than 100 people in Florida, many of them in Lee County, where Sanibel and its famed seashell beaches are a top tourist destination. Sanibel Island is home to about 6,300 people. “The work that has been done to restore vehicle access to Sanibel Island has been historic,” the governor added. “It's something that shows a little bit of a can-do spirit,” DeSantis, a Republican, said at a news conference, adding that government bureaucracy should not hamper such efforts. Instead, the span reopened just three weeks after the storm blew ashore Sept. The 3-mile (4.8-kilometer) causeway was badly damaged by the Category 4 hurricane, with initial predictions saying repairs could take months. The Florida Department of Transportation will continue to work on a permanent fix for the causeway, officials said.Instead, the span reopened just three weeks after the storm blew ashore on Sept.The 3-mile (4.8-kilometer) causeway was badly damaged by the Category 4 hurricane, with initial predictions saying repairs could take months.The causeway washed out by Hurricane Ian that links Sanibel Island to the Florida mainland reopened with temporary repairs, Gov.
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