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SUSTAINABILITY Recycling • Resources • Lifestyle
Devastating hurricane strikes beloved island
Above the Water Line
1
Sally Bethea
Sally Bethea
is the retired
executive director
of Chattahoochee
Riverkeeperand
an environmental
and sustainability
advocate.
O n an overcast morning in mid-
October, my journalist son
Charles Bethea boarded a
small boat to reach the shores
of Sanibel Island—three miles
across the choppy waters of San Carlos
Bay on Florida’s Gulf Coast. The cause
way to the island was in pieces, damaged
by 150-mile-per-hour winds and extreme
storm surges that washed away portions of
two man-made islands connecting spans of
the bridge.
In my heart and mind, I was with him,
waiting anxiously to learn the extent of the
damage from FFurricane Ian: the nightmare
storm called historic for its intensity. The
maelstrom bashed the southwest coast of
Florida on Sept. 28—the day my mother
would have turned 102. My sister and I
were relieved that neither she nor our father
lived to see the catastrophic destruction of
the place they—and we—so love.
Sanibel Memories
In the late 1950s, when my family
first vacationed on Sanibel, it was largely
undeveloped. We loved the island’s natural
beauty despite the relentless no-see-ums and
rustic accommodations. We collected shells
on its beaches, visited the national wildlife
refuge that comprises a third of the island,
boated with friends, fished for snook, and
painted watercolors of coconut palms
waving in the ocean breezes.
In the backwaters of mangrove swamps,
we waded barefoot—at times in waist-deep
water—cautiously exploring the muddy
bottom with our toes, seeking king’s crown
conches. We watched the ever-changing
shoreline, altered through the seasons and
years by wind, waves, and currents. My
parents loved Sanibel’s wild nature—its
red mangrove forests, flocks of roseate
spoonbills, and rare junonia shells—and did
what they could to help preserve it.
Until 1963, when the original Sanibel
Causeway was completed, we took a ferry,
then in operation for more than fifty years,
to reach the island. We would race in our
hot, unairconditioned car to make the last
departure of the day after the long drive
from Atlanta, my father ever certain we
wouldn’t make it in time. We always did.
Fifteen years ago, a new causeway replaced
and upgraded the original, but it was no
match for Ian’s destructive force.
A Disaster Waiting to
Happen
My father worried every year that a
deadly hurricane might hit Sanibel and
harm the island and the house he and my
mother built there in the early 1970s. FFe
was well aware they had chosen a site on
the beautiful but shifting sands of a barrier
island, vulnerable to storms and the sea. FFe
also knew that nearby Fort Myers on the
mainland had once been a maze of swamps
and mangroves, prone to frequent flooding.
It was all a disaster waiting to happen.
Yet, as the years passed, people
continued to move into the region: one of
the fastest-growing areas in the country.
New houses were built and mobile homes
were placed mere feet from the water, often
on “land” created by developers who used
dredge-and-fill methods. River bottoms,
marshes, and lowlands were scoured for fill
material to elevate building sites surrounded
by artificial canals to manage drainage and
create “waterfront” property.
Sanibel employed a different approach
for its inevitable growth, one that in all
likelihood saved lives and property from the
wrath of Ian. Beginning in the 1970s, local
officials and residents (about 7,000 people
live on the island year-round) decided to
work with nature to protect the island’s
environment and curtail overdevelopment.
Ordinances limited development and
officials rejected engineered structures,
such as sea walls; instead, living shorelines
were installed with natural materials,
and environmentally sensitive areas were
preserved. Today, two-thirds of the island is
designated as conservation land.
Prior to its incorporation in 1974, when
Sanibel secured autonomy to make land
use decisions, county officials projected that
scenthound.
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30 NOVEMBER 2022 | [d
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