PUNTA GORDA, Fla.–The day Hurricane Ian roared ashore—Sept. 28—will be an anniversary no one in Southwest Florida wants to celebrate.
The Category 4 storm left communities on the Gulf Coast, and the people who live there, devastated.
Neighborhoods and downtown Punta Gorda, considered Ground Zero for the killer storm, are unrecognizable, mused resident Lisa Motteler, the next day.
Shaking her head, her voice cracked.
“It looks like a war zone.”
Helpers sort through salvageable items from the hurricane-tossed debris spread across a yard on Riverside Drive in Punta Gorda, Fla. on Oct. 4, 2022. (Jann Falkenstern/The Epoch Times)
Before Ian, Motteler, a nurse practitioner, cared for patients in the health clinic she operates. Her husband, Carl, helped sculpt the community’s future with his land-clearing business. Both have woven themselves into the fabric of the little hamlet. Nowhere else is home….