As Hurricane Ian lashed Fort Myers with howling winds and sloshed floodwaters over the banks of the Caloosahatchee River, veterinarian Sharon Powell and her husband retreated to the safest place they could find for themselves and their pets — a downtown parking garage.
Then they waited — riding out as the fierce southern eye wall of the Category 4 storm passed directly overhead.
“The surge from the river will be coming this way soon,” Powell shouted while dodging chunks of drywall from a nearby construction site that were flying like missiles through the garage. “They’re predicting 8 to 12 feet. So we will be ready to go up to the second level.”
