FORT MYERS, Fla. — When a hurricane assaults the coast, as Ian did to Southwest Florida, flip on the TV and the images the cameras have to show are palm trees flailed by the furious winds. The obligatory footage is supposed to be visual evidence of nature's fury. And that it is. But a palm tree standing up to a hurricane is just as much a symbol of the resilience of life, particularly so in Fort Myers, the City of Palms.
I finally counted them up: Ian is the 20th hurricane I've covered for NPR —either the big blow or the aftermath. My first was the monster, Hugo, whose eye passed directly over me in Charleston, S.C., in 1989.
