Last Wednesday, Hurricane Ian made landfall in southwest Florida near the cities of Fort Myers and Cape Coral as a Category 4 storm, bringing winds of 150 mph and major storm surges up and down the coast. The hurricane left more than two million Florida residents without power and caused historic damage to coastal cities and inland communities throughout the state.
The storm’s strong winds and surges also destroyed important infrastructure on barrier islands and in coastal areas, complicating rescue and cleanup efforts and making it difficult for out-of-state family members to get in contact with their loved ones.
For five students from coastal cities in southwest Florida hit hard by Hurricane Ian, watching from Rhode Island proved stressful as their families braved a historically powerful hurricane down south. The Herald spoke with these students about the toll the hurricane has taken and how it has affected them from afar.
“You feel completely powerless to help them and you really want to but there is nothing you can do,” said Arjun Singh ’23, whose family rode out the hurricane at their home in Fort Myers. “It was absolutely terrifying.” Four days after the storm hit, Singh’s family was still without power or cell service, which made it hard to stay in contact.
For Singh, the scariest part of the storm was when the eyewall hit Fort Myers on Wednesday. His texts and calls to family stopped delivering, and “that’s when the panic really set in,” he said.
Alex Ivanchev ’25 was unable to contact his family for nearly 12 hours Wednesday after they lost internet service during the storm. Ivanchev is from Venice, between Fort Myers and its northern neighbor Sarasota, and he said that a part of his home’s roof was torn off while his parents waited out the storm inside. Students also shared the harrowing experiences of family members who weathered the storm along the coast. Kate Kupsaw ’24.5 said that her grandfather, who lives in Fort Myers, had to evacuate his home after it began to flood, wading through four feet of water to reach his neighbor’s home.
Kupsaw originally hails from Sanibel Island, a barrier island of 6,500 people off the coast of Fort Myers that saw extensive damage from the storm. Her dad returned to the island after evacuating to Miami and told her that most of the island was “unrecognizable,” Kupsaw said.
Floodwaters climbed from 10 to 12 feet based on the marks her dad observed on houses, she said. There were four fatalities on the island as a result of the storm, City Manager Dana Souza told the press.
“I’m not sure exactly who those people are,” Kupsaw said, “and if I know them.”
A stretch of the causeway that connects the island to the mainland is also broken, while houses across the island face severe water and wind damage. According to Kupsaw, her family might not be able to return to the island for anywhere from six months to a year and a half.
Alyssa Steinbaum ’23, who is from Sarasota, said that witnessing the hurricane from so far away felt strange and confusing. Steinbaum noted how bizarre it was “seeing pictures of the damage to places I (knew) growing up.”
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