SANIBEL ISLAND, Fla. — It's back to business two months after Hurricane Ian.
This week, city leaders started handing out hurricane re-entry passes for businesses now allowed to reopen and several businesses are taking advantage of the new process. You can now visit your favorites -- like the Sanibel Grill and 'Tween Waters Island Resort & Spa.
"It's nice to see regular people come in. It's a sense of normalcy that we all need.”
A sense of normalcy coming back to the Sanibel Grill as they reopen their doors after Ian.
“Aside from the fact that they can get a cocktail or a beer, glass of wine, or burger and a crunchy grouper sandwich, they can come here and talk to their friends or talk to our staff," said Matt Asen, owner of Timbers & Sanibel Grill. "Most of them have known them for years and years and years.”
For some, the restaurant acts as a gathering place providing a sense of social interaction. Something that's been missing in their lives for the last 60 days.
"Saturday we go back to New York so we wanted to make sure we got here,” said Denise Baumert, enjoying dinner with her husband. “This place is great. I mean, just to be here, is great. I'm going to start crying now.”
But getting here took some time.
"It's just so much, I don't even know where to start," said Asen. "Here we are and we're walking and talking and it's great for me to be able to walk around and talk to my customers. That's why I do this.”
They're also one of the first to say they've reopened since Ian. On Captiva, 'Tween Waters Island Resort reopened their doors the same day after hosting their annual Christmas Tree Lighting Celebration Friday.
"It's kind of the only positive thing we had in the whole thing," says Baumert. "I mean if you go down some of these streets, if you know Sanibel, you wouldn't even know that you were on the street that you lived on. It looked that different from the last time we were here.”
But as time heals the island, it will also bring back its visitors.
"We've been here forever and it'll come back," she says. "It'll be Sanibel Strong again, I know that.”
