BONITA BEACH, Fla. — The music drowns out the hammering and nail guns from a block away.
Doc’s Beach House is selling t-shirts, just off the sand, as servers are back to walking out the plates of pork shoulder tacos to fill the appetites under the umbrellas.
More than ten months since Hurricane Ian hit, Doc’s is operating out of a food truck with managers telling FOX 4 that October 1 is the target date to switch back from the food truck and for the restaurant and bar to open back up.
For a steamy summer Friday, Bonita Beach was packed with people and cars, so much different than six months ago when, during what should have been the busy winter season, Bonita was deserted. Lee County Sheriff’s Deputies sat along Hickory Boulevard, keeping the traffic moving with so many debris trucks hauling off the damage.
“This is my first time down here since after Ian,” said Stephanie Herrmann of Lehigh Acres. “A lot has changed as far as the building sand the trees surrounding me. But what hasn’t changed is the water. It’s still beautiful down here, wouldn’t change that. I will still keep coming.”
About a mile north of Joe’s Beach House, the damage to the signature properties along Hickory still bears the scars of the Category 4 hurricane with its extreme winds. Drivers can still see large items, like appliances, stuck in the mangroves.
“We’ve been coming down here for 20 years and it’s a beautiful beach,” said Charlotte Whitman, back at Bonita Beach with her husband, Joe. “I just hate to see the destruction in the homes but it’s coming back and we will be back. ”
With the heat index at Bonita Beach pushing back past 100, people filled the water, not as much to cool off as to stay out of the heat.
“The water is beautiful, it’s like bath water and the sand is better than I thought it was going to be after the storm and everything,” said Dyan Beitter, visiting Bonita Beach from Texas. “We noticed quite a big difference from the six weeks (before) when we were here. A long way to go and my heart aches for these people. I can’t even imagine. Getting up in the morning and seeing your place gone. ”
