An employee at the Cottage Beach Bar in Fort Myers Beach caught video of the canopy over the bar's beachfront deck being blown off by heavy winds from Wednesday's storms.
The video, shared by server Tammy Drake on her Facebook page, not only captures the moment the canopy was ripped off its frame, but shows chairs on the deck being blown across the deck.
"It was incredible, the wind came whipping up out of nowhere," said server Austin Jamieson, who was with Drake. "We were standing in the server station. The whole roof ripped off the canopy...just pulled all the way back like a tin can."
"All the chairs came flying back at us," Jamieson added. "(It was) a little intense."
Other than some debris from the nearby Lani Kai hotel being blown onto the Cottage Beach Bar's property, he said the business did not receive any other damage. He said the bar plans to replace the canopy.
Andy Degele and Jill Stanley, visiting from Maryland and Pennsylvania respectively, said they didn't expect to have to deal with severe weather on their first visit to Southwest Florida.
"It was crazy," Stanley said of Wednesday's storm. "We were sitting by the pool, and out of nowhere a huge gust of wind came by and almost blew me into the pool."
"The water was just torrential," Degele added.
