NewsFlorida News

Actions

High rises after Hurricane Ian

Fort Myers Beach residents learning fate of their buildings
Posted

FORT MYERS BEACH, Fla. — Chris Lissner gave Fox4 a tour of the Fort Myers Beach condo building where he lives. He’s also the condo association Board President at Terra Mar.

“I’ve walked through virtually every unit and the vast majority are fine. It’s crazy,” Lissner said.

It’s a stark contrast. The first two floors of the building were severely damaged, while most units on the upper floors had minimal damage or none at all from Hurricane Ian.

Town officials with Fort Myers Beach put out word in a daily briefing about the process to assess high rises:

Town of Fort Myers Beach building inspectors in conjunction with Army Corps of Engineers infrastructure assessment team are conducting rapid assessments of buildings on Fort Myer Beach. The intent of the assessments is to quickly assess the habitability of the structure and recommend a rating of safe to enter, restricted use, or not safe to enter. The teams have experienced engineers familiar with design and construction. The completed assessments will be provided to the county and local governing authorities which is important data that is needed for emergency governmental assistance.

Lissner said he recently got work about his building. “They made the determination two days ago that the building is structurally sound,” Lissner said. “He said the building did exactly what it was supposed to.” Lissner said this calms any angst of his building being condemned.

“God’s smiling on this building,” Lissner said. “It’s in remarkably good shape.”