Just last week, my wife was lobbying for a winter trip to Sanibel to see the birds and shells. She visited it with her sister some 25 years ago. One thing she remembered clearly was that it was about 3 feet above sea level... and they had a massive storm surge yesterday.
The causeway out to Sanibel was destroyed. Anyone who stayed behind is trapped.
Sanibel will take a couple of years to get out from under this mess.
That is the maximum elevation for Sanabel Captiva goes to 7 feet I’ve been going to both of them for years I’m sure it’s devastation
And I would imagine a fair amount of people decided to ride it out thinking it would be like the usual hurricane in the area which are not super strong as a rule
I live through Camille as a boy about 5 miles from the coast and I learned my lesson I was on the beach the next morning with my father who was a contractor and it was unbelievable I will never forget it all the dead animals in the trees and banana ships up on the beach and petroleum tanks washed up on shore
Camille was a fast moving very powerful winds storm and anyone who stayed inside the railroad tracks from the beach was in peril no question