FORT MYERS BEACH, Fla. — Music and prayer filled the grounds of the Church of the Ascension Monday morning, four years to the day after Hurricane Ian devastated Fort Myers Beach and destroyed the church that once stood there.
Parishioners, clergy and members of the community returned to the property for a special Catholic Mass of Remembrance led by Bishop Emilio Biosca, the new bishop of the Diocese of Venice.
The Mass honored the people who lost their lives, loved ones and homes during Ian, along with those who are still working to recover four years later.
For many of the people who came back to the property, the memories of Sept. 28, 2022, are still very real.
Father Bill Adams knows that better than most.
Adams, the former priest of the Church of the Ascension, rode out Hurricane Ian in the monastery on the property with the sisters who lived there.
He said forecasts before the storm had Hurricane Ian heading toward Tampa. Instead, Fort Myers Beach became ground zero.
Adams said the storm surge continued rising around them until even a generator elevated roughly 17 feet off the ground was covered by water.
“We were here for four days,” Adams said.
He remembers watching the water rise like a bathtub filling up, eventually reaching the upper levels of the monastery. He said the sisters looked to him for support as they prepared to move higher in the building if the water continued to rise.
When the water finally receded that evening, Adams walked outside.
A photo taken in the aftermath shows him sitting on top of an air conditioning unit, surrounded by the destruction left behind.
Nearby, he said an entire house had been pushed into the middle of Estero Boulevard, its battery-operated smoke alarms still going off.
Adams described the experience with one word: “surreal.”
Four years later, returning to the same property brought back those memories.
“It’s kind of emotional,” Adams said. “Because I know people are still suffering.”
He said some people are still unable to fully return to homes and condos damaged by Ian.
His message to those still going through that recovery was simple.
“Hang in there,” Adams said.
That ongoing recovery was also reflected in the stories of parishioners who attended Monday’s Mass.
Stephanie Tague once lived on Fort Myers Beach in an RV with her boyfriend. Hurricane Ian destroyed both their trailer and their car.
“We’re still rebuilding, and we’d like to come back hopefully one day,” Tague said.
Tague also has a long connection to the Church of the Ascension. She attended the church growing up and continued visiting it into adulthood.
For her, returning to the property Monday was about community, prayer and being together four years after the storm.
Kathy Gregory also remembers seeing the devastation on Fort Myers Beach in the days after Ian.
Gregory said she drove through the island about a week after the storm and remembers seeing sand covering the roads and widespread destruction.
“We were just, everybody was in tears,” Gregory said. “We still are in tears. We still feel bad for everything that was happening, everybody that was hurt.”
But Gregory also remembers how quickly people across Southwest Florida stepped up to help each other.
She recalled neighbors cooking for people who did not have working ovens and churches and local organizations handing out food and supplies.
“Everybody helped everybody,” Gregory said.
That same sense of community brought people back to the Church of the Ascension property Monday.
Bishop Biosca said he was struck by the turnout.
He told WINK News he expected a much smaller gathering but instead saw a strong response from people who still feel connected to the parish and want to see it return.
“I think the message is that we’re here and we want to continue to work with the community to build the church,” Biosca said.
The physical rebuilding of the Church of the Ascension, however, is still a work in progress.
Hurricane Ian’s storm surge destroyed the church in 2022. Pews were tossed around the sanctuary, stained glass was shattered and heavy statues were knocked from their pedestals.
Last year, the Diocese of Venice unveiled renderings for a new church on the same property.
Those plans called for the new building to be elevated to better protect it from storm surge, with a driveway rising to the church. The design also featured a cross that would be lit at night and visible from the surrounding community.
At the time, the Diocese said the goal was to build a church that would serve Fort Myers Beach well into the future.
Since then, rising construction costs and other factors have delayed the project and led to revisions.
Biosca, who has only been leading the Diocese for a matter of months, told WINK News Monday that the Diocese is taking another look at the plans developed before his arrival.
He said officials are reviewing whether those plans still meet the needs of the community and how they compare with similar churches in this part of Florida.
There is currently no official timeline for when the new Church of the Ascension will be completed.
The Diocese tells WINK News the project is in the permitting process.
Biosca said one of the first steps could be finding a way to safely celebrate Mass on the Ascension property on a more regular basis, even before the full church is built.
“The turnout was so positive, so powerful that it really inspires us to work all the harder and to find solutions to the problems, so that we can celebrate the Mass here at this site as soon as possible,” Biosca said.
For now, the property remains a visible reminder of both what Hurricane Ian took from Fort Myers Beach and how much rebuilding remains.
But Monday morning, for the people who once worshipped there, it was once again a place filled with music, prayer and people.
Four years after Ian, the church building has not returned yet.
The community did.