NORTH FORT MYERS, Fla. (WINK)\u2014Four years after Hurricane Ian, Sonny Pillow and Richard Shourds can finally move ahead with repairs to their damaged home.<\/p>\n
Their townhouse off Bayshore Road sits feet from a canal that connects to the Caloosahatchee. Ian’s surge sent floodwaters into condos and townhomes there.<\/p>\n
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“We had four and a half feet of water inside of our unit. We fortunately had a town home so we could go upstairs. We watched the water come in and basically destroy everything,” Pillow said.<\/p>\n
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Most owners there were snowbirds who had other homes to return to. Pillow and Shourds said they did not have anywhere else to go.<\/p>\n
“We couldn’t afford to do that, to rent somewhere and pay the mortgage and homeowners association fees as well, so we basically had to stay there,” Pillow said.<\/p>\n
They lived upstairs and made do downstairs among exposed walls and an unfinished kitchen. A permit covering multiple units kept their home tied up, and they wanted their unit removed so they could find another way to fix it.<\/p>\n
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“People don’t realize what a four-year period is. I’ve lost two brothers. I’ve had a cancer diagnosis, and we have an environment in which we live that’s not conducive to comfort,” Shourds said.<\/p>\n
They turned to WINK Listens, and WINK News contacted the condo association, the county and the company handling reconstruction for the other units. Standpoint Sr. Vice President of Construction Rene Trevino said insurance delays and the complicated process of rebuilding 17 units contributed to the long wait.<\/p>\n
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“What I want to say is that it’s a long process. Four years is a long time. I mean, I agree,” Trevino said.<\/p>\n
Their unit has now been removed from the shared permit. That lets them hire another contractor and move faster on the rebuild.<\/p>\n
“Yes, our unit is going to be redone, as we have been told, and we are inviting you back for a visit in December to see our completion work,” Shourds said.<\/p>\n
Pillow said the change brought relief after years of waiting. He also credited WINK News with helping move the process forward.<\/p>\n
“It’s all thanks to you and WINK. What can I say? You lit a fire under everybody, and they respect you, but they say, ‘Boy, she is tough,'” Pillow said.<\/p>\n
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“We were praying for just a little bit of light. Well, you brought brightness, not just a little light,” Pillow said.<\/p>\n
Their home is not finished yet, but they said they can finally see a clear way forward. After four years of storm damage, that change has put them back on the path to living more fully in their home.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NORTH FORT MYERS, Fla. (WINK)\u2014Four years after Hurricane Ian, Sonny Pillow and Richard Shourds can finally move ahead…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":442013,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[209,211,210,325,115,4326],"class_list":["post-442012","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cape-coral","tag-cape-coral","tag-cape-coral-headlines","tag-cape-coral-news","tag-lee","tag-news","tag-wink_listens"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/442012","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=442012"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/442012\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/442013"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=442012"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=442012"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=442012"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}