The day after Christmas brought a lively scene to Fort Myers Beach, reminiscent of its pre-Hurricane Ian days.\u00a0<\/p>\n
WINK News was on the ground with exclusive coverage, capturing the sights and sounds of a community bouncing back.<\/p>\n
Anne Slusarski, a tourist visiting the area, expressed her joy at seeing the beach’s revival.<\/p>\n
“It’s really nice to see it back up and running again, because we missed the Old Fort Myers, but looking forward to the new Fort Myers,” said Slusarski.<\/p>\n
Slusarski was present just days after Hurricane Ian hit and recalled the devastation it left behind.<\/p>\n
“It looked like a war zone. There’s a while, like, ‘ Oh my gosh, it’ll never be the same.’ But that’s part of growth, and part of you know what we all like to see for this area,” she said.<\/p>\n
The transformation has been significant. According to Visit Florida and Lee County projections, visitor numbers are expected to match or exceed pre-hurricane levels by the end of 2026.<\/p>\n
Yvette Gammon, another tourist, shared her surprise at how bustling the beach has become.<\/p>\n
“We have to adapt to change, and unfortunately, Mother Nature plays a part in that. You know, I’m surprised. It’s really pumping. It was a little slow the first few days we were here, but yesterday, the beach was packed. It’s great,” said Gammon.<\/p>\n
Local businesses, especially those rebuilt from the ground up, are also experiencing a surge in business. The Whale, a popular restaurant, has been at the forefront of this revival.<\/p>\n
Greg Vonkrumreig, general manager of The Whale, commented on the restaurant’s progress.<\/p>\n
“I don’t want to quote the numbers, but I want to say we’re at about two-thirds of what we were before Ian. But we’re looking forward to a really great season this season,” said Vonkrumreig.<\/p>\n
The Whale was one of the first commercial restaurants to reopen after the storm, aiming to uphold the legacy of Fort Myers Beach.<\/p>\n
“We’re doing the best we can to really, really make Fort Myers Beach proud and in all kinds of ways, number one is a new restaurant, but also as one of these staples of the old, you know, Old Fort Myers Beach before Ian,” said Vonkrumreig.<\/p>\n
With familiar favorites back in operation, tourists are optimistic about Fort Myers Beach’s new normal.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The day after Christmas brought a lively scene to Fort Myers Beach, reminiscent of its pre-Hurricane Ian days.\u00a0…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":96593,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[209,211,210,3837,325],"class_list":{"0":"post-96592","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cape-coral","8":"tag-cape-coral","9":"tag-cape-coral-headlines","10":"tag-cape-coral-news","11":"tag-collaborator_gen_stories","12":"tag-lee"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96592","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=96592"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96592\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/96593"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=96592"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=96592"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=96592"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}