Hurricane Ian: One Year Later

22 • HURRICANE IAN: ONE YEAR LATER • 2023 CLOSED FOR BUSINESS? Sue Wade Sun Correspondent Any drive up U.S. 41 from Punta Gorda to Venice, or along State Road 776 through Englewood, reminds us of the day Hurricane Ian came this way. The golden arches at Murdock's rebuilt McDonald's are ragged. Street signs are back, but commercial pole signs still stand skeletal and askew, their signage fl apping or ripped away. Many storefronts are open for business, but some are either gone for good, still being rebuilt, or relocated. Sometimes it's hard to tell which. Many shuttered businesses were at the mercy of landlords who might have been negligent or, to give benefi t of the doubt, were themselves at the mercy of unsettled insurance claims. Whole strip malls — most of 41 Chailett Road in Rotonda West, including Que- Rico Colombian Flavors and Noy's Bistro; and Englewood's Palm Plaza, Edgewater Plaza, Merchants Crossing and half of Feodor's Plaza across from The End Zone — won't be the same anytime soon. Englewood was hit especially hard. "We were a direct hit from a Category 5, so it was pretty devastating," Englewood Florida Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Doug Izzo said. "I know national news says it hit Fort Myers and it was only a Category 4." He debates that, noting wind gusts at Gasparilla Marina were 208 mph. "Fort Myers got the water, we got the wind," he said. There was no running or hiding from either. In Punta Gorda alone, Assistant City Manager Melissa Reichert reported that 87 businesses had closed since Oct. 1, 2022. It was a sobering total, but not all bad news. Two Punta Gorda businesses, overwhelmed separately by Ian, resurfaced side by side in a new downtown location. About 10 months ago, Becky Copenhaver settled into a new home for Becky's Garden Shoppe at 124 Cross Street, U.S. 41 southbound across from Shorty's Place. On the eve of the hurricane's anniversary, Sheryl "Shorty" Peters herself and co-owner Jayne Goddard resurrected Peters' 117 W. Marion Avenue Punta Gorda Mercantile in the new Punta Gorda Deli Co. & Mercantile at 264 W. Marion. HEAVY HITS Nearly a year after the storm, some of the worst losses are still being felt. The most obvious among them is the 55-year-old PG Waterfront Hotel in Punta Gorda. The derelict building is the fi rst thing that greets travelers over the southbound U.S. 41 bridge into Punta Gorda. The hotel has remained in disrepair since the storm, its owner incommunicado. Its leased neighbor, Hurricane Charley's Raw Bar & Grill, went down with it after Hurricane Idalia. The city building department and fi re marshal discovered holes in the roof that had leaked into the electrical panels and throughout the restaurant. Without help from the owner and unable to afford further repairs on its own, Hurricane Charley's was forced to close just shy of its 10-year anniversary. After 32 years in business, Susan and Corey Steinfath suffered the total destruction of A-1 Collision & Glass auto repair on Placida Road in Englewood. To make matters worse, their insurance company notifi ed them that they had no windstorm coverage. Their daughter, Tiffany Steinfath, wrote in a GoFundMe plea: "We are looking at several years before operations can resume and before income can start coming in." It's hard to miss the collapsed roof and tattered façade at 14260 Tamiami Trail in North Port. Inside, the nearly decade-old Cowork Hive was once a sleek shared suite of offi ces used by remote workers and entrepreneurs, all now disbanded. Not all losses cover that many acres, but some are just as heartbreaking. It was 2005 when Bill and Tomma Rolfe bought Englewood's Country Hound Café from Dave Farlow (father of Farlow's on the Water's Keith), who'd opened it 14 years earlier. In December, Bill Rolfe said the business was limping along under a damaged roof, with only one of three A/C units running. Their family worked at the Hound; their staff was like family. At the end of August they announced that their 32-year run as Englewood's hometown home-away-from- home was over. Every other unit in the restaurant's Palm Plaza was damaged. Many of its businesses, SUN PHOTO BY SUE WADE Becky Copenhaver orders lunch from Kimberly Moore at Sheryl "Shorty" Peters' and Jayne Goddard's new Punta Gorda Deli Co. & Mercantile. Deli customers are welcome to eat their lunch in Copenhaver's next-door Becky's Garden Shoppe courtyard. After destruction by Ian, both businesses resurfaced beside each other. Ian wiped out longtime eateries, enterprises In Punta Gorda alone, Assistant City Manager Melissa Reichert reported that 87 businesses had closed since Oct. 1, 2022. RBPHOTOS.COM / RICKB Doug Izzo, executive director of Englewood Florida Chamber of Commerce

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