LEE COUNTY, Fla. — Hurricane Ian has caused massive devastation in much of southwest and central Florida and now there is concern about how underserved communities are faring through the aftermath.
“We all are hurting. We all got hit,” said Kolonda James, who lives in Cape Coral. “If you don’t have family here, what are you going to do when there’s no more food when the shelter is closed over here where I live at?”
James is one of the many victims trying to get back on their feet after Hurricane Ian destroyed much of southwest Florida. With the constant smell of mildew and only a fan powered by a generator, life is far from easy right now.
“It’s hard when, in the middle of the night, your 9-year-old is like, ‘Mom, it’s hot. It’s hot.’ And then you don’t want to burden everybody else to try to stay with them. So, you try to tough it out,” said James.
Crystal Johnson is a community activist in Ft. Myers and she said underserved communities here – like Harlem Heights and Dunbar – have not received the attention they deserved after Hurricane Ian hit. “This was a community that was underwater as well,” said Johnson.
Though the devastation is being felt by people across all socioeconomic levels, she feels that most of the attention is being focused on wealthy communities.
“Some of the difficulties, though, with this community is the fact that the majority-minority, Black and brown communities – especially a neighborhood here called Dunbar community – is a community that is already struggling. It’s a community that is in a food desert. Doesn’t have grocery stores within a five-mile radius,” said Johnson.
Community concerns
I asked Linda Darryl, a community member, what were her top concerns regarding Hurricane Ian’s impact on the people in her neighborhood.
“My number one concerns are any medical trauma, post-traumatic stress. You know, we just suffered devastation with covid, which is not over, and, so, you have a group of people that are already marginalized,” said Darryl.
“Now Hurricane Ian comes and that’s a double stress that you put on people who have not gotten over just going through the devastation of Covid, not having jobs, not having money,” said Darryl.
Shonda Batio DeLeon lives in the Harlem Heights community of Fort Myers. She said this, mostly minority neighborhood is a tight-knit ones and they feel like family to each other.
“We’re Black, Puerto Rican, Mexican, I’m Italian,” said Batio DeLeon.
Like many in this community, Batio DeLeon and her husband lost many of their personal belongings as Hurricane Ian pushed water inland, inundating this working-class neighborhood. On their street, you can see loads of household items piled on top of each other that are now damaged and unusable due to flooding.
The disparity in homeowners’ insurance
One of DeLeon's concerns is the disparity in access to homeowners’ insurance. She said many people in her neighborhood, including themselves, could not afford to insure their homes.
“His [her husband] health insurance is $1,050 a month. Do I have health insurance for him or do I have homeowners’ insurance? It’s just you have to pick,” said DeLeon.
Community resilience
Through the devastation comes a sense of resiliency as these hard-hit, underserved communities come together when it is most important.
“You have all of your churches coming together helping to feed the children. You have their members coming out being volunteers. You have people looking out for the elderly,” said Crystal Johnson, the community activist.
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