Water and wind from Hurricane Milton damaged about 1,300 homes in Bonita Springs while wrecking its beaches.
Most of the damage from the recent storm happened in four areas: Hickory Island, Spring Creek, Imperial Shores and in the corridor from West Terry Street to Pennsylvania Avenue, west of Old 41 Road, near the Imperial River.
Milton landed near Siesta Key, in Sarasota County, as a powerful Category 3 storm, on Oct. 9, with a devastating blow. Its impacts were felt far and wide before and after it hit, with an exit on Florida’s east coast.
City Council heard of the impacts in Bonita Springs from Tony Backhurst, the city’s director of neighborhood services and emergency management, at a special meeting Wednesday night. With the Imperial River, he said, nearby property owners don’t just have to deal with an incoming hurricane, but the “sheet flow following it.”
“That was key on this one,” he said.
At one point, he said, the river got “pretty close up there toward 12 feet.” At 11 feet, minor flooding starts.