Betsy Ventura walked along the beach in front of the fallen Mucky Duck restaurant , assessing the damage to her home island.
A resident of this area since 1984, Ventura is no rookie when it comes to hurricane losses, but this one took out her business: YOLO Watersports.
“My home was on Sanibel, and it was destroyed during Ian,” Ventura said. “And my mother lives on Captiva, and I moved in with her. And during Helene it was flooded, and we had to redo that. So, I’m displaced, twice removed.”
She and her family fled to LaBelle during Hurricane Milton only to return to a ravaged barrier island.
“It’s tough,” she said. “We took all of our savings and rebuilt after Ian, and all of our chips were in on the island. You don’t want to make any big decisions after a disaster like this. Financially, I have to go where it’s free right now.”
She said the family hopes to get the business and her mother’s home repaired soon. Maybe one day she’ll have another house on Sanibel.
“We’re going to try to figure out how to get money to fix it back up, because it’s not worth anything at this point,” Ventura said. “This is just tragic.”