There wasn’t a Margaritaville on Fort Myers Beach when Hurricane Ian roared ashore on Sept. 28, 2022. Well, not a finished resort.When Ian came and tore apart the beach community with historic storm surge two years ago, Margaritaville was under construction and still more than a year away from opening. It was untouched because there wasn’t really anything to touch at the time.
Fast forward to Sept. 26, 2024 and it was a much different story. Hurricane Helene was spinning in the Gulf of Mexico and the resort was open for guests, having opened its doors for the first time at the end of 2023. Even though Helene wasn’t a direct hit like Ian, this marked the first time the Margaritaville resort would feel the impacts of a hurricane.
We reached out the the management at Margaritaville by email to see how things went and how things are going one week since Helene caused flooding on Fort Myers Beach. We are also including some post-storm photos of Margaritaville taken by Andrew West − taken the day after the storm (Sept. 27). The resort staff has since done its clean-up efforts>