Many Hurricane Ian victims still picking up pieces one year later

One year after Hurricane Ian made landfall near Cayo Costa, Fla., as a Category 4 storm, residents in the Fort Myers area are still picking up the pieces.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency hotel assistance, which paid for shelter for many families who would have otherwise been left homeless, ended earlier this summer, but some families are still living in budget motels, RVs or even sheds in their backyard.

The storm was later determined to have reached Category 5 intensity over the Gulf of Mexico waters. Hurricane Ian killed 149 people, making it the deadliest storm in the state since 1935.

Drone videos of the aftermath showed the destruction caused by the storm's 13.8-foot storm surge, 155-mph winds and more than 2 feet of rain that spread across the peninsula to Florida's east coast.

At $113 billion, Hurricane Ian ranks behind only Hurricane Katrina in 2005 and Hurricane Harvey in 2017, both of which caused $125 billion in damages, according to the National Hurricane Center.

Ian plowed through the citrus groves in central Florida, costing growers $675 million.

Glenn Beck, a citrus grower, told AccuWeather on Sept. 28, 2023, that the damage came at a bad time -- after 20 years of battling invasive insects in the industry -- but recovery from Ian's damage alone will take years.