Florida Hurricane Ian Relief
October 2022 – September 2024
Last updated: April 2024
All Hands and Hearts (AHAH) is in Florida responding to the devastating impacts of 2022’s Hurricane Ian. Utilizing our volunteer-powered disaster relief model, as of March 2024, we have impacted over 1,530 people affected by the hurricane.
Our Work
Since the program’s launch in October 2022, All Hands and Hearts has conducted various scopes of disaster relief work in Ft. Myers and surrounding Lee County, which suffered massive damage to homes and infrastructure in the hurricane. In our second year of operation, our goal remains to get vulnerable community members back into safe, secure, and functional homes.
The impact of this work extends beyond physical improvements. For the families and individuals assisted so far, each property cleared, each home stripped of muck and mold or repaired provides a foundation for renewed hope. Together, the households assisted in contributing to a stronger, revitalized community.
Current Activities
The Florida Hurricane Relief program now extends to the end of September 2024, continuing our on-the-ground support in Fort Myers beyond Hurricane Ian’s two-year anniversary.
Last month, we completed three home muck and guts, five mold sanitations and began work on three interior rebuilds with Red Cross funding.
We are beginning a new round of aid partnership with Sheltering at Home for Recovery Continuation (SHRC), providing vital interior repairs to an additional 80 homes.
Nearly 18 months after the hurricane, individuals are still living in unsafe homes or temporary housing. These internal repairs will enable families and individuals to return home and gain some sense of normalcy post-hurricane.
Disaster Profile
Hurricane Ian started as a tropical depression on September 24, 2022, and underwent a rapid intensification, making its first landfall in Cuba as a category 3 hurricane. After intensifying to a category 4 hurricane, it made a second landfall on the west coast of Florida near Fort Myers on September 28, causing devastating impacts to coastal cities and towns along with catastrophic flooding further inland. Ian’s 150 mph winds, storm surge and rainfall caused power outages across the state, damaged infrastructure and overturned cars and boats. After slowly crossing central Florida, the storm exited at Daytona Beach and made another landfall in South Carolina as a category 1 storm.
Ian ties seven other storms as the fifth strongest to make landfall in the United States. Its wind speed was shy of a category 5 hurricane with sustained winds of 157 mph. At landfall, there was at least a 12-foot storm surge in the Fort Myers area, destroying homes and causing extensive flooding.
All Hands and Hearts ©2024
