by Dorothy Wallace, Live Easy & Ryan Kane, Structure Pros
There was a moment after Hurricane Ian when I realized rebuilding wasn’t just about homes.
It was late—well after dark—standing on islands that no longer felt familiar. The workdays blurred together then. Decisions came fast. Sleep came rarely. Everyone had lost something: a house, a business, a season of life they expected to return to. Some lost far more than that.
For months—and now years—we lived in survival mode. Stabilize. Repair. Return. Rebuild. Construction became the language of hope: pilings driven, walls raised, roofs sealed, homes standing taller and stronger than before. Progress was visible, and in a time of loss, that visibility mattered.
But rebuilding also taught us hard lessons.
In the urgency to come home—or to reopen—trust was stretched thin. Many homeowners and business owners were forced to make fast decisions under stress, often from a distance, and not everyone who arrived to “help” had good intentions. Unscrupulous contractors took advantage of vulnerability. Projects stalled. Money disappeared. Promises were not kept. For some, the rebuilding process became a second trauma layered on top of the first.
Out of exhaustion and shared uncertainty, new relationships formed. Neighbors who barely knew one another before Ian became deeply connected. Homeowners, trades, engineers, and small business owners worked side by side under impossible conditions.
Today, Sanibel and Captiva are still very much in transition. We depend on businesses, full-time and seasonal residents and vacationers to survive. We are operating while rebuilding continues. Homes, shops, shorelines, and landscapes are part of a fragile, interconnected system.
That reality makes this next chapter especially important.
The pace of construction has slowed. And many homeowners are beginning to ask a new question:
What now?
This next phase isn’t about emergency response. It’s about stewardship—caring for what we’ve rebuilt in a place that never stops testing us.
Homes on Sanibel and Captiva today are becoming elevated, reinforced, and built to modern codes, shaped by hard-earned lessons. But stronger does not mean immune. These homes are more complex, and complexity demands attention.
Future articles will address how homeowners can protect and maintain their island investment for the long term. Examples: Shoreline protection, wave-attenuation systems, native landscapes, structural monitoring, the building envelope, inside the home, preventive maintenance, and more.
The resilience of these islands has never been just about rebuilding. It’s about learning, adapting, and caring—for our homes, our shorelines, our businesses, and one another. If we do that well, what we rebuild won’t just stand: it will support the life of these islands for generations to come.
About the author: Dorothy Wallace has been a part of Sanibel/Captiva since the 1950’s when, as a child, she visited several times a year until she moved to the islands permanently in 1990. Live Easy provides high end property management for clients who want peace of mind from detailed attention by an expert team. For questions and info: call 239-222-1005 or e-mail d@justliveeasy.com
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