Fort Myers Mayor Kevin Anderson told Newsmax on Friday he's thankful that his city did not get hit with the storm that was predicted with Hurricane Milton, but still, homes and businesses suffered damages when the storm came ashore.
"We had some flooding," the mayor said on Newsmax's "Wake Up America." "We had some tornadoes and there are damaged homes and businesses, but again, I think people are thankful it wasn't much worse. We expect most of our downtown businesses to be open today."
Anderson said the power service is slowly coming back on as well.
"We started the day off with about 18,000 people without power," he said. "I believe all of downtown has got its power on now and most of the city. We still have some pockets."
Fort Myers was hit hard by Hurricane Ian in 2022, and was "well on the road to recovery" before the double blow this year by Hurricanes Milton and Helene, said Anderson.
"Helene came and flooded some of the same places that Ian flooded, and here we are, two weeks later, and now Milton's done it again," he said. "We have one historic neighborhood close to the river, and they were completely flooded in by Ian, and here they are again, a lot of them just getting back in their homes and they got flooded by Helene and again by Milton."
Fort Myers' situation was also helped by more people leaving their homes and heading out of town or going to shelters, said Anderson.
"We had several thousand people in shelters," he said. "The other thing we noticed is especially downtown, people took more precautions to protect their properties than they had done in the past."
Anderson also on Friday discussed the ongoing differences between Gov. Ron DeSantis and Vice President Kamala Harris, after the governor said Harris has "no role in this process" of dealing with the hurricane and accused her of trying to politicize the storm recovery.
DeSantis, said Anderson, is a "strong leader" who "knows how to face a disaster and how to react to a disaster."
The mayor added that he got a call from Harris' staff, and pointed out that she never called after Hurricane Ian.
Anderson, though, said the federal response to Helene and Milton has been good in the Fort Myers area, but "watching the news and hearing stories about other areas of the state and North Carolina, it doesn't seem to be, as the response is well or as much as what we received after Ian."
Meanwhile, Fort Myers is "open for business," said Anderson.
"The beaches are coming back," he said. "The islands are coming back. The city is strong. There's no reason to avoid southwest Florida."
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Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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