The Sandy Pines Hurricane Response Plan includes updates published on the website to facilitate communications with residents, owners, and friends who are off-site during a named tropical storm event.
Hurricane Ian was a large and destructive Category 4 Atlantic hurricane, that was the deadliest hurricane to strike the state of Florida since the 1935 Labor Day hurricane. Ian caused widespread damage across western Cuba and the southeast United States, especially the states of Florida and South Carolina. It was the ninth named storm, fourth hurricane, and second major hurricane of the 2022 Atlantic hurricane season. – Wikipedia
10/22/2022: Sandy Pines is gradually returning to normal, as cleanup from Hurricane Ian winds down. This will be the last Hurricane Ian Blog post for this storm. Thanks to everyone inside Sandy Pines during and immediately following the storm for providing information for our informational updates. We appreciate the interest and best wishes from our friends in other communities within Bay Forest: thank you all for your comments and photos!
Beginning this week, Professional Green Care has transitioned from doing hurricane cleanup throughout Bay Forest as well as Sandy Pines to our regular, contracted landscape maintenance work. Parts of the Sandy Pines irrigation system are now up and running, with repairs ongoing. Our volunteers saved Sandy Pines owners thousands of dollars–thank you all for your dedication!
More details may be seen in the recent Landscape Committee Report.
10/11/2020 10:00PM: A week has passed since our last update and the cleanup from Hurricane Ian continues.
Our president, Joe Hauwiller, reports, “Sandy Pines is looking better. We had volunteers raking and collecting debris over the past week. All the sidewalks, bridges and stairs are clear, as are most of the parking lots. FEMA will pick up the debris at no charge, but it could take months – so the board will need to decide if we want to hire a private carrier to haul it away. A special thanks goes out to Karen, Mark, Arleen, Tam, Joe & Connie, Sandy & Bill, Chris & Louise for their volunteer efforts in our cleanup. Mike has been busy replacing screens and clearing the gutters.
“Our irrigation systems are down. The 15470 pump appears to work, but the control box was flooded and needs to be replaced. The same is true for the station at 15450; although that system also sustained some damage to the pipes leading from the pump to the control valves. The station at 325 broke prior to the hurricane. We suspect that a lighting strike or moisture caused a short in the powerline between the electrical shed at 15330 and the pump. Work to repair the line was interrupted by Ian. Repairs to the irrigation systems will start this week.
“A special thanks to Mark for replacing the motor on our pool filter. His efforts saved us thousands of dollars and made the pool clean up possible. The water has gone from coffee color to just cloudy in a few days. I suspect that, due to the heroic efforts of Luis (from the Bay Forest maintenance staff) and Mark the pool will be open early next week. The pool heater turns on, but we haven’t left it on long enough to ensure its working.
“Outside of Bay Forest, most of the stores and restaurants on Hwy 41 and east are open. Grocery store inventory is improving; however, there are still some bare spots. Gas stations are open and the lines have disappeared. The beaches are still closed as are the roads near the beaches. You can tell where the low spots are around town because there are piles of carpet and ruined furniture on their curbs. The recovery efforts on Sanibel and Ft Myers Beach continue – charitable donations are still needed. It will take a while, but we will get back to normal.”
10/04/2022 4:20PM: Our Photo Gallery of Hurricane Ian pictures has been updated to include images from our neighboring associations of Las Vistas, Storrington, and Plantation.
10/04/2022 12:30PM: Recovery from the storm continues at Sandy Pines and throughout Bay Forest. See today’s update from Sandy Pines President Joe Hauwiller that was emailed to all owners. Feel free to share this information, as well as the link to our website, with other Bay Forest residents, your friends, and family.
The following message was received this morning from Nini Corbin at Bay Forest:
Good morning
This information was emailed and posted on the Bay Forest Website.
Luis asked if you may please keep an eye on the pools as he turns them on to make sure everything is working properly.
Click here for areal photos of boardwalk (aerial drone photos courtesy of Bob McMahon).
Thank you,
Nini Corbin, LCAM
239-597-5129
239-597-4431 fax
All of us at Sandy Pines thank everyone for your messages of encouragement, pictures, and status updates as we work our way through recovery from Hurricane Ian!
10/02/2022 2:45PM: Hurricane Ian Imagery is available online from NOAA. This image shows the extent of damage to the Bay Forest boardwalk. The Chickee Hut and about one third of the boardwalk leading inland toward the mangroves remains in place! Where the boardwalk is more elevated, it was pretty much destroyed. Earlier pictures in the Photo Gallery show the pilings remain in place with the decking ripped free and tossed to the side.
The website in the link, above, is navigable and the view can be moved to explore the extent of damage in other areas impacted by Hurricane Ian. Thanks to Walt Evans via Bill Adams for passing along this information.
10/01/2022 7:30PM: A new Photo Gallery of the aftermath of Hurricane Ian is now available.
10/01/2022 6:00PM: Good News! Electric power has been restored after an outage lasting 3 days, 3 hours. Sandy Pines came back on-line about 3:15PM this afternoon–a much shorter outage than following Hurricane Irma. With the return of power, HVAC systems should be once again removing humidity from unoccupied units and cooling our year-around residents.
Important: If you are seasonal, please inform your homewatch personnel so they can verify your A/C system is operational. It is critical that we keep humidity below 60% to avoid issues with mold!
Water has continued to recede throughout Bay Forest. As of this morning, water was low enough that the pool deck at Commons II is once again visible. Reports are the new pool deck, fencing, and entrance walk appear okay.
09/29/2022 10:45PM: The weather continues to moderate in Naples as cleanup begins in Bay Forest. This evening’s update from Sandy Pines is that the exterior of the buildings looks good from preliminary inspection. One section of fencing has blown over and most that were repaired or replaced since Hurricane Irma held up well. Interior inspection of units has just begun and will continue tomorrow–no issues have been found as of this writing.
Pool Commons II, which is used by Sandy Pines, Las Vistas, and The Villas, remains under water. Water levels have begun to slowly recede. This video clip shows the conditions as of this afternoon. The view is from the new entrance walkway, moves to the left along the edge of the pool, then looks from near the ladder east toward Cedar Lake.
The earlier report of damage to the Bay Forest boardwalk is confirmed: the elevated section from the last turn out to the Chickee Hut (along which kayaks were stored) was lifted from pilings and thrown into the mangroves.
09/29/2022 3:00PM: An hour ago the center of Hurricane Ian had moved into the Atlantic Ocean and is located approximately 67 miles east of Daytona Beach. As it continues away from the Naples area weather is expected to clear, improving conditions for crews to make repairs to the electrical grid, evaluate damage, and begin storm clean-up. Today is breezy and relatively cool, providing relief to those on the ground.
As of this morning, observation of Sandy Pines buildings from ground level reveals little to no visible damage to the new roofs. There have been no reports of ground floor flooding in our buildings. Damage to trees is seen to be notably less than was the case following Hurricane Irma in 2017. Our parking lots are open, but littered with leaves, acorns, small branches, and other debris in some places as deep as 2-3 inches. Some cleanup has begun by those in residence and discussions are ongoing with our landscape contractor.
Elsewhere in Bay Forest, there is scattered damage and some flooding of ground floor units and automobiles in lower-lying areas. A fallen tree branch at the entrance gate has blocked its operation and traffic is using the exit gate in both directions. There is a report of significant damage to the boardwalk.
Information is spotty, as cell service is currently overloaded and less than reliable. Text messages may get through better than phone calls, should you need to make contact with others in the storm area. General information is available on numerous media outlets as we continue to wait on specifics from inside Bay Forest. Media indicates crews are already evaluating and prioritizing infrastructure repairs–and note that it will be days, if not weeks, before all services are restored.
09/28/2022 9:45 PM: The eye of the storm has progressed inland and is located 85 miles southwest of Orlando, moving northeast at about 8 miles per hour with maximum winds of 105 miles per hour. Ian is now a Category 2 storm.
Sandy Pines is past the halfway mark of the storm’s progress. Indications are the storm surge danger is lessening along the Collier County coastline. Because of the heavy rain accompanying the hurricane, standing water will take some time to dissipate. The chance of rain has dropped to 50% on Thursday and clearing skies are forecast for Friday. A number of clear, sunny days will follow.
Sandy Pines experienced flooding in our parking lots and water from of Cedar Lake overflowed to within a foot of some lanais in the 15400 building. Pool Commons II is significantly flooded, including the filter and heater. The walking path around the lake was under one to two feet of water late this afternoon.
There are no reports of further damage to Sandy Pines buildings as of this writing. We should have a clearer picture tomorrow when it is safe for our on-site hurricane team to inspect the property.
09/28/2022 3:00PM: So far, there has been no flooding as far as we know in Sandy Pines or inside Bay Forest. High tide is at 3:30 PM this afternoon and indications are the storm surge has peaked or is near maximum in our area. Tides are running about six feet above normal. Wind speed has been in the 80+ miles per hour range in our area. Although the eye of the storm is approaching land in the Sanibel/Captiva/Fort Myers area, there will be plenty of weather in the Naples area in the near future as the storm moves north from Collier County.
Power was lost in Sandy Pines about noon today. We expect it will be hours, if not days, before crews are able to safely assess and begin performing repairs to the electrical infrastructure. Check the FPL Website for up-to-date information on power restoration.
When it is safe to do so, our Sandy Pines on-site hurricane team will be inspecting the property and we will have more information to share.