‘The Gateway Project’ to Gasparilla Island discussed by the Boca Grande Disaster Relief Fund

Upon taking that first journey onto the island on the heels of Hurricane Ian, there are sights that were seen that many will never forget. The tall pines down across the Boca Grande Causeway after the middle bridge. Homes ripped wide apart. The lake of water at the base of the south bridge, stretching all the way past the Gulf Shores Drive and the Boca Grande Club.  But it was the trees that came down across from Grande Quay that made so many so sad. One didn’t realize their size and girth until they were seen laying with their tips in the lake and their massive root systems exposed. These trees that lined the west side of the Causeway road were pulled up by the roots as if a giant had come through and picked them like weeds. Their root balls lining the roadway were 20 feet tall and 30 feet wide.