Update from Lee County on Boca Grande operations for Hurricane Helene cleanup

Lee County today sent an update to the Beacon and the community today to tell of post-Hurricane Helene efforts in Boca Grande. A few departmental updates for residents from the public information office:

Lee Department of Transportation

The department was in Boca Grande on Friday to assess the situation:

• Boca Grande experienced significant levels of flooding on the roadways, and water levels were exacerbated by Saturday’s additional rainfall.
• DOT teams completed first push of accessible roads to ensure they were passable.
• DOT worked to expedite drying out of Gasparilla Road by installing pumps to move water out of retention areas, and these efforts are ongoing today.
• DOT is coordinating with Lee County Natural Resources to explore additional methods to improve drainage of Gasparilla Road.
• DOT teams cleared all roadside drainage outfalls to help restore functionality of the remainder of the drainage design.
• DOT is mobilizing debris/sand removal operations to Boca Grande, and these efforts will continue until roadside debris has been collected.

Solid Waste

• Two debris trucks are allocated for collection tomorrow. Will be dispatched to Boca Grande in the morning. 
• Arranging for disposal at the Charlotte transfer station by Monday.

Community Development

The department will have Boca Grande Damage Assessment and Post-Disaster Permitting

Starting Monday

• Deploy three damage assessment teams to Boca Grande once streets are accessible.
• Will distribute flyers on permitting requirements to owners of properties with damage during assessments.
• Begin to identify location for remote permitting operation on island – checking with Parks and Facilities departments on available spaces.

Beginning week of Oct. 7

• Stand up remote permitting operation – include staff from historic, permitting, plan review and development services.
• Provide services up Monday, Wednesday and Friday. 
• Assess volume for following week.

Facilities Construction & Management

• Crews began their initial assessment on Friday
  • Initially had difficulty accessing the island due to flooded roadways.
  • Initial assessment was water damage to the Community Center and The Boca School.
    • The team finished their assessment at the school and community center on Saturday and clean-up began shortly after.
  • Boca Grande library assessment.
    • Water intrusion in the media and children’s area.
• Teams continued to collect initial data on all remaining Boca sites and addtional assessments and clean-up were performed Sunday at the school and community center.
• Facilities expects to conclude all building assessments on Monday.

Parks & Recreation

• Park rangers are on island and continue to monitor situation and assist as needed.
  • Working with facilities on remediation and repairs to the Community Center.
  • Assessing impacts to other facilities and parks on Boca Grande.

Below, some images from Saturday at the Boca Grande Community Center. The water on the lawn continued to dry up as the day proceeded.