After making landfall near Cayo Costa, Hurricane Ian crossed through south central Florida counties, causing historic flooding.
Two weeks later, flood warnings remain in place for areas bordering the Peace River, Myakka River and Horse Creek throughout Polk, Highlands, Hardee and DeSoto counties.
On Monday, the Peace River was measured around 18 feet, according to a Hardee County spokesperson. This is down from record-breaking levels of 27 feet at its peak, with water levels expected to recede to minor flood status of 16 feet by Thursday.
As floodwater retreats in south central Florida counties, the full picture of roadway destruction from Hurricane Ian is now coming into view.
Local and state announcements show these roads and bridges remain closed, as of Oct. 11:
- North Hollandtown Road at Thoroughbred Road – Lane closed, both directions
- SR-64 from Brantwood Drive to Wilbur C. King Boulevard – Lane closed, both directions
- Fishbranch Road
- Bronco Drive
- Redge Rainey
- Post Plant Road
- Solomon Road
- Johns Road
- South Barlow Road
- Center Hill Road - near Palmer Road
- Maude Road
- Ten Mile Grade - east of Scarborough
Highlands County
- Golfview Road at Lake Drive Boulevard – Lane closed, both directions
- Marble Avenue from W Martin Road to S Lake Boulevard – Lane closed, both directions
DeSoto County
- NW 2nd Bunker Avenue at Arrowhead Pond Road – Lane closed, both directions
- SR-72 Westbound beyond SR-70 – All lanes closed
- SR-72 from NW Pearce Street to SR-70 – Lane closed
Christopher Simpron is the director of public works in Hardee County, where he says limited resources have made repairing roadways more challenging.
Hardee County maintains roughly 500 miles of roadways, including around 100 miles of dirt roads and 60 bridges that were impacted.
On Tuesday, Simpron said around a dozen roads will require intensive repairs, including three collapsed bridges and three cratered streets.
“It will take us time to get this done — even for emergency repairs — because it will just take a significant amount of resources, staff and equipment to repair the roadways,” Simpron said.
Ahead of Hardee County schools reopening on Monday, around 40 crewmen have been working to assess damaged roadways and conduct emergency repairs.
"We wanted to make sure that we have safe, reliable infrastructure post-storm,” Simpron said.
The next plan of action will be to request additional support from the Florida Department of Transportation.
He hopes the same attention and support provided to Lee County to rebuild major access roads, like the Sanibel Causeway, will soon be extended to Hardee County.
“There’s no way we can do this by ourselves,” Simpron said. “We need assistance at some point.”
Gabriella Paul covers the stories of people living paycheck to paycheck in the greater Tampa Bay region for WUSF. She's also a Report for America corps member. Here’s how you can share your story with her.
