FORT MYERS, Fla. — It has been more than six months since Hurricane Ian touched down and devastated communities across Southwest Florida.
Reporter Sophia Hernandez and Photojournalist Ismael Louis visited Fort Myers to return to some of the homes and businesses they showed us back in October to share their progress and how they are moving forward.
One of those businesses is called La Ola.
The Tex-Mex beachside restaurant with tropical drinks and live music has served Fort Myers Beach customers since 2010.
That’s until Hurricane Ian hit.
“We fully expected to see the restaurant.”
Tomas Houghton has owned the Times Square staple since 2015, and nothing prepared him for the damage he saw in the storm's wake.
“It looked like a war zone, like something you would see out of the walking dead. It was just complete destruction,” he shared.
There’s a line on the floor that marks where the front door once stood for La Ola restaurant.
But the owner has now taken creative measures to keep his business moving.
“We drove over to Miami," said Houghton. "My head chef and I purchased the food trailer maybe ten days after the storm.”
In early November, they were able to sell food once again.
“It just keeps the hope alive for me. You can’t look back and look on the past. You just have to keep going," said Houghton.
But the work didn’t stop there.
Houghton wanted to bring back a bar, so he got to work once again—this time with two shipping containers.
“Originally, they were on the ground come to find out FEMA wouldn’t allow them to stay because we are in a V zone, so we had to crane them back up in the air and lease two 40-foot gooseneck trailers. That’s what they are sitting on today,” shared Houghton as he showed the space.
It took a lot of permitting, permission, and money to make La Ola a fraction of what it once was.
“If you could approximate what that would cost, like the deck and shipping containers?” asked Sophia.
“About 200,000, and then add the food trailer, that’s another 60. Insurances for liquor licenses, that’s another 40," said Houghton.
"And that’s all after everything was devastated by the storm?” clarified Sophia.
“Yes, yup," answered Houghton.
Houghton is one of the lucky ones.
To his left and right, signs promise the future of a reopening that has yet to happen. The once popular main drag is now a quiet plot of land with the occasional whir of construction nearby.
“With all of the permitting and restrictions, it’s like one step forward, two steps back a lot of times. So, we are all going through our own struggles,” shared Houghton.
Houghton said neither FEMA nor the Small Business Administration has been of any help, so he’s left to do it all on his own.
He ran on a generator for six months. His internet is still down, so he had to purchase satellite internet through Starlink.
Meanwhile, the famous Times Square is undergoing redevelopment, hopefully bringing life back to the beach.
“Debris has been removed at this point, but there’s no real infrastructure at this point, and we still don’t have any real bathrooms in the square,” explained Houghton.
It’s why Houghton has created a new spot nine miles from the beach. But the new location gives a new sense of security,
“It’s very rewarding, it’s one of the most rewarding things to see the smiles on their faces, and they are so appreciative to have a place to go, to have a sense of normalcy, to have a place to go back to.”
The doors opened last week.
While their loyal shack gears for potential reconstruction nearby, Houghton hopes in the near future that his beach blue restaurant can come back with its old look in the same spot overlooking its forever home.