10/02/2022
Many of you know Elijah and know he lives and works on Pine Island. He and his family Evacuated and are safe.
Elijah managed to get back to the Island to help and his messages to us are similar to the following:
Written by Jay Reynolds’s
This message is to our government officials in charge of Hurricane Ian relief. I am a resident of Pine Island and what I have heard from our Fire Chief troubles me greatly.
We are being told that FEMA is set to abandon Pine Island for SIX MONTHS. That is not acceptable.
Contrary to what it appears there are THOUSANDS of perfectly habitable houses here. There are THOUSANDS of perfectly driveable vehicles here.
Our bridges are perfectly good. We need the access road up to the bridges which is a 1/4 mile long plus a 20 foot section of washout to be repaired.
This is all that is required to begin our recovery, the residents can do the rest.
We can accept that power and water will not be immediately restored. We CANNOT ACCEPT that access to our property and businesses will be taken away.
This roadway will have to be repaired anyway, so you might as well accept responsibility and make plans to do that.
Besides the perfectly functional properties, there are hundreds of $ millions worth of properties with minor damage which can be mitigated if repairs are made promptly.
There are functional boats which need to get back to work, people who need to get back to work on and off the island. We need an equitable effort by government with equal protection for our people.
Put yourself in our shoes, remember the Golden Rule.
Imagine yourself with a perfectly functional house and vehicle yet unable to continue on with life because someone made an error in judgement. What do you propose for us to do? Walk away, buy a new vehicle, buy a new house, lose our jobs and businesses, go bankrupt?
Whoever is making decisions needs to ask themselves these questions and change their minds. We will not accept abandoning our lives over road repairs. You MUST change your plans and expedite our recovery by repairing our road access.
That is the ONLY acceptable path into the future. Come and see me so we can talk more about this. Please share this message as widely as possible.
Jay Reynolds
6450 Hubbard Drive
Bokeelia, FL 33922
