Florida Flies in Engineers to Rebuild the Sanibel Causeway Destroyed by Hurricane Ian

SANIBEL, FLORIDA - SEPTEMBER 29: In this aerial view, the Sanibel Causeway bridge collapse
Joe Raedle/Getty Images
Hannah Knudsen

Gov. Ron DeSantis’s (R) administration is flying in engineers to rebuild the Sanibel Causeway, which connects Sanibel Island and Captiva to the Sunshine State’s mainland, after Hurricane Ian destroyed the road.

Hurricane Ian battered the causeway, making it totally impassable for vehicle traffic, as it is damaged in several areas:

On Thursday, DeSantis announced that they are making moves to expedite recovery of the causeway.

“We have flown in engineers to expedite construction on the Sanibel Causeway. Sanibel suffered extensive damage and we need to get the island connected to the mainland as soon as possible,” he said:

The announcement comes on the heels of the speedy construction of Pine Island bridge, which is now operational after access was devastated by the storm.

“Construction on the Pine Island bridge has been completed today — just three days after construction began. Happy to have the state step in and help get our Pine Island residents back on their feet,” DeSantis said, sharing a video of the operational bridge:

“Just knowing how government is, it takes them a week just to even have a meeting usually about stuff like that. But our view is, you know, we need to respond very quickly,” DeSantis said during a Wednesday press conference on the bridge.

Those are not the only successes the state has seen, either, as the governor announced that “all but 1.86 percent of the state” has power after the storm.

“Because of the pre-planning on this hurricane, with 42,000 utility workers stationed in the state of Florida prior to landfall, which has never been done at that scale, we’ve been able to now restore — all but 1.86 percent of the state of Florida has power,” DeSantis announced Thursday.

“So basically, as of 12 o’clock, it was about 200,000 people out of a massive state,” he added. “I mean, the storm left Florida Thursday, evening of last week and so here we are here.”

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