For three days, Mr. Stern and his team had been making trips to Sanibel, North Captiva Island and St. James City, barrier island communities that dot the southwestern Florida coast along the Gulf ...

Smith, the mayor of Sanibel, planned to fly out to the island Friday. She told CNN’s John Berman that she was seeing some images of the damage for the first time on CNN and “it’s pretty ...

Sanibel’s newly elected mayor expressed his readiness to lead the island. “Our biggest project is to accelerate the recovery [for] both of our residents and our businesses,” said Miller.

As Sanibel Island residents access their properties, the area is still "extremely unsafe," Mayor Holly Smith said. And houses that look fine from the outside may prove to be too damaged to live in.

The wait to return to Sanibel Island on Thursday was agonizing for residents and business owners, many of whom were still rebuilding from Hurricane Ian in 2022 and just digging out after Hurricane ...