As many know, Hurricane Ian decided to take a right turn and cross over Southwest Florida September 28th as a category 4 hurricane. As the projections of this storm were heavily focused on Tampa, many residents along with local government, did not fear for our area. Ian had other plans and made landfall on our beautiful barrier islands just west of Fort Myers. This massive storm terrorized our area for over 10 hours and late into the evening with winds up to 155, just 2 mph shy of a category 5 hurricane, and over 13 feet of storm surge washing our beaches away. Ian took out a majority of southwest Florida’s power, water, internet, and for some homes, roofs, fences, and trees. Ian also damaged many bridges used to access the barrier islands of Sanibel, Captiva, Pine Island, Matlacha, Bokeelia, St. James City, and more.
However, we are resilient! Our community has come together and our neighbors have come down sending help and supplies. A majority of the power was restored in less than 10 days and there are dozens of organizations handing out food, groceries, and supplies.
As a boarding kennel, our customers use our services when they are out of town or cannot take care of their fur babies and they trust us to protect and care for their pets. Which our team did just that. As soon as it was determined the storm was coming our way and our area was placed under a hurricane warning, we attempted to alert all boarding clients to come get their fur babies if at all possible. Many customers were out of town and unable to make it back or couldn’t due to evacuations in order and trusted our team to keep their pets safe and that we did. One happy customer said, “I have nothing but praise for Cheryl and her staff. Our Cody was there for two weeks during the height of the hurricane. He came back to us happy and well fed. I wonder what stories he could tell. Thank you Cheryl for taking such good care of Cody.” As our motto goes, “where our family takes care of yours” here at BBK we treat your pets as though they are family.
The BBK staff and fur babies are all safe from the storm, however the BBK facility was not as lucky. Our location needed a new roof, flooring and ceiling tile in some areas as they were damaged. Staff took advantage of the down time and gave the building a deep cleaning. We are very grateful for the minor damage we had and we are humbled as we look around our town and see the extent of what this storm did.