Hurricane Ian Victims Warehoused in Cold HERTZ Ice Hockey Arena

Nearly three weeks after Hurricane Ian hit Fort Myers, the HERTZ ARENA ice hockey venue is the temporary home to displaced victims of Hurricane Ian.  It is cold and the storm victims are being neglected.  

Some of our local, state and federal officials may have delusions of adequacy. 

These storm victims are being held at a cold ice hockey arena, neglected by our governments and nonprofits.  

FDR, quoting Dante, said, "Governments can err, Presidents do make mistakes, but the immortal Dante tells us that divine justice weighs the sins of the cold-blooded and the sins of the warm-hearted in different scales. Better the occasional faults of a Government that lives in a spirit of charity than the consistent omissions of a Government frozen in the ice of its own indifference."

• Seems to me like local, state and federal officials are "frozen in the ice of their own indifference," cooping up storm victims in a cold ice hockey arena. 
• Seems to me like temporary housing should have been provided long ago in response to a Category 4 Hurricane that landed September 28, 2022. 

Governor DeSANTIS is doing what, exactly?

From Ft. Myers News-Press;

Some in Hertz Arena shelter don't know what's next, share stories of bitter cold, chaos inside

Mauricio La Plante

Fort Myers News-Press

Water seeped through boards covering melting ice below.

As families tried to rest on cots cramped together in the Hertz Arena mega shelter Thursday, people coughed. 

Once it gets late, the entertainment venue and hockey arena turned hurricane shelter is ice cold. 

The floor is so cold that kids put water bottles on it to cool them, said one family displaced from their home in Lee County.

"At night they completely turn the temperature all the way down and so the moisture that you see underneath each bed turns into a sheet of ice," said Brittany Allen, 35, a mother of seven living in the rink with her family who had resided in North Fort Myers before Hurricane Ian hit on Sept. 28.

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Allen's family lost their home after the door blew open and water flooded the inside. 

As the cold comes in the hockey arena, the coughing starts, Allen said. Some of her kids developed coughs amid the temperature drops. 

Oftentimes, the water on the ground freezes overnight and Allen's family must peel the blankets from the ice. 

Lori Arnold, a national spokesperson for the American Red Cross, which runs the shelter said about 420 people sought refuge Thursday night at the Hertz Arena.

Those inside were clustered on top of boards over the ice where the Everblades usually play or were in the walkways with pets circling the arena. 

People living in the shelter have little access to donations of clothing, fresh food and toiletries, said some of the displaced residents inside.

Many don't know what's next.

Hotels and Airbnbs are booked to capacity, and displaced residents who lost their homes have not been told of any place to go.

Ed'Kezia McCarter, who lost her home in Fort Myers, said the Red Cross was not checking in on people and had no guidance on returning to their homes or finding where to go after staying in Hertz Arena.

She said no one was receiving answers on specific necessities.

"We're not getting the answers that we actually need, like they're not trying to understand us." 

McCarter said what she needed most was information on finding a new place to stay outside of Hertz.

"We want to know how do we go about getting a place or what's the next move ... because we're tired of laying here," McCarter said. "I know it's a burden, but that's the main thing. How do we move to the next step to get us out of here faster versus sitting and waiting and not telling us anything at all."

A Lee County spokesperson said a multi-agency approach involving federal, state and local agencies and charitable organizations is taking place "to identify all resources and housing solutions to meet the needs of our citizens." 

The Red Cross spokesperson said where people would go next varied by circumstance. 

"Some people may choose to live with friends or family while they rebuild. Others will move into new apartments. And some will be helped through transitional sheltering or other housing programs offered by government agencies and community organizations. Depending on individual circumstances, this may include financial assistance from the Red Cross," she said.  

Arnold said the housing assessments will be used to determine what families need and also be shared with other nonprofits and government agencies to assist.

As they navigate life in the shelter, families dealt with a chaotic environment. 

Arnold said Red Cross makes sure law enforcement is present at all shelters to maintain safety. She added Red Cross monitors who is coming and going from the shelter and clearly posts signs with shelter rules.

But Allen said she's seen fights erupt and people roam around high or drunk. She said some people will have a drunken night. 

"When they're high they'll dance around the beds. Grown men will dance around," Allen said. "And you can tell when they come off of it because they'll sleep the rest of the day."

Her family said they've seen a man trying to throw his air mattress over the wall of the ice rink while shaking and jumping.

In another case, she said she witnessed a fight break out.

"There was a fight the other night and the family left," Allen said. "It was another mother with six children and somebody had just had enough. They have playtime in the front and they just had enough of the noise and the kids and had lashed out at one of the kids and the mother went to defend one of her children and it just turned into a big fight.

"This is not the place for families."

Little access to outside donations

Allen and McCarter both questioned how the Red Cross was handling donations and assessing needs of the people inside.

At first, Allen said before Red Cross was running the facility, teams would fulfill specific requests. Since Red Cross took over, people are mostly out of luck.

"My son doesn't have clothes," said Allen, who started a GoFundMe to help with her family's recovery. .

"I was like 'we need shirts and things for the boys' and they were like 'you're going to have to put a blanket around you when you get out of the shower, because sorry we stopped the donations. But ok you guys have a good day.' And that was it."

McCarter said she needed specific shoes to ease neuropathy in her feet as she worked.

She commutes from the shelter in Estero to Cape Coral for her job.

Without the shoes, she suffers swelling in her feet. But teams were unable to find the shoes she needed.

"For the donations, they did us horrible when we asked for certain things they said that they didn't have it or you don't get to pick and choose what you want," McCarter said. "But I mean it's the things that we need."

People trying to make donations also had trouble getting through. Red Cross would turn away people with fresh food and clothes.

Arnold, the national spokesperson for Red Cross, said that the nonprofit prioritizes food, shelter, health services and emotional support over clothing and household items.

"For our part, we find that donations of clothing and household items can divert resources away from our mission of providing food, shelter, health services and emotional support," Arnold said. "It takes time and money to store, sort, clean and distribute donated items. Whereas financial donations can be used right away to directly help those affected, such as replacing lost items like prescription medications or reading glasses."  

Linda Clare, of Cape Coral, was in the arena parking lot Thursday. She said she rounded up clean clothes and toiletries with her husband after realizing donations weren't making it to people inside the arena.

Allen's family met Clare in the parking lot to receive donations. 

"The help that they could get, they weren't getting," Clare said.

Clare and her husband gathered hot meals to give to Allen. The mother of seven said it beat having only peanut butter and jelly sandwiches as their main meals.

Food trucks have come to the Hertz Arena and the Red Cross has offered non-perishable packaged food.

But McCarter said there was no access inside to heat or microwave when they were given canned foods and other food she has gotten has made her sick.

Arnold, from the Red Cross, said they could not accept home-cooked meals as it would violate health code regulations.

Allen said people have to stand in the parking lot and seek out donations themselves.

"A lot of the donations now are coming from just standing outside," Allen said. "People want to donate and they turn them away."

Taking responsibility

As stories of the extra hardships people endured within Hertz Arena leaked to advocates organizing donations outside, Crystal Johnson, a community advocate in Fort Myers, said more city officials need to step up for displaced residents.

"It's still the city's issue because these are their constituents," Johnson said. "These were people that were told to evacuate and they did. And now they've been put in a situation where they don't really know how to get out of it."

Johnson said she has not been inside the Hertz Arena shelter herself, but is working to raise awareness of the stories she's heard.

"If more people were aware maybe we can do something to help," Johnson said.

People have little access to transportation, she said, and some were already struggling before arriving to the shelter.

And to recover, they need more than money, she said.

"They have animals and people, adults, children from all walks of life in just this little bubble all together and they're all depending on someone else. And they're not getting the services. They're not receiving what they're supposed to receive," Johnson said. "Donations are no longer allowed to be given to these people. You can pass them a lot of money, but where are they supposed to go."