Chokoloskee still recovering from Wilma

A 7-month-old color graphic of Hurricane Wilma as it hovered over Collier County hangs on the front counter of the Chokoloskee Post Office, where most residents stop in for business or a friendly chat every week.

The graphic boasts of the small community’s resilience following the tumultuous storm, and is a warning to residents to prepare for the coming season.

But more importantly, Postmaster Chris Ammerman said, it serves as a reminder for Mother Nature, just in case she forgets the punishment Chokoloskee residents endured last year.

“We’re warding off any future hurricanes,” Ammerman said. “This is proof positive that we’ve already had ours, thank you very much.”

Recovery for the small town of about 400 people has been slow and difficult. So tough, in fact, that most residents are nowhere near prepared for the 2006 hurricane season, which began today.

“Ain’t nobody prepared for the next one,” Chokoloskee handyman Dwain Petty said. “We’re not even over the last one.”

Last week, with a week to go before the start of hurricane season, dozens of residents were at work outdoors, attempting to prepare their fragile homes for another onslaught of storms.

Mobile home owner Tom Myers spent one recent day working on the roof of his dilapidated trailer with help from Petty. Together, the pair raised Myers’ trailer four feet, and managed to secure the mobile home, which was badly damaged during Hurricane Wilma.

Photo by Tracy Boulian, Daily News

Handyman Dwain Petty of Chokoloskee, left, helper Pepi Chirino of Everglades City, middle, and homeowner Tom Myers of Chokoloskee install sheetrock in Myers’ mobile home in Chokoloskee on May 25. Myers’ has been redoing his home, which was destroyed in Hurricane Wilma. He is currently living in a camper with his wife next to the mobile home until the home is ready.

Myers has been living in a camper near his hollowed-out trailer since Wilma hit last October.

Due to slow permitting processes, Myers started work on his trailer only six weeks ago. Still, compared to several of his neighbors, the displaced homeowner said he considers himself lucky.

“You wouldn’t believe how many people still haven’t finished their roof,” Myers said. “Folks just haven’t been able to get the money they need to fix things.”

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Getting into Ammerman’s Dodge SUV has been a chore since Hurricane Wilma. Riders have to push past long, wooden planks, which Ammerman said she will eventually use to secure her trailer.

If it doesn’t blow away first.

Ammerman and her husband, Larry, have been trying to secure and move into their new mobile home, which faces Chokoloskee Bay, since January. Their first home of 16 years, in the same location, was knocked down by Wilma’s winds and swallowed by flood waters, she said.

The couple has been trying to get permits and flood insurance on their new mobile home, but said stiff county regulations have made it difficult for them to secure the new trailer. County regulations require residents on the water to bring their homes up to code if they are destroyed, which includes drilling longer pilings into the ground, and raising mobile homes higher.

Photo by Tracy Boulian, Daily News

Bill Shelburne, owner of the Parkway Motel and Marina in Chokoloskee, gave people shelter last year during Hurricane Wilma and is currently preparing for this year’s hurricane season, which begins today.

“It’s been very painful trying to bring everything up to code, and we can’t afford what they want us to have done,” Chris Ammerman said. “It’s too cost prohibitive. It’s probably going to come down to us leaving Collier County.”

The Ammermans have been living in a rental trailer farther inland since Hurricane Wilma. They may leave Chokoloskee with their new, uninhabited home if they cannot solve permitting problems soon.

“We’re heading into hurricane season with a mobile home that’s not tied down,” Chris Ammerman said. “I don’t know what we’re going to do. I thought it would be ready by now.”

Meanwhile, in other areas of the community, contractors and homeowners are weeding through their permitting issues, and are hustling to prepare their homes should another Wilma tear through the county.

But with several roofs still covered with blue tarp, and living spaces still exposed and vulnerable, many residents are just hoping luck will be on their side.

“There’s still a lot of stuff to be done,” said Parker Oglesby, an Everglades City contractor working on homes in Chokoloskee.

“They’re definitely not 100 percent ready.”

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In addition to recovering their material losses, many residents and business owners in Chokoloskee are still trying to recoup their financial losses.

At the Parkway Motel and Marina, Bill and Geri Shelburne opened their doors to dozens of Chokoloskee residents for several months, and weren’t reimbursed for a lot of their hospitality.

The couple purchased the 51-year-old, four-room hotel in March 2005. Soon after, the hotel was overflowing with newly homeless residents, many of whom couldn’t afford to pay for their rooms.

“It’s been a tradition at the hotel to open up to people in need of shelter on the island, and I just think it’s the right thing to do,” Bill Shelburne said. “I’m fortunate I had money from savings to take, but it was a hard time.”

Fishermen and stone crabbers in Chokoloskee and Everglades City experienced the most hardships. Many crabbers lost their livelihood when Wilma’s winds blew away their traps and damaged their boats.

“There wasn’t anything to brag about this season,” said Ron Brooks, manager of Ernest Hamilton Stone Crabs in Everglades City. “There were pretty slim pickings the whole season.”

Brooks said crabbers and fishermen aren’t running scared, though. Most are looking forward to a new season with fresh hope, and are approaching hurricane preparations in the same way they always have: securing their boats and painting their traps so they will be easily recognized should they get lost in another storm.

“We’re not doing anything differently because there wasn’t anything we could have done last year” to save the traps, Brooks said. “We had a couple of good pull-ins, and it looked like it was going to be a good season, but that storm came across the lake and surprised us.

“But our guys are already building new traps, and they’re getting back out there.”