Joe Kramer sings throughout the outside service on the Southwest Baptist Church in Fort Myers, Fla., on Sunday, Oct. 30, 2022.

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Joe Kramer sings throughout the outside service on the Southwest Baptist Church in Fort Myers, Fla., on Sunday, Oct. 30, 2022.

Octavio Jones for NPR

FORT MYERS, Fla. — In a parking zone in Fort Myers surrounded by barren bushes, dozens of individuals collect below a white tent. It’s a sunny, breezy Sunday morning at Southwest Baptist Church.

Service has been held outdoors since Hurricane Ian flooded their constructing in late September. The congregation, which is about 98 % seniors, offers a comforting life rhythm for its members, with Bingo Nights and Bible research. Robert Walker mentioned he tried a number of church buildings earlier than settling right here at Southwest Baptist.

“I really like the church. It helps the healing. It really does,” Walker mentioned. “This is family.”

Walker’s dwelling received flooded. He would not have insurance coverage or the means to rent assist, however he is a retired builder and might use his instruments and expertise to do the work himself.

Parishoners collect below a big tent for the outside service on the Southwest Baptist Church in Fort Myers, Fla., on Sunday, Oct. 30, 2022.

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Parishioners Charlene Grider, Natalie Haney, and Dottie Martin greet one another earlier than the outside service on the Southwest Baptist Church in Fort Myers, Fla., on Sunday, Oct. 30, 2022.

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“The bad part is I’m 70 – I’m old,” Walker mentioned. “When I was young, this was no big deal. Well, now, I work 20 minutes, sit 5. It’s a big difference.”

Bob Kasten, 79, the pastor at Southwest Baptist, mentioned that regardless of extreme flood injury to the church, a bunch of about 25 parishioners gathered to wish the Sunday after Ian made landfall in September.

“These people need each other, you could just tell,” he mentioned, emphasizing {that a} sense of belonging is vital to the aged. “There is a lot of connection in this church, it has become a very caring and loving church.”

Kasten has been pastoring at this church for the final 30 years. He mentioned his parishioners – many of their 70s, 80s and even of their 90s – put a lot into selecting and organising their retirement houses after they first moved right here. But now, he mentioned many are questioning whether or not they have the means, vitality and years left to rebuild.

Two-thirds of hurricane deaths have been seniors

Hurricane Ian killed 137 folks after it hit Southwest Florida in September. Two-thirds of those that died have been seniors.

For many years, the realm has been a magnet for retirees looking for sunshine and neighborhood – not just for these in a position to afford unique gated communities, however for these on fastened incomes as nicely.

About 30 % of the inhabitants in Lee County, the place Fort Myers is positioned, is age 65 or older. The median family earnings within the county is about $60,000.

Now, many are confronted with a wrenching actuality: At their age, rebuilding the life they beloved pre-hurricane in Southwest Florida might not be an choice.

Bob Kasten, the senior pastor, preaches throughout the outside service on the Southwest Baptist Church in Fort Myers, Fla., on Sunday, Oct. 30, 2022.

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Robert Walker sings throughout the outside service on the Southwest Baptist Church in Fort Myers, Fla., on Sunday, Oct. 30, 2022.

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Erin McLeod is the CEO of Senior Friendship Centers, a nonprofit that works with almost 10,000 seniors in southwest Florida. Since the storm hit, her group has been delivering meals and serving to them navigate displacement. For many individuals, it is too costly to evacuate, she mentioned.

“Seniors were impacted to a large degree because of their inability to be mobile, their isolation, they live on their own, their inability to evacuate,” McLeod mentioned, including that individuals are actually ranging from scratch. “There are a good number of folks that are on fixed incomes that are going to pack up and leave the state.”

Some seniors are sofa browsing or residing of their vehicles, McLeod mentioned. She recalled that when Hurricane Charley hit Florida in 2004, many older adults have been unable to rebuild for years, whereas others moved out of the state.

As many go away, those that keep grapple with lack of neighborhood

Marlyn Skinner, an 86 year-old widow who walks with a cane and is a faithful member of Southwest Baptist Church, mentioned that earlier than Hurricane Ian, she and her associates would take the trolley to the seaside, have breakfast and stroll alongside the water each weekend.

But the Fort Myers space, she mentioned, “will never be that way again.”

Marlyn Skinner poses on the Southwest Baptist Church in Fort Myers, Fla. on Saturday, Oct. 29, 2022.

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Now, Skinner is in actual property limbo, ready to see if her severely broken home will be fastened. But she’s made up her thoughts: she’s not staying in Fort Myers.

Skinner and her husband first got here to Florida as snowbirds about 30 years in the past. Uprooting her life is tougher now as a result of after her husband handed in 2012, she settled right into a routine and neighborhood, she mentioned.

“I had the girls over for meals,” she mentioned, referring to the life-long associates she’s made in Fort Myers.

Skinner is at the moment residing with one in all her granddaughters in close by Naples, and although she feels a way of function serving to care for 2 great-grandchildren, ages 11 and 13, “I can’t bring my friends here,” she mentioned. She misses her outdated life.

Skinner is fiercely impartial. She is aware of, nevertheless, that at her age, relocating and creating a brand new neighborhood can be a giant change.

Her household in Indiana additionally needs her again, although she’s undecided what comes subsequent.

“My siblings know that’s never going to happen,” she mentioned, “and my children seem to think they’re going to make up my mind for me. But they’re not. Not yet.”

Marlyn Skinner poses for a portrait on the Southwest Baptist Church in Fort Myers, Fla., on Saturday, Oct. 29, 2022. Skinner’s house is inhabitable on account of sustained injury from Hurricane Ian.

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Martha Roth, 72, and her mom Martha Byler, 90, sit on their entrance porch ready for an air con contractor to cease by. Everything is damp inside their home – the furnishings is piled up, the carpeting is ripped off the ground.

Roth’s home, in a seniors cellular park the place grandchildren are allowed to go to 2 weeks a 12 months, was flooded by an eight-foot storm surge. Despite the injury, she mentioned she’s not going wherever.

“I still have a roof,” Roth mentioned. “I don’t have as much damage as, say, the guy across the street.”

But she nonetheless would not know if there’s structural injury. The home hasn’t been inspected.

Her home is paid off – it is the one housing choice the mother-daughter have, which is very vital due to the inexpensive housing disaster in Florida and across the nation.

FEMA has already given Roth a verify for nearly $31,000 for repairs, however it’s going to take greater than that to rebuild. She mentioned she’s ready to get a second verify from the federal government.

Then, there’s the lack of neighborhood. Many of Roth’s neighbors aren’t coming again.

“It’s sad. These are friends – 20 years of friends,” Roth mentioned. “So you just take one day at a time – one foot forward and six feet back.”

Seniors await funding whereas navigating an unsure future

John Bohanek, 79, who lives on Social Security, retired to Pine Island – throughout the bridge from Fort Myers – 22 years in the past. He loves the island, each the folks and nature.

“At night, you hear the frogs and the trees — that’s all you hear,” Bohanek mentioned.

John Bohanek poses for a portrait inside his dwelling, which sustained flood and wind injury from Hurricane Ian when it ravaged most of Pine Island, Fla.

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Pine Island was among the many hardest-hit areas within the area. The storm ripped the roof off of Bohanek’s home. He’s now residing in a camper in his entrance yard. He mentioned he needs to rebuild – however was turned down for a mortgage as a result of he makes inadequate earnings.

Gazing up at his unlivable dwelling, Bohanek’s eyes begin to nicely up with tears.

“It doesn’t seem real. Your whole life is gone,” Bohanek mentioned.

Inside, furnishings is tossed round and a thick layer of black mould strains the partitions. The roof above his bed room is totally blown off.

Bohanek’s son in Chicago signed him up for FEMA help. Bohanek mentioned he isn’t technologically savvy.

“I don’t use the internet, I don’t use a computer,” he mentioned. “The only thing I have is a cell phone my daughter-in-law bought me a year ago, and it’s a job trying to figure out how to use it.”

John Bohanek poses outdoors of his dwelling, which sustained flood and wind injury from Hurricane Ian when it ravaged most of Pine Island, Fla.

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This complicates issues, as a result of registering with FEMA, and different catastrophe assets, requires pc literacy.

He is aware of he will not return dwelling to Chicago, he mentioned, however he grapples with what comes subsequent. Even although his coronary heart is telling him to rebuild, his head is not too certain.

“If it’s going to cost more to repair the house than to build a new one, it’d be foolish to have it repaired,” he mentioned. He wants to determine how a lot it’s going to value to rebuild.

But then his coronary heart kicks in.

“I’d love to stay here – it’s so peaceful and quiet,” Bohanek mentioned, nearly in a whisper.