We've almost got power fully restored here in Fort Myers. Should be another few days. The whole county (maybe several counties?) is still on a boil-water notice, since our supply main infrastructure was heavily damaged.

Estero is in a similar state to the rest of the county. That is to say, expect flooding depending on where in Estero you are (less of a chance if you're east of I-75). Power has likely been down for your house since the hurricane hit. I'd proceed with caution, but also I'd get eyes onto your property to determine what steps you should take next.

Thanks Jovan. We got really lucky and there was no water inside the house. There was some water in the garage but nothing came into the house. Even our pool cage is intact. Adjacent neighbors weren't so lucky and they have significant damage. We got power restored on Sunday and the community maintenance crews are working to clean up everything else.

I agree and would like to know. I definitely hope people affected by this are on-track for good recovery from the devastation but doubt they are far into recovery because of the magnitude of devastation from what I can see from the matters.

In terms of recovery efforts in long term, I would be willing to collaborate with architects as we can in some fashion although I am on the other side of the country, yet in an area with the potential for similar scale storm events. I can't exactly do much for Cuba and I am not entirely clear on Puerto Rico given its a U.S. territory and not familiar with the licensing laws and exemptions/exceptions (if any). Florida, I'm a little more familiar. There needs to be ways to design and build houses for both storm surge and hurricane force winds with sustain wind speeds of 175 mph and gusts of 225 to 250 mph. By designing for this higher windspeeds would perhaps give new construction a design parameter for more resiliency from wind damage and then you have storm surge/flooding issues to contend with. I know the first steps is getting assessments of the aftermath and rebuilding is going to take awhile and significant money.

Designing houses for wind speeds at 175mph is not feasible at the moment, and would require re-writing structural building code, as well as re-designing and manufacturing entire window lines. Currently, impact windows, as well as their respective design pressure calculations go up to 170mph, which is more than reasonable, considering a Category 5 hurricane starts at 157mph.

To give perspective... Ian had speeds measuring *up to* 155mph around the eyewall in Fort Myers, with gusts up to 170mph.

We *do* need to educate our homeowners, contractors, and architects on how to design and build smarter and more resilient buildings, but the most serious issues to focus on are flood and storm surge mitigation; wind is something we've been able to pretty well define and manage (except for our TPO membranes... those are still proving to be trouble when it comes to wind).

Things are starting to return to normal. Our re-building effort has been tremendous, with tons of volunteer groups coming from all over the state to restore power and shelter to those who need it. Our office and many others are reaching out to our local municipalities to understand how we can help facilitate the quick and correct re-construction of our neighborhoods and infrastructure.