The Breeze Newspapers special edition following Hurricane Ian took a second place in the Florida Press Association Weekly Newspaper competition.

The Sanibel Causeway — heavily damaged, with a 50- to 60-foot section of the A-span collapsed and one of the supporting “spoil islands” awash.

Matlacha Bridge — “the fishingest bridge in the world” — breached at its foot.

Fort Myers Beach’s iconic Time Square and the Beach pier — gone.

Cape Coral’s historic Yacht Club pier — no more.

Hundreds of houses and a multitude of businesses on Sanibel, Captiva, Pine Island, Matlacha and along Cape Coral’s Gold Coast and all along the Caloosahatchee riverfront and Gulf-access canals — destroyed or heavily damaged.

Death, injuries and countless lives and livelihoods left behind in the wreckage wrought by Hurricane Ian, which roared ashore on Cayo Costa just shy of a Category 5 hurricane with winds topping 150 mph and catastrophic storm surge estimated as high as 18 feet.

Hurricane Ian was Florida’s deadliest hurricane since the Great Labor Day Hurricane that swept over in the Keys with storm surge of up to 20 feet and winds hitting 183 mph in 1935, leaving 423 dead. Ian’s death toll is expected to exceed that of Hurricane Andrew, which devastated the Miami and Homestead area in 1992, killing 62 in South Florida.

As we write this, 123 have been reported dead, including 53 of our neighbors — ages 19 to 96 — here in Lee County. Another 24 died in Charlotte, another six in Sarasota County.

Damage estimates range from $41 billion to $70 billion.

We’ve taken a catastrophic hit.

We’ve suffered a devastating loss.

But we will rebuild.

It is what we do.

It is what we have done when times have been tough and tough they have been for Southwest Florida over the last couple of decades.

Hurricane Charley hit us hard in 2004, also coming ashore at Cayo Costa, with Fort Myers Beach, Sanibel and Captiva heavily damaged.

We built back.

We were the epicenter when the real estate bubble bust nationwide, spawning the Great Recession in 2006.

We hung tough, building back livelihoods and businesses to create an economy that was stronger than ever.

Hurricane Irma gave us a wack in September of 2017, causing $829 million in damages throughout Lee County. Cape Coral saw significant losses along its canal fronts where miles of seawalls collapsed due to receding and returning waters.

We built back.

And we will build back, have, in fact begun to do so.

In the grieving wake of loss of life.

From the little to nothing left of lives lived in homes and businesses no longer standing.

From the memory of what we, as a community, as a region, can be.

And will be again.

#SanCapStrong

#FortMyersBeachStrong

#PineIslandStrong

#CapeCoralStrong

#LeeCountyStrong

#SouthwestFloridaStrong

— Breeze Newspapers editorial