Irma made landfall directly on Marco Island in September 2017 as a Category 3, with gusts measured at around a hundred and thirty. The fire chief put it plainly afterwards: roughly fifteen homes lost roofs and the rest took minimal damage. The south end fared worst, with standing water on South Barfield Drive.
The island itself is a Mackle brothers development built out from the 1960s, which gives it a very coherent housing cohort: finger-canal single-family homes with seawalls across most of the island, high-rise condominium towers along South Collier Boulevard, and low-rise villa stock in between. More than half the residents are sixty-five or older.