Sanibel took nine to thirteen feet of surge from Ian and lost its only road at the same time. The causeway was breached, cutting the island off entirely, and emergency access did not return for fifteen days. The permanent rebuild, with a hundred and twenty-eight thousand tons of granite armour stone, was finished in May 2025.
The island also regulates more tightly than anywhere else in the county. Sanibel incorporated in 1974 specifically to control what got built, and the Sanibel Plan still governs. Any building over two storeys here predates incorporation. It is not a place to assume what will be approved.