St. James City sits at the southern tip of Pine Island, a network of canals with views out to the Sound and the Gulf. It is the largest of the island communities at around three thousand nine hundred people, and it is old: the median age is sixty-seven and over half of residents are sixty-five or older. Roughly forty per cent of the housing sits empty for much of the year.
Pine Island is not a barrier island. It is coral rock fringed with mangrove rather than sand, which changes how it behaves in a storm but does nothing to reduce the salt. Ian brought six to nine feet through here and took out the only road to the mainland.