An SUV was pulled from a Fort Myers Beach swimming pool six months after Hurricane Ian
FORT MYERS BEACH, Fla. — Cleanup crews working to remove debris from a Fort Myers Beach swimming pool have uncovered an SUV that has been buried under mulch, water and piles of trash for the past nearly six months.
The Mitsubishi SUV was parked in a swimming pool that used to be in the backyard of a house on the corner of Estero Boulevard and Mid Island Drive. Hurricane Ian destroyed the house that used to stand here.
When the crews began their work, they had no idea what they were getting themselves into. The wreckage lay underwater, dirtier and cloudier than a dark roast coffee.
“We couldn’t tell what they had in there,” said Carres Kennedy, who was part of the cleaning crew that found the vehicle. “There was a lot of rubbish, you know?”
Kennedy and his business partner were tasked with removing all the trash from the pool. They used an excavator on Wednesday to begin excavation.
“The bucket and the claw, I call it,” he said. “Just picked it up. It didn’t take that long. I’m like, ‘Oh my god. I hope there aren’t any bodies in there.’”
At first it was hard to tell what that shredded metal was. was it a car A truck? There was no license plate or even doors. The only sign was the Mitsubishi logo on the rims.
“I don’t think they could resell that with the water damage,” said Bobb Meyer. “I think people would pick up on that.”
Meyer lives with his wife Jan directly across from where the SUV was pulled out of the pool. They also lost their home to Hurricane Ian and accidentally drained their swimming pool on Friday.
“I was surprised we didn’t have anything like that,” said Jan.
“We should have had at least one Volkswagen or something just to keep up with the neighbors,” Bobb added.
Jokes aside, you’ve never seen this SUV before. The owners of the swimming pool don’t drive Mitsubishi SUVs.
“That car, you’re wondering where that came from, that didn’t come from them,” Bobb said. “It came off the street or something.”
“Probably been beaten up all over the street [during] this hurricane,” Kennedy added.
There is no towing of this vehicle. Garbage trucks will eventually take it away, never to be seen again.
“They were down here the other day,” Kennedy said.
There is a deadline to ensure debris is collected, just like a car or a ship. Here you can fill out a form.
But don’t wait too long. The deadline for submitting the form is the 29th.
