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Residents of the Fort Myers Yacht Basin have been fighting tirelessly to protect their homes against a new developer for nearly seven months. Those very homes felt Hurricane Ian’s fury as it moved through the river district in downtown Fort Myers last week.
Danny Ross of Fort Myers counts himself among the community of Florida locals known as "liveaboards," who live permanently on boats in marinas. He rode out Hurricane Ian last week aboard a boat, and he says it nearly killed him and two friends. The 58-year-old Ross says he heeded his extended family's warnings to abandon his own 30-foot boat to stay with two friends aboard their larger 50-foot yacht. It didn't help. The hurricane's 150-mile-per-hour winds snapped dock lines and drove the boat crashing into Edison Bridge. Ross says he pulled his companions to safety, and they treaded through surging waters to a nearby hotel's flooded second-floor lobby. The storm destroyed his own boat. He's now living aboard his friends’ wrecked yacht and says he's learned one important lesson about complacency toward Florida's killer storms: He will never stay for another hurricane.