Hurricane Hits Near St. Cloud Fire Chief’s Former Home

(KNSI) – St. Cloud’s Fire Chief says it is hard to stand by as a hurricane hits his former community.

Matt Love moved to the Granite City after serving as Fort Meyers Beach Florida’s chief for six years. The community is on Estero Island, three feet above sea level. Love says as of Wednesday Morning, the barrier island community had its emergency services suspended, meaning they are no longer taking 911 calls.

“As you can imagine, for those of us in public safety not answering a 911 call is the worst-case scenario.”

He says the fire department will log those calls and prioritize them once the storm is over. Love says while he is thankful his family isn’t in harm’s way, it is hard to watch the devastation.

“I have only been here for about nine or 10 months so, it’s very difficult to watch it on the screen and kind of see the community I used to protect and not be able to help them.”

He asks St. Cloud area residents to keep those in the storm’s path in their prayers.

“When you live in Florida and you operate in those conditions you obviously accept these risks. There’s nothing normal about it and so just keep folks in your thoughts and prayers and understanding what they are going through. It is not just this storm, it’s the aftermath of rebuilding and kind of regaining normalcy.”

Officials say Hurricane Ian made landfall around 2:15 on Wednesday afternoon in southwestern Florida near Cayo Costa as a massive Category 4 storm. That’s about 15 miles northwest of Fort Meyers Beach.

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