Fort Myers Beach, Florida
Inland storage for Fort Myers Beach owners.
Fort Myers Beach took the worst of it. Estero Island sat under the northern eyewall and received a storm surge that ran to roughly 10 to 15 feet in places, and the town is still rebuilding.
We are careful about how we talk about this. People here lost homes, businesses and family. If you are rebuilding on the island and looking for somewhere inland to keep a vehicle, this page is meant to give you the facts you need and nothing else.
Getting here from Fort Myers Beach
13461 Shire Lane
About 30 minutes · Roughly 18 miles
About 30 minutes · Roughly 18 milesSan Carlos Boulevard north off the island to Summerlin Road, then east to Daniels Parkway and Shire Lane.
- Inland from the open Gulf
- 9 miles
- FEMA flood zone
- Zone X
- Wind design
- 170 mph
Flood
The flood zone in Fort Myers Beach, and the flood zone here.
Zones are assigned parcel by parcel. Check your own address before relying on any general description.
Current exposure
Fort Myers Beach
- FEMA flood zone
- Estero Island is almost entirely within FEMA Special Flood Hazard Areas, with VE (coastal high hazard, wave action) along the Gulf front and AE elsewhere.
- Surge pathway
- Roughly 10–15 ft of storm surge was observed on Estero Island during Hurricane Ian.
The Excalibur position
Excalibur, Fort Myers
- FEMA flood zone
- FEMA Flood Zone X, outside the Special Flood Hazard Area
- Surge pathway
- Roughly nine miles inland from the open Gulf
Verify your own address
Flood zones are assigned parcel by parcel. The figures above describe each community in general terms and must be checked against Lee County GIS and the FEMA Flood Map Service Center for any specific address.
What Hurricane Ian did at Fort Myers Beach.
Ian came ashore at Cayo Costa on 28 September 2022 as a 150 mph Category 4, putting Estero Island directly under the northern eyewall. Storm surge of roughly 10 to 15 feet moved across the island. Times Square, the pier and much of the commercial core were destroyed, and entire streets of homes were taken off their foundations.
Lee County filed 272,299 insurance claims after the storm. CARFAX estimated 358,000 vehicles were damaged across Florida and the Carolinas. On the island, a vehicle in a ground-level garage had no chance at all.
Nothing about a storage unit changes what happened here. What it can do is take one category of loss off the table next time.
Keep the irreplaceable property on the mainland.
Almost always someone who has rebuilt or is rebuilding, who is elevating the house, and who has decided that the car, the boat or the coach is not going back under it. Frequently they are storing during construction and keeping the unit afterwards.
The practical point is elevation and distance rather than any claim about the building.
Estero Island is largely in VE and AE flood zones. This parcel is roughly nine miles inland, in FEMA Flood Zone X.
The car that used to live under the house
Elevating a house solves the house. It does not give you back a garage.
What sits under an elevated home on Estero Island is parking, and it is still in a VE or AE zone. Ian put ten to fifteen feet of surge across the barrier islands; across Lee County it destroyed 5,369 structures and left 14,245 with major damage. The elevation answers the question for the house. It does not answer it for the car, the boat or the coach.
Nine miles inland, in Flood Zone X, is a different answer to the same question. Owners who take a unit during construction generally keep it afterwards, and when we ask why, the answer is almost always that the rebuild taught them which things they could not replace.
The honest version of this argument is the map and the mileage rather than the building alone: roughly nine miles to the open Gulf, roughly six to tidal bay water. Those are the numbers to compare against your own address.
The plans Fort Myers Beach owners choose for serious storage.
Baron
1,350 sq ft · 320 sq ft second floor · From $399,000
1,350 sq ft with a 320 sq ft second floor, the straightforward option for two or three vehicles plus the things that used to live in a ground-floor garage.
Baron plans
Wizard
2,708 sq ft · 650 sq ft second floor
2,708 sq ft double unit, for a household consolidating cars, a boat and a trailer into one inland location during and after a rebuild.
Wizard plansWhat discerning Fort Myers Beach buyers ask before they own.
The site-wide facts, stated once: 170 mph ultimate design wind speed, FEMA Flood Zone X, outside the Special Flood Hazard Area, roughly nine miles inland from the open Gulf, and an association fee of $1,000 per quarter on a 1,350 sq ft unit, increasing pro rata with size. RV dump station on site, included in the association fee. How the building is engineered and what it costs to own are explained in full on their own pages.