Almost two years ago to the day, nearly 4 feet of storm surge inundated Florida Repertory Theatre’s historic Arcade Theatre, ArtStage Studio Theatre and first floor facilities.
So it was déjà vu all over again as Producing Artistic Director Greg Longenhagen, General Manager Dianne Summers and Marketing Director Deb Jonsson watched on the news as 5.12 feet of river water surged into downtown Fort Myers Thursday night as Hurricane Helene made landfall at the Big Bend. Fortunately, Jonsson found far less damage this time around.
“We’re just taking a walk around the theater right now,” said Jonsson after the storm, surveying the water intrusion. “We are experiencing a little bit of a water breach that we had last night with the flooding, which many people downtown are. We were lucky that it did just come a little bit in some of the doorways to our main hallway, a little bit near our Arcade exit doors that are street level. We’re just drying up the carpet right now.”
To give the carpets time to fully dry out, the Rep did cancel its Education Conservatory performance of “Freaky Friday” scheduled Friday night. But both of Saturday’s shows, as well as the Rep’s performance of “Forever Plaid,” went on as scheduled.
“So we’re happy about that,” said Jonsson. “Hoping everyone else around town is doing OK, and getting cleaned up and cleared up and hopefully all back to business soon.”
On Friday afternoon, Bay street restaurants and cafes, including Firestone’s, Twisted Vine Bistro and City Tavern, were scrambling to clean up and re-open, but the restaurants and shops along First Street escaped Helene’s wrath largely unscathed and ready, able and eager to welcome Florida Rep patrons as they arrived for the weekend’s performances.
N.B.: Surge depth of 5.12 feet provided by WINK TV Chief Meteorologist Matt Devitt.
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