High-Performance Marine Businesses Bouncing Back Quickly From Hurricane Milton
Tomorrow morning will be anything but business as usual for businesses from Tampa to Cape Coral in Southwest Florida in the wake of Hurricane Milton. Repairs to buildings and infrastructure and debris clean-up will go on for months, perhaps even years. And yet the resounding takeaway from high-performance marine businesses from Nor-Tech Hi-Performance Boats in Cape Coral to Statement Marine in Clearwater is one of good fortune and gratitude.
The prevailing sentiment among them? It could have been far worse.
Captured here in May 2024, Nor-Tech’s new facility in Cape Coral, Fla., was undamaged by Hurricane Milton. Photo by Kevin Lane courtesy Nor-Tech
Though Nor-Tech sustained minor damage to its older Fort Myers facility, its newer Cape Coral plant was unscathed.
“We were extremely fortunate, but feel for our Nor-Tech family and everyone in the Sarasota and Clearwater areas who took the brunt of the storm,” said Trond Schou, the president and co-founder of the company. “We have been in contact with Bill and Chris Erickson of Erickson Marine, our ‘favorite’ dealer in Sarasota. Their initial feedback is that overall they did well.”
Chris Erickson confirmed Schou’s report. “We did good, thank god,” he said. “There’s a lot of tree debris though.”
As of yesterday, Clearwater-based Statement Marine still didn’t have electricity. But that was the worst of woes faced by company owner Nick Buis and his crew.
“We’re all good,” Buis said yesterday. “No power, but no damage.”
Not everyone involved in the Southwest Florida high-performance community was so fortunate. A portion of a tree came through the window of Lucy Nicandri’s Sarasota apartment, and the water intrusion that followed damage everything in the room. The executive director of Suncoast Charities for Children and marketing manager for Powerboat P1, Nicandri described herself as “pretty exhausted” and isn’t expecting to have electricity until next week.
But she’s putting her situation in perspective.
“Damage is really bad down here, but all things considered it’s just stuff,” Nicandri said. “So many people I know were impacted worse than I was.
“I’m just taking it one day at a time,” she added. “And looking forward to Key West.”
The owner of Grant’s Signature Racing in nearby Bradenton, where he and his wife, Kellie, also have a home, offered a similar viewpoint.
“All good here, no power yet, but we have a generator that runs the whole house,” Bruggemann reported. “I’m not complaining.”
Also based in Bradenton, Kinetic Animation’s Ryan Beckley reported that, neither his home nor business were damaged. As of Friday, power had been restored at his business but not at his home.
According to Simon Williams, who owns Shore Thing Storage in Sarasota, the facility “did great and had no damage at all.” Cortez Cove Marina in Cortez, which he co-owns with Jonathon Lynch, on the other hand, he said, “got hammered.” (Williams, who is traveling abroad, did not elaborate on the damage.)
With the Fort Lauderdale International Boat Show just two-and-a-half weeks away and plenty to get done before it opens at the end of October, the Nor-Tech crew worked a full day yesterday. The company is open again today “for all employees who are able to show up,” Schou explained.
Nor-Tech is back on line and getting ready for the Fort Lauderdale International Boat Show.
On Friday, roughly 70 percent of the total Nor-Tech workforce showed up to help clear debris, and then got to their real work. That impressed their leader, who expressed some gratitude of his own.
“We must have the best and most dedicated team in the marine industry, heck, any business for that matter,” Schou said. “Their resilience, commitment and dedication is just bar none.”
Related story: Southwest Florida High-Performance Marine Community Braces For Hurricane Milton
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