Flood damage: Naples takes stock of their homes, belongings after Hurricane Ian

On the Naples Pier, the railings are missing. The deck, where fishers liked to cast a line and tourists took selfies, where locals applauded the sun setting is now unwalkable, boards missing. Debris -- Pepsi vending machines, trash cans and more -- piled up near the stairs, likely shoved there by the storm surge.

Hundreds of people milled about Naples City Beach. Some had seen flooding, others had just lost power, and counted themselves lucky.

The storm surge did serious damage inside homes along Naples' coast and waterways. The damage is almost invisible to passersby.

Take a look: Aftermath of Hurricane Ian in Naples and Collier County in Florida

Also: What to do with Hurricane Ian storm debris

WATCH: Hurricane Ian in North Naples

A handful of steps from the Naples City Beach lies Mary Parent's home, an instantly-recognizable coral cottage that's 90 years old. "We want to get it to 100," she said, but after all the gulfwater and pluff mud that flooded the first floor of her home up through the air conditioning registers, slicking the floors and stinking of rotting fish, she was worried.

She and her husband, Dr. Thomas Parent, evacuated Wednesday when the water came leaping over the mangroves at the edge of the beach. Waves usually push forward, then recede. With these waves, it was like wild horses charging forward, she said. They jumped the hedge, and never turned back.

When they returned Thursday, they found the pots in their kitchen cabinet full of stormwater. Their furniture had been soaked through, and when they picked it up to carry outside, tea-color water rushed out of the soggy pieces.

The tile entrance and original wood floors were buried under a layer of inch-thick gray mud, shining wetly in the light.

They started cleaning the house at 5 a.m., she said, and by mid-afternoon had only just hit a stopping point.

Parent said she had already been in communication with her regular contractors, trying to figure out what repairs were needed.

On the other side of Naples, in the historic Black community of River Park, Curtis Williams had evacuated when the Gordon River overflowed its banks into his house. He said the city's handling of his family's evacuation just reminded him of all the times its government had overlooked or neglected the Black community of Naples.

Williams sat in his front yard, sipping from a bottle of water as his family helped to empty all their belongings out of the house behind him.

Williams's house, which backs up to the river, was on level ground. Nearly all his family's possessions sat in the front yard. Most of their things had to be thrown out, since the water likely carries sewage and bacteria that would be harmful to keep around, even after a thorough cleaning.

Williams and his family had to evacuate the house once the water reached waist height. They headed down the street, to higher ground at the 7-Eleven on the corner, he said, where they waited nearly two-and-a-half hours for Naples city responders to pick them up.

Then, Williams said, they left them in the Dillard's parking garage up the road at Coastland Center.

"They should have taken us to a shelter," Williams said. Instead, he said, he had to call his son to pick them up from the garage. He left before a few others did -- he worried they may have slept there.

Williams was hurt and angry at the treatment he'd received. "They don't seem to care about this community," he said. "I can fend for myself, but what about the people that can't? That's what gets me. People talk about how lovely Naples is. Lovely Naples. But they don't talk about this section, here."

After Ian, Williams worried more of his neighbors would sell their homes and leave the area, shrinking the last majority-Black neighborhood in Naples even further.

The city of Naples was unable to respond to comment by press time.

Williams' neighbor, Barbara Fuller slowly but surely carted most of what she owned out of her house and stacked things on the front porch in piles.

Holding a waterlogged Bible that let loose a stream of river water every time she gestured with it, she said her house flooded with about a foot of water.

Everything that was on the ground had been destroyed. The Gordon River, which sits in her backyard, swelled and came around the side of her house, eddies swirling through her front yard.

"It was circling around, filling up, just filling up so fast it was just like something out of a horror movie," she said.

She left her car at the parking lot at the mall, then headed home to wait for the storm. When it came through, though, she was shocked. Her daughter said she wanted to come pick her up, but Fuller told her not to put herself in danger -- she would just sit on top of the washer. She laughed.

Eventually, Fuller evacuated. When she returned, she found the storm and the flooding had ruined her cookbooks, her shoes, her clothes, food and more, she said. Even her car had been soaked through.

"Eighty, ninety percent of everything you had is gone," she said. Even a refrigerator she had sitting outside had floated across the road.

But, she pointed out, "I got this!" An avocado had floated onto her porch. From where, she didn't know.

"This is the first time in 20-something years we've ever had this," Fuller said. "A yard full of water."

Admittedly, there used to be more flooding in the area after a big rain, she said, "but this was kind of challenging. All I can do is clean up."

Kate Cimini is an investigative journalist covering Florida. Share your story at (239) 207-9369 or email kcimini@gannett.com. 

This article originally appeared on Naples Daily News: Naples checks on homes after Hurricane Ian, storm surge going on