Florida is a second home for hundreds of thousands of snowbirds preparing to fly south for the winter, like Alison Collins and her husband Greg, who bought a second home in Fort Myers last April. “We just found out about an hour ago that some of the flashing lights on the side of our house went out,” he told CTV National News. “Being about 90 degrees (32 C), it’s becoming more and more of a concern every day that we don’t have power because of the risk of mold.” Windsor, Ont. Resident Joe Di Ponio, who also has a second home in Bonite Spring, Fla., says it’s been a struggle to reach his friends and neighbors to the south as Ian tore through his community. “I mean it’s extremely scary for the people that are there, for the people that decided to stay and not evacuate. They said the noise was deafening. The shaking of the buildings was scary,” he told CTV News. For those who rode out the storm, it may be a long wait before they can book a flight home. It’s a situation Andrew Berry-Ashpole and his family find themselves in, stuck in an Orlando hotel on their first trip in more than two years. “Everyone packed so much clothes and so much medicine on this trip. And we don’t have all of that,” he told CTV National News. “We’re just going to try to make the best of a bad situation.” Florida is a popular destination for Canadians. Each year about 3.5 million travel to the Sunshine State, while an estimated 500,000 so-called snowbirds make the state home for a month or more. While most don’t head south until November, peak snowbird season, the Canadian Snowbird Association encourages property owners to check their insurance coverage in the meantime. “You need home insurance. You need flood insurance, and you’ll also need windstorm or hurricane insurance. Without having one of those in a storm like Hurricane Ian, you run the risk of not being able to claim and having to pay for any of damages out of your pocket,” Evan Ratzkowski, the association’s director of research and communications, told CTV National News. In the meantime, the Canadian Snowbird Association is warning against visiting Florida until local officials say it’s safe. The Canadian government also issued a travel advisory, urging Canadians to avoid all travel to the southeast coast of the United States, from Flagler Beach, Florida, to Surf City, NC
