Florida’s barrier islands

Brevard County’s southern barrier island — one of the least developed areas on Florida’s Atlantic coast — is a quaint, still pristine paradise to the few thousand people who settled in mostly bungalow-style homes, many of them escapees from Miami Beach, Fort Lauderdale and other places they say were over-developed. And it all seemed at risk just a few years ago.

Florida’s barrier islands have always been worth the risk to the hundreds of thousands of people living on them. After Hurricane Ian, will Southwest Florida’s islands ever be the same?

A new data analysis shows that population is surging on Florida’s barrier islands despite rising seas and worsening storms. Florida politics and policies continue to champion the growth.

Why do people defy evacuation orders? The answers involve the psychology of risk. Hurricane Ian’s destruction may help change Floridians’ propensity to ride out hurricanes.

An entire town of Floridians abandoned their barrier island in the wake of a major hurricane in the nineteenth century. Historians urge us to remember their decision — but memory is a fickle thing.

Hurricane Ian struck Southwest Florida in the same place where Florida’s powerful Calusa natives lived over 2,000 years ago. From dealing with sea level fluctuations to a massive hurricane around A.D. 300, their fishing and building adaptations can teach us about dealing with coastal change.

Climate change threatens not only the future of Florida’s barrier islands, but all they hold about the past.