Sarasota mayor looks back on 'crazy' week of Hurricane Ian

As he sits at a street side table in downtown under a clear blue sky, Sarasota Mayor Erik Arroyo can hardly imagine he would be there just 48 hours after the city experienced the impact of a Category 4 hurricane making landfall 90 miles to the south.

It had been an eventful week, beginning with final preparations as Hurricane Ian’s track first appeared to be bearing down on the city prior to its eventual southward shift. Then came dozens of appearances on local and national media before and during the storm both at home and in the city’s emergency operations center, followed by recovery operations.

While serving as the face of the city, Arroyo’s extended family, the citizens of Sarasota, were in the care of its administrative leadership, first responders and emergency management personnel. Meanwhile, at home joined his wife — who is expecting the couple’s second child in a month — and his 2-year-old daughter along with his mother and her husband.

“It was a lot, but we took care of each other,” Arroyo said. “I had to leave sometimes to tend to city business. I had to be on the phone a lot. We had to do a lot of calls. (City Manager) Marlon Brown was extremely important. I was getting briefings all the time. The county and the city were collaborating and all that was being funneled to me because I was getting updates from them frequently as well.”

As a gentle breeze wafts between the buildings along Main Street just two blocks from Sarasota Bay, Arroyo marvels at the city’s fortune, largely thanks to Ian’s eventual track across the state that put Sarasota on the comparatively favorable northern side of the storm, but also in part crediting the city’s readiness.

Sarasota had been hardening its storm resilience for years, he said. Roads have been elevated and the seawall on Sarasota Bay upgraded. Once the state of emergency was declared, storm drains were cleared of debris in order to minimize flooding. The state of emergency plan activated multiple departments to secure and fortify city assets to minimize flying debris, check emergency generators, fortify public buildings and more.

“Everybody was very proactive,” Arroyo said. “We did it way before it was even a hurricane, assuming that it was just going to hit us, and it paid off because in the aftermath our power came back on within 24 hours. People are wondering how the city of Sarasota fared so well. We had 200 instances of trees down on power lines. As soon as the wind was below 45 miles per hour we had crews out repairing those. There were no casualties. You saw neighbors helping neighbors. You saw the whole community coming together.”

Arroyo said he didn’t spend much time in the city’s operations center during the storm and mostly tried to stay out of the way.

“I stopped by some of the shelters. I was there with Gov. DeSantis when he had a press briefing,” he said. "I really wasn't adding value in the operations center. Everybody knew what they were doing, except for me.”

Facing the nation

As the national media descended on the Gulf Coast from Tampa to Naples, for a brief period Arroyo became something of a household name. He was interviewed by hosts on morning, midday and nighttime shows on CNN, MSNBC, Fox Network, Fox Business, Weather Channel and many others. Fluent in Spanish, he was on Telemundo, Univision and more.

Interviews were held by phone, on camera and online meeting platforms. NBC Nightly News anchor Lester Holt flew in to Sarasota to interview him in person.

The requests flooded in so rapidly that Arroyo resorted to organizing them on a spreadsheet, two assistants with the city helping him juggle the schedule. During the throes of the storm he had to turn down CNN’s Wolf Blitzer because he lost communications capability.

“It was like a snowball. Once they started seeing me everybody else wanted in,” Arroyo said. “I started compiling a spreadsheet because a lot of the people from the same networks didn't know that others were booking me because they're all on different shows.”

And his message to all of them?

“I just reminded everybody that we are as prepared as we could ever be, and that we're ready for this and that we're going to face it together,” he said. “We’re going to get through it together, and then afterwards we're going to recover together. That was the message.”

Capturing a national audience, Arroyo also took the opportunity to promote Sarasota, reminding viewers about the city’s consistent inclusion on a variety of “best places to” lists, ranging from relocating to retiring.

Fleeting fame

As the hurricane moved on, so did the media attention.

Now yesterday’s news, with Arroyo’s 15 minutes, plus four days, of fame behind him, the city’s business goes on. “We have a City Commission Monday,” he said.

It was only the previous Monday when the city was in the final stages of battening down the hatches as uncertainty loomed over when the day-to-day would resume.

“When I woke up last Monday I could not have told you that I was going to be on every major news network, being interviewed by some of the most famous news people in the world,” Arroyo said. “And I wouldn't have told you that that we would be sitting here on Friday. It's been a crazy week. There will be some growing pains from this, and our hearts go out to south county and all they are dealing with now.”

For several days, Arroyo was the face of Sarasota behind which, he said, the real credit applies.

“I'm sure anybody who would have been in this position would have risen up to the challenge and do what needed to be done,” he said. “But in reality, it's not even about me. I’m talking about the real heroes, those who work for the city who clock in every morning. They don't expect to get recognition. It's our police officers who were literally out roaming the streets during the hurricane.

“They are the ones who deserve the recognition. The city would have been perfectly fine without me.”