"You know, people are like, why are you have a smile on your face? I'm like, because the buildings here, we're here," Marco Meola said.
Marco Meola owns South Beach Bar and Grill on Boca Grande.
It took two years to rebuild from the ground up after Hurricane Ian. He's thankful it made it through Helene.
"You know, we choose hope over fear. This community. Strong community, off-island, strong," Meola said.
The storm ate up a lot of the beach, even revealing an old road. But just days after the storm they are already replacing the sand again.
"The waves were breaking on the seawall, whether down at the downtown seawall here. We're hitting it and was probably throwing water and sand, more water than when Hurricane Ian passed through," C.W. Blosser, the Boca Fire Chief, said.
Blosser says the roads were not drivable coming onto Gasparilla Island and they had to use this hummer, which eventually caught fire, for a couple of rescues.
"We got some folks. We had to commandeer a kayak, and we were actually in a home that had about five feet of water in it, getting the people and their dog on the kayak, and we got them out," said Blosser.
The village has a new cell tower after the old one was destroyed in Ian. They are happy that and the lighthouses are standing strong. They are also not implementing an emergency radio system for future storms.
South Beach Bar and Grill plans to open this weekend.