In Ian’s wake

As the last week of September drew near, Erin Stevens found himself preparing for an uninvited guest.

Hurricane Ian was coming.

Stevens is the director of agronomy at Coral Creek Club in Placida, Florida, on the Gulf Coast, roughly 15 miles south and west of Port Charlotte. The club was directly in the storm’s path, but Stevens is accustomed to dealing with big storms: he’s been at the club since 2019. Prior to that, he spent nine years on Florida’s Atlantic coast. He has also worked as an owner’s representative on golf course construction projects throughout the Caribbean.

In Stevens’ mind, the template for dealing with hurricanes as dangerous as Ian includes advance planning — taking the necessary steps to minimize damage to the property and, most important, making sure the members of his team are able to do what’s necessary to protect their families, their homes and themselves from the storm.

“We knew it was going to be a big storm,” Stevens says, “and we were kind of thinking, ‘Let’s get everything prepped out here at the club and try to look for a 48-hour window (before the storm hits). It ended up only being maybe a 30- to 32-hour window because Ian moved in faster than predicted.

“Still, we were able to get everybody out of here. Because that’s the most important thing. The crew showed their dedication by staying behind and getting the facility secure, and then they’ve got to get home to take care of their families and their property and their well-being.”

Prior to a storm, Stevens works off a checklist that he distributes to course superintendent Brandon Whitely, assistant superintendent Evin Huovinen and equipment manager and mechanic Jack Kuykendall, who in turn see to it that the necessary information is disseminated to the entire crew.

A top priority is removing debris and items that could become flying debris in a storm such as flags, tee markers and trash cans. But there are other potential hazards.

“A lot of times, one of the biggest areas is your maintenance facility,” Stevens says. “You have all kinds of items out there: irrigation parts, drainage parts, you have pallets of materials out there. You have to make sure everything gets secured inside and even when it goes inside, you have to make sure everything’s tarped, in case you get roof damage.”

Stevens and his team were also concerned about possible power surges in the wake of the storm.

“We shut down breakers (to eliminate the possibility a of power surge),” Stevens says. “Especially for the pump station. After you do your last runs on everything, you’ve got to secure the pump stations, shut down the three-phase power going into it, and them secure all pumps. So, basically, you shut down all the electricity to that station.”

Stevens had the advantage of doing his preparatory work while the club was closed.  Coral Creek is closed during the heat of the summer.

“I think (preparing for the storm) would have been a lot more challenging had we been open as an operation with everybody out here,” he says. “All our departments would have been open, the restaurant, the pro shop, the clubhouse, all the facilities.”

Hurricane Ian struck the area on September 28. The first challenge facing Stevens after the storm passed was simply gaining access to the property. Access was cut off due to downed trees and other debris. But in short order Stevens was on site to access Ian’s impact. He was joined by general manager Tom Noyes and a member of the golf staff.

“Our GM was running a chainsaw,” Stevens recalls. “We were using the machines to remove all the downed trees and the piles to cut our way from the main road into our club.”

The recovery process was complicated by the fact that the club was without water, power, and cellular service for several days after the storm. The crew was at less than full strength for a time as Stevens’ team — at his insistence — first saw to the needs of their own families.

“Your first priority is to know that everybody’s safe,” Stevens says. “You’re not worrying about, ‘Can you get back here as soon as possible?’ First, you’ve got to make sure their families are safe, that they’re safe. Their homes.

“A lot of people had varying degrees of damage. And there are a few people in the organization that may have lost places as well. So, when you’re trying to rally everybody back to get into the work environment, that’s secondary. It really is.”

Stevens noted that most of the storm damage that impacted the club came from the winds rather the water.

“We have a few areas where the lakes came up,” he says, “because we have a weir system that goes out to the Gulf. They surged up on us, so we had a lot of trash in our fairways and drains. It took two or three days for everything to start draining again. We had to send crews out to clear the drains.

“I had some erosion on some tee complexes and some lake banks. But not as bad as I would have thought.”

Stevens estimates the club lost about 350 trees and half of its bunker sand. Some trees in wooded areas were damaged in the project and will have to be removed. But that’s a future project.

For now, he and his team are returning to in-season mode. The golf course opened for play on October 25, just 24 days behind schedule.

“We had successful reopening of the golf course,” he says. “The members were happy and impressed with how much we accomplished since all the hurricane damage.”

Rick Woelfel is a regular Golf Course Industry contributor and the host of the Wonderful Women of Golf podcast.