Bill Cunningham, the Great American. Welcome this Wednesday afternoon the Tri State. Great weather here, but terrible weather in southwest Florida and more. And you've heard all the weather reports. I'm obsessing over it because of the greatness of iHeartMedia and Tony Bender. They've built out for me a wonderful studio in southwest Florida, so I can do a few shows from down there, especially on Sunday night. But nonetheless, there's a panic mode going on because there's some fatigue
setting and I'm ready to panic. Bill ver Dunk is one of the top one or two real estate agents, and call your county, also Lee County. He's headquartered right there in Naples, Florida. Bill ver Dunk, Welcome again to the Bill Cunningham Show. I know your wife is deep
connections to the Tri State coming from northern Kentucky. But can you tell the American people this Wednesday afternoon, what's happening now in Naples, Florida, what's happening in Lee County, what's happening in Sarasota, what's happening on Cedar Key, what's happening everywhere in southwest Florida. Give us a full report.
Full report. Is everyone's been prepping for this since Sunday. There's been more prep than I've ever seen for hurricanes. People are stand bag hurricane shuttered, they are moving furniture, they're putting everything on blocks. There's been a lot of prep for this storm. So it could be a big one. And you know, nobody's taking anything lately here right now.
As far as what happened with Helene, there was a little bit of an effect, but I watched Fox New, CNN, the weather channels. People are going nuts. There's entire communities in the Sarasota area. Theater key wiped out completely, and now here two three weeks later a similar events taking place that might be worse. Is there a sense of hurricane fatigue happening in southwest Florida?
You know, it's the price of paradise down here, if you're going to be down here. Hurricanes have been happening for thousands of years. I mean, you're not stopping them. They're going to keep coming. You know, if you live on the world and you prepared and prepared and you're in a flood zone, I mean I have customers calling me, Hey, if we get through this, I'm going to think about
selling and moving a little bit inland, you know. But other people are going to move right back on the water because people like being on the coast, they like being at the beach, and you as soon as it gets cooled up north, they're coming back down.
As far as you're you have deep connections to the tri State through your wife and thanks to that character. And tell the American people you live on a little tributary called the Gordon River, very close to Bears Paul. In fact, it's on the border. And the last time you had some flooding happening with Ian. Explain what happened with Ian, how it relates to Milton.
Well Ian and Milton looked very very similar. It's coming in on a track north of here, and it's the backside, the dirty side of the storm that creates the surge and the river. I tell you what. Right now, the real news is it has been raining here for three days straight. Everything is super saturated most statues I've ever seen it. What happens is when the tide comes in and pushes against that river, it creates the flooding pushing outward.
I mean that tributary drains about one hundred miles inland. I mean it goes all over the place and drain thousands of new communities, and it just it creates a lot of back pressure, goes into Naples Bay and then pushes out. The same thing happens in Lee County on the Clusahachie, and that's even a bigger river. And you know that's what happened to. The storm starts come in, the rivers push outward, and there's there's so much standing
water right now pre hurricane. Have never seen this much water, and since I've been down here for the last twenty two years, So.
Let's focus on that.
I watched CNN this morning and they had the reporter standing in and around Fifth Avenue the man dragged there in which they're about ankle deep in water as we speak, because of the eight inches of rain that has fallen the past three days.
Has that can you recall.
Whether it was Ian or whether it was Helene, that you had large standing water in Naples and in Collier County before the hurricane.
Cane never had this much standing water before the hurricane. I mean it has been raining for days straight. There is they were coming down my street yesterday with the pump truck trying to pump out the ditches to keep the sewers flowing. I mean, there there is more never I've never seen that before. There's there is more standing water. I mean, there's a lot of water coming down those rivers against the storm surge. So I mean that's the
big question, is it's going to push out. And if this thing hits at high tide, which is about four oh seven in the morning's supposed to be two point at eight seven feet above mean low tide when it's hitting, it's the backside that brings the storm, and when it first hits, it typically pushes water out. But the way this is looking, it's going to push water out up in Tampa and Sarasota, and then it's gonna come in
coming afterward. And it's that I'm shore wind that pushes the water out, and it's going to fight the rivers. And I'm expecting I'm expecting a major storm surge.
And Bill Verdonk to hide tight as four oh seven am. What time will this morning or tonight? I guess tonight early morning. Ours is the major impact of Milton, say in Lee County, then in Sarasota County, have many friends in Sarasota that have homes there. And one of the guys that got a hold of his insurance carrier and the insurance expired on his home on October the first. And they're not writing new insurance in the state of Florida. Like a good neighbor, State Farm is not there. And
State Farm said, we're not writing any new policies. Have you seen that goese of your experiences in real estate and insurance companies are now leaving Florida.
Well, we've had a lot of companies lee Florida, and we've had a lot of new companies move into Florida. And so what happened is just called it hurricane in a box. Whenever there's a name storm in a box. They stopped writing new insurance. So the best advice is never let your insurance expire when there's a hurricane coming. Keep your kid. They have to renew you, but do
not let it expire. All my real estate contracts have a they have a clause in them which was put in during these storms so they can't force people to close on a damaged house or without insurance that you have seven more days after insurance and stated to close on a house. So I mean, you know, if he let his insurance go or wasn't able to get it. I mean, we had this happened last We had this happened last week with Ali and they stopped writing insurance.
They opened insurance up on Monday and Kylier in Lee County and they closed it. They closed it up on Friday, so there was a window to write.
You got five days to ensure your million dollar property. Unbelievable, unbelievable. Hey, what about emergency. There's been an emergency declared in Lee County, Sarasota and also Charlotte and also Naples, and you're physically present. Can you explain why there's an emergency being declared yet.
You're still present right now? There's a tornado warning came in right before you call me, so that thenado. There's tornado setting down, there's wind. I mean, this storm, this storm is actually starting. And the crazy thing is it doesn't look any different in the last three days as it's been pouring here.
As far as the status, as far as leaving, what happens if you declare a state of emergency, I know there's thousands and thousands of men and women not leaving, including mugs. I love mugs and Tony from Soprano from New Jersey.
Those guys aren't leaving. You're not leaving.
What happens if you have a crisis And my number one, why aren't you leaving?
Well, my house is eight feet above sea level approximately, and I'd rather it's a concrete blockhouse that storm shutters. I got a boat on the side of the house. You know, I'm fifty years old. I can walk out of there if I need to. I've got a boat on the side of the house. I can drive out of there if I need to. It's set right to the house. And I'm not leaving because I don't want to go. I'd rather fight the water. I flood dams. I'll spraypone my door closed. You know, it's to stop
the water. You know. I don't want to do that until I have to, and so you know, you know, and quite frankly, I like riding the storm out. I mean, I find it interesting. The state of emergency means if you're in that area, they will not come and help you until the storm is over. They put a ban on when the wind hits fifty miles an hour. They won't dispatch the emergency vehicles and they won't help you. It means you are on your own. And so if they you know, it's funny the news changes. They tell
you don't have to lead. They said, at this point, you're staying, and they start issuing an entirely new set of news. It's actually very very interesting. It goes from we know you're it goes from get out of here to we know you're not leaving, and this is what you should do. And you know, hopefully you got some good neighbors and a team. But if you're older, if you have health problems, if you have issues, you should not be here.
Well, I have a call coming up later with Mayor Dan Allers, who's the mayor of Fort Myers Beach, and I talked to him yesterday and the mayor told me, well, you know, Ian was terrible. We had a five or six foot storm surge went over the top of Santa Bell, went over the top of my community of Fort Myers Beach,
and so we started to rebuild. It took us two years, and then two weeks ago we had Helene had two to three feet of storm surge over the top of Fort Myers Beach, over the top of the Keys, over the top of.
Santa Bell.
He said, Now we're anticipating an eight to twelve foot surge over the top of Fort Myers Beach. Would you buy real estate on Fort Myers Beach?
You know I would buy. You know, Fort Myers Beach is tough, you know if you're in. But I have to tell you, Southwest Florida preparing for this for a long time. Most of the damage you see is an older building, you know. The new buildings, they're building them like. They're building them like piers. They're driving pilings and pouring concrete straight to the limestone. They're putting all the utilities
on the roof. Like I think that every building in Fort Myers Beach, if you're to buy one, you're looking for a building that you know, you're fifteen feet high or twenty feet high, and newer construction that can handle this stuff. And most of the newer buildings were just fine. The older ones, the stuff lower, it's you know, it's they're not built for this. So I mean, you're looking for newer construction that can handle the storm.
Now I have friends like Tony Bender's got multi million dollar condos kind of on the beach, which is of course, west of US forty one. And they're on the beach. You're about a quarter of a mile from the beach. He's on the ninth or tenth floor of a multi million dollar condo project, looking left and right. Been there about ten years. It's all great. If you're a quarter of a mile from the ocean. Come tonight or tomorrow and Fort Myers or in Naples, what are you looking at.
You're gonna be on an island. You're gonna see the waters surround you and you can't go anywhere, So you are stuck. I mean, nobody's coming to you and you can't go anywhere. It's a scary feeling when when the when the water surrounds you, because now you are stuck in the building. Typically in a building like that, they're going to bring the elevators up. They're going to shut the power down to the elevators. I mean, if you're on the tenth floor and you need to come down,
you got to walk down eleven flight the stairs. I mean, it's a scary situation.
And in the dark, and it's hot right right now. The temperats are in Naples is about eighty degrees and it's hot, and there's no electricity once that happens.
Yeah, and that's what I'm saying. If you can't handle no electricity, if you have a medical problem, if you need to plug something in, you're in a bad spot.
How long is there a sense that the condos on the beach is going to be days before electricity? How bad will it be? Tony Bender's got a big investment there and that it's called the Provence. He's got a major investment about seven floors up. How long will it be?
I'll tell you what, Governor Desantas the counties here, they do a fantastic job with the power. I've never seen power out for more than four or five five days down here, and typically forty eight you know, typically forty eight hours. So and that's when the tough part comes in because now after the hurricane, the temperature goes back up to eighty five degrees and if you don't have air conditioning and you can't handle that, it's a tough one.
What do you do with the alligators, the snakes and the critters, because when the water rises from the bays filled with alligators. I know some people like to wrestle them. I'm not one of them. Do you have to concern yourself with snakes, bugs, and alligators?
Oh? Yeah, and oh there's one point two million alligators in the state of Florida. I mean they are everywhere, so, I mean when the water comes up, they're swimming around. The hurricane's not going to hurt them. They are built for this. They can go under the water, they can breathe, and they What happens is when their environment gets flooded, they're moving around. They're going everywhere. So you've got to be careful from the snakes and alligators.
Well they're looking for lunch too, kind of like cats and dogs in Springfield, Ohio. You gotta be careful. You're not going to walk out and uh and knee deep water. You're not going to be walking around out of your palatial estate there on the Gordon River in Naples when this happens.
You're not going to walk around, are you?
I mean I walk around because you know I've you know, I've I've been out in the Everglades for years, you know the But you know, I don't recommend it, but I will for sure be walking around.
Well, this is unbelievable.
But I'll say this Bill Verdonka real estate agent, and call your county. I've said this to Tony Bender and others. It's time to panic. Does panic help ital I feel I'm in panic mode.
I think you need to be you know, when stuff gets crazy, you've got to be calm and you need to make smart decisions. I can't trouble.
I can't, I can't, I can't well.
At the end of day, you just you got to keep on trucking. And if you're going to stay, you got to ride this out. If you're if you're not going to stay it is, and if you're worried or any issues or the authority. If you're in a velocity zone, if you're right on the beach, there's something called the eighty flood zone. If you're in that velocity zone, I think you should evacuate. The shelters open everywhere. You know,
you're better off in your car in lends. You know, you don't need to be right where that is hitting where we are up the Gordon River, we're in Zone B. That's and so that that's a little bit safer. Zone A and the velocit zone. I mean that's a trouble factor right now. They're evacuating A and B And just like I said, any problems, they're not coming to help you.
Bill Verdunk, you're on your own. See what happens.
Watch out for the alligators, watch out for the snakes and the bugs.
All hell is going to break loose.
And with your permission, I may check in with you tomorrow to see what other crises have happened. But just keep an eye on the golf course. Make sure the golf course cart path only for a few days.
Is that correct? Cart path only?
Carpath car path only bearsball recovers. Well, they're going to get the gypsum in there, they're gonna get the degree and the grass green. After the storm. Cars at their course rolling in about a week after the last the last time it flooded.
Car path only, car path only, all right, death only, all right, Bill Verdunk, Say hi to your wife for me. You're a great American. With your permission, all checking with you tomorrow if we can, if you're still alive.
Do you fear death?
Do you fear death tonight?
I'm a little nervous, quite frankly, I'm a little nervous a anxiety's setting in, but man, I'm gonna fight it.
Good Bill Verdunk of the Verdunk Report, Thank you well. Checking with you tomorrow if you're still alive. Thank you, Thank you, sir, Thank you. Bill Verdunk. Real estate agent Tony Bender's multi million dollar condo overlooking the ocean might be he might be in trouble. In darkness, up and down, no light, no refrigerator, no electricity alligators and snakes and bugs everywhere.
Good luck.
We continue coming up later. We've scheduled an interview with the mayor of Fort Myers Beach, Dan Allers. We'll see what happens later on on news radio seven hundred WLW.
In the Enchanted Forest, Eddie and Rocky are dressed in tights with bows and arrows over their shoulders.
So we met up with this guy named Robin Hood. Seems pretty cool, so we agreed to join us.
Mary Moore, what about your radio show Millions Count on you two for an afternoon of laughs.
Yeah, But Robin's all about helping the working man.
He gives them money by stealing it. That's why the Sheriff of Nottingham has a price on his head. And anyone who helps him.
You know, I gotta say these tights are kind of itchy and smelling.
Screw this, Eddie and Rocky this
Afternoon at three on seven hundred ww Bengals fans, when you line up Chevy's family of SUVs, you get the ultimate victory formation of vict