New York caught a break this weekend when Hurricane Lee stayed far enough out in the Atlantic to limit property damage to beach erosion and cause dangerous rip currents and high surf.

In a year it will mostly be forgotten.

But for the residents of Cape Coral in southwest Florida, the damage caused by Hurricane Ian a year ago this month continues to upend lives.

In the Courtyards of Cape Coral — South condo development alone, 97 people, many of them senior citizens on fixed incomes, are still without their homes.

As the storm’s anniversary approaches, Janet Correa is helping them out. “New York cares,” she said Friday, surrounded by items donated for a garage sale — a big garage sale that spills out onto her deck, driveway and lawn.

Correa’s condo, like most of the 132 units in 33 buildings in the Courtyards, had to be gutted when the contaminated flood waters of Ian finally receded. Correa’s condo is a second home, she’s safe in her house on Little Collabar Road, where she and her friends are holding the sale this weekend.

Many of her Florida neighbors aren’t as fortunate. Some are staying with friends or relatives, Correa said. Some are living in trailers supplied by FEMA. Some folks teamed up to live three or four to an apartment rented temporarily.

The month after Ian struck, the head of a contractors association on Florida’s Gulf Coast said the sheer size of the affected region, the lack of skilled labor and supply chain challenges would combine to mean the reconstruction would take years. One estimate put the cost of rebuilding at $74 billion.

Insurers were slow to grasp the costs involved, Correa said. The first check for the Courtyards was woefully inadequate, she said. The homeowners association finally hired a public assessor to work on their behalf. When the first realistic insurance check arrived, it boosted her neighbors’ hope and gave some contractors confidence they’d get paid. Builders are working on five condos now without having received a cent in advance, Correa said.

Insurance won’t cover everything. In addition to the work needed on individual units, residents will be assessed fees for the work on common areas at the Courtyards. That will amount to thousands of dollars for each unit, a tough nut for those on limited incomes.

Correa said neither will insurance pay to clean up and repair yards still covered in flood debris. She said one possible use for the money collected at the garage sale would be to concentrate on fixing up the yards. “A coming home present,” she said, for the seniors.

On September 29, the City of Cape Coral is hosting a “Resilience Rally” so community members can “remember the challenges we overcame during Ian, to honor the struggles many of us still face, and to celebrate the strides in recovery we’ve made,” according to the city’s website. In place of an entry fee, the community is asked to donate non-perishable food, pet supplies and safety gear to replenish non-profit organizations left short by responding to the storm.

The city may not know it yet, but New Yorkers are standing with them, thanks in part to Correa and her team of good Samaritans. The garage sale continues at 65 Little Collabar Road, from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday and from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Sunday.

Correa even got a bit of good news Friday, she got off the phone to announce that three people had found permanent housing. She quickly went to a poster propped up in the driveway, took a marker and slashed through the number 100, and wrote 97 next to the word homeless. There’s still work to do.