Ft.Myers beach also has terrible geography. When a storm comes in from the SW (which is the direction any gulf storm would come from), the water will get pushed up that bay with no where to go and get funneled directly at Ft. Myers Beach which is right in the center point. That is what happened in this case. The storm hit just to the north, so with the counter clockwise rotation, the wind was pushing the water from the SW to the NE.
https://www.google.com/maps/@26.3989.../data=!3m1!1e3