Hurricane Irma - Key West - Part One

About four weeks ago newscasters started to talk about Hurricane Irma forming the waters of the Atlantic. Initial announcements of hurricanes forming catch my attention but do not alarm me as they typically die off or meander through the Caribbean and head north in the Atlantic Ocean.

I have lived in the Key West for 23 years and have been here for every hurricane except Georges in 1998. I was in Miami attending refresher real estate school when that hurricane was announced.

That storm slammed the Florida Keys. I spoke to friends on the phone who stayed in Key West during that storm and was told the flood and wind damage was extensive.  Locals who evacuated were not allowed to return for several days. It took me nearly twelve hours to drive the 120 miles from Miami to Key West. The next day I drove the streets and learned that only certain areas flooded and that while the wind damage was widespread, it was did not cause houses to fly up into the sky like in the Wizard of Oz. Instead, there was massive loss of palm trees and what I call tropical foliage. (In the following years Key West experienced the same type loss of tree damage - mostly to palm and poorly maintained trees.) I decided as a rule it made more sense for me to stay in Key West than to drive 120 miles to Miami or beyond. I don't have children and would not risk the lives of anyone else. I do not believe staying in Key West is life threatening to anyone. 

The year 2005 brought four named storms to Key West including the infamous Hurricane Wilma which caused significant flood damage from a storm surge.  Key West is located at the tail end of the Florida Keys. It is four miles long and about one mile wide. The island is surrounded by a reef which minimizes damages from large waves – they just do not occur. The historic Old Town area is located at the westernmost side of the island.  The Newtown area is located on the eastern side of the island and Midtown is in the middle. Both areas were developed in the 1950s and 1960s when former low-lying areas and former salt ponds were filled and raised to create building lots. Those areas were impacted the most by the storm surge that occurred as a result of Wilma’s devastating impact on Miami. There was no “wall of water”. Instead, water quickly rose from the ground and soon filled the streets and homes with up to four feet of water above grade. Several storms threatened us in the following years following Hurricane Wilma which caused local and state officials to issue mandatory evacuation orders. Schools and businesses closed and families headed north. The police do not enforce the evacuation. People who do stay are warned that if they stay, they are on their own in the event of an emergency. In the twelves since Wilma, none of the named storms ever reached Key West.

I watched CNN and the other networks for several days as Hurricane Irma churned through the Atlantic. I listened to Chad Meyers and others warn of catastrophic winds and tidal surges of ten feet or higher. Irma moved very slowly. There was ample time to leave, but the potential path was so wide it was difficult to decide whether  to go east to Miami or north toward Orlando.

I decided to stay in Key West with a friend at the soon to open Marquesa 4-1-4 Hotel on Simonton Street.  The new building is located behind the historic Kerr House and the former Pilot House guesthouse which are the focal point of the development. The new building was built to Florida’s tough building codes to withstand winds up to 200 MPH. I would stay in a second floor junior suite just in case the highly improbably ten foot tidal surge Chad Myers predicted were to come true.

Two days before the storm I drove along Truman Avenue and North Roosevelt Boulevard to take photos of a few “landmarks” just to note what they looked like before the storm. I guesstimate that seventy percent or more of town had evacuated by that point. We have a lot of single people who do not have cars or funds to go someplace else. Others, like me, find it more convenient to stay and cope with the discomforts of heat and no electricity than to deal with the discomforts of evacuation and re-entry. If you followed the news after the storm, you are aware the authorities restricted re-entry for several days to persons with re-entry passes and Key West identification. 

Duncan Auto Sales ferried most of its car inventory out of harm’s way. The lot was empty except for two kiosks and a few pickup trucks. Both kiosks were downed by the hurricane. Within a couple of days after the storm passed, the vehicles were returned.

I noticed two dredgers were tethered to a dock opposite the Burger King on North Roosevelt. I had not seen any vessel docked at this location before. I got out of my car to take photos including the Burger King. The Burger King store experienced some signage damage which is typical of many businesses on this roadway.  I do not recall seeing any structural damage to any building except for some scattered roof damages. I did not see any lost roofs. 

We have three shopping centers in Key West. I took photos of the Searstown Center because it is the largest. In addition to Sears, there is a PUBLIX grocery, Outback Steak House, Regal Cinema, and Royal Furniture, our number one furniture store. All of the stores and eateries were boarded up.

The days after the storm have melded together. About three or four days after Irma hit, I heard that food, water, and ice were being given out at Searstown. I only needed ice. The first day the lines were so long that I turned my car around and went home. The second day I parked my car and walked up to a local police woman who told me there was no more ice. When I asked her when it might be available, she said when it gets here. So I went home - frustrated. The third day I parked my car a block away. I found a red shopping cart and walked from the far west side of Sears to the east side where I found a massive assemblage of the US military personnel, Florida National Guard, FEMA, and other government and charitable groups. The east side of the parking lot was full of cars and trucks of locals who were waiting in line to get food, water, and ice. I passed through a sea what looked like high school kids in military uniforms, young men and women of every color and race, each cleanly scrubbed with short haircuts and spiffy clean uniforms. I felt so damned old and so damned proud. One young man gave me two cases of bottled water. I moved forward where I was offered ready-to-eat meals which I declined. A muscular 6'2" or taller Marine placed two bags of ice in my cart. I heard a "God Bless You!" My body lunged forward and I grasped the bar with both hands. I was over whelmed with emotion. At that point I had not seen any television and had not heard that much about the damage to the other Keys. But I could sense the magnitude of the event by the number of people who were there.

The day before the storm I went over to the White Street Pier, Higgs Beach, and the Casa Marina Resort to memorialize those sites.  The streets were empty. A murder of crows or some other big band of black birds ominously were perched on electric power lines as if they were aware a big storm was headed our way.

Old Town Fire Station commend center after the storm

Our real estate office is located about 125 feet away from the newly constructed Old Town Fire Station where the City of Key West assembled its battery of service vehicles that would become useful in dealing with the aftermath of the storm. The bottom photo just above shows the same area thirteen days later. FEMA has set up camp here to take claims from persons impacted by Irma. 

I took the above photo of Marquesa 4-1-4 yesterday, September 19, 2017, the place I stayed at during the hurricane, 10 days after Irma hit Key West.  I post this photo to let you know that not only this business but most businesses and homes in Key West were not damaged. My next blog will take readers on a photo tour of Old Town immediately after the storm ended.