Key West After Irma - Kudos and Complaints

In an earlier blog I wrote about why I stayed in Key West to weather the storm that Hurricane Irma would unleash on my island home. Later I wrote about the damage to Key West and specifically to the Old Town area which most of my readers are concerned about. I am glad that I stayed but I endured a lot of personal distress. Don't get me wrong, I am not feeling sorry for myself. People who fled Irma to Miami, Ft Lauderdale, Ft Myers, Tampa, and other larger Florida locations had to cope with some of the same losses we had in Key West, principally no electricity, no cell phone service, no internet service, no potable water and really hot temperatures with no way to cool down. People with generators did have electricity for a while, that is until the propane tanks were emptied. This blog does not address the huge losses to the people who live in the other Keys.

Earlier I wrote about going to Searstown to get some ice. I was driving east on Flagler Avenue around 11:45 AM to get to Searstown where ice, food, and water were going to be distributed starting at 12:00. I had 104.1 FM on my radio. I think it was former State Senator Ron Saunders who was conducting a telephone interview of a FEMA spokesman from Washington. Saunders was on the air every time I was in my car driving somewhere. He always spoke rationally. He offered reliable information as to assistance that was available at the moment throughout the Keys. And on that day and time he interviewed the FEMA guy who was the worst example of federal government incompetence. Saunders asked several simple one sentence questions as to what FEMA assistance were readily available now to persons effected by the storm. He pointedly asked about persons who had evacuated and how they could get assistance for temporary housing if they return to a home or apartment that was damaged or destroyed.

The FEMA spokesman told Saunders and the listening audience to go online and register at the FEMA website. When Saunders gently pressed for more information, the FEMA guy said he would get back to Saunders with more competent answers. At another point he offered to discuss certain matters "off air". I was so enraged I shut the radio off three different times in the five to seven minute ride to Searstown. What an incompetent jerk this was. He was the face of FEMA at that moment. His voice of incompetence was being broadcasted the 100 miles of the Keys. He offered nothing - not a scintilla of hope to people whose lives were forever changed by this storm.

Later I hear US Senator Marco Rubio being interviewed on 104.1 FM. He remarked about the lack of electric power, the lack on internet and cellular service in this the most powerful and wealthy county in the world, and the immediate inability of FEMA to be of aid. He remarked that the NAVY (which had positioned help ships in Key West) had power, internet and telephonic communication and said something like we can and must do better.  You think?


Readers of my blog may recall me writing on occasion about the Conch telegraph.  That is a euphemism about how life stories in Key West are communicated - you tell one person something and within minutes it can be all over the island with the true story often getting mangled in the process. That happens anywhere but news and gossip move with light speed in Key West especially when we have cell service.

I think it was the first but perhaps the second day after the storm that someone climbed a telephone pole in Old Town and dropped a phone wire down to ground level where an old fashioned push button phone was affixed to the pole. I found out about the phone and called some of my customers to report the condition of their property. People waited in line for their turn to talk to the outside world who thought Key West might have been obliterated. It wasn't.

The photo at the top of today's blog shows my next door neighbor's once majestic tree that dominated the Casa Marina Area. I used to lay on a raft in my pool and look up at the top of the tree where a hawk sat keeping an eye on everything below. I have not been in the pool since the tree fell. The hawk not sits up on the power line on the opposite side of the street.  The city and the tree clean-up contractors have done a remarkable job in cleaning up the tons of tree debris. Kudos to those hard working men. I am happy to report that the majority of damage to Key West was to our trees and not to our homes and not to our people. We will get past this.  Key West is officially open for business.

CLICK HERE to view photos of Key West pre and post Hurricane Irma.