Florida Keys reopening after taking a beating from storm
Infrastructure being rebuilt quickly along island chain, but evacuated residents will face ‘ primitive conditions’ when they return home
MARATHON, FLA. Authorities opened Marathon to residents Saturday but urged them to come prepared with supplies, medications and anything else they can collect before they return home to the badly damaged Florida Keys a week after Hurricane Irma battered the low- lying island chain.
“We’ve gone through some difficult times here. We will go through some more difficult times,” Monroe County Commissioner George Neugent said. “The Keys are not what you left several days ago.”
Commissioner Heather Carruthers said officials decided to reopen the Lower Keys to allow people to return and assess the damage to their property. Yet the fewer people come back, the less
they will overwhelm existing resources. Plumbers, air- conditioning repair workers and other people with skills to help the area recover are needed.
Carruthers said it will be a while before the Keys return to normalcy, and the district’s announcement that schools will reopen Sept. 25 will help that happen.
“People need to be prepared for primitive conditions,” she said.
Frustrated residents camped out at a checkpoint during the week demanding re- entry into the lower parts of the chain of islands.
Yet some understand the need to stay away and allow recovery crews to clean up and re- establish power, water and cellphone service.
“I understand why they keep you away and you would want to be away,” said Tim O’Hara, a reporter at the Key
West Citizen newspaper who evacuated to Savannah, Ga. “You wouldn’t want to be down there sweating all night long.”
O’Hara, his wife and son went to Tampa last Friday, but after they saw Hurricane Irma was headed that way, they moved to Savannah.
He said evacuating has been stressful for his 5- year- old because they switched to four different locations between a friend’s house, an Airbnb and hotels.
“I can tell it’s been tough on him because he keeps telling me, ‘ Can we go home?’ ” said O’Hara, 48.
Co- workers who stayed behind told him his second- floor apartment, built to withstand a Category 5 hurricane, didn’t sustain damage. A friend in Summerland Key, however, lost his home, and another in Cudjoe Key doesn’t know what his house will look like when he returns, O’Hara said. He will begin heading back Sunday morning.
Monroe County officials planned to open up U. S. Highway 1 all the way to Key West as of 7 a. m. Sunday. The storm destroyed portions of the road, which have now been rebuilt; knocked down power lines and severed drinking- water supplies; and cut off cellphone and Internet service. The storm also destroyed hundreds of homes, trailers and RVs, along with knocking down awnings over businesses and breaking off gas pumps.
“This is one of the toughest decisions to make but also an indicator of how well our recovery has been going since the Keys suffered a direct hit by Category 4 Hurricane Irma,” Monroe County Administrator Roman Gastesi said in a statement. “We know there will be many challenges ahead, especially for our hardest hit areas in the Lower Keys. But we want our residents and business owners to come back to rebuild their lives, their livelihoods and our economy. We are prepared to restore the Keys back to the special paradise we love.”
Many people refused to leave the Keys during the storm. Evacuees have frantically contacted reporters to get updates on their homes or tried to pass messages to neighbors, and many have been watching Facebook for information.
Authorities said they’ve kept people out because of fears of what would have potentially been a humanitarian crisis: thousands without access to water, power or sewage disposal.