Irma destroys one-quarter of homes on Keys
Residents return as rescuers search farthest reaches
Rescue teams finally make their way into the Florida Keys’ farthest reaches as authorities rush to repair the lone highway linking them to aid.
LOWER MATECUMBE KEY, Fla. — Search-and-rescue teams made their way into the Florida Keys’ farthest reaches Tuesday, while authorities rushed to repair the lone highway connecting the islands and deliver aid to Hurricane Irma’s victims. Federal officials estimated one-quarter of all homes in the Keys were destroyed.
Two days after Irma roared into the island chain with 130 mph winds, residents were allowed to return to the parts of the Keys closest to Florida’s mainland. But the full extent of the death and destruction there remained a question mark because communications and access were cut off in places.
“It’s going to be pretty hard for those coming home,” said Petrona Hernandez, whose concrete home on Plantation Key with 35-foot walls was unscathed, unlike others a few blocks away. “It’s going to be devastating to them.”
‘Come together’
Elsewhere in Florida, life inched closer to normal, with some flights again taking off, many curfews lifted and major theme parks reopening. Cruise ships that extended their voyages and rode out the storm at sea began returning to port.
The number of people without electricity in the late-summer heat dropped to around 10 million — half of Florida’s population. Officials warned it could take 10 days or more for power to be fully restored. About 110,000 remained in shelters across Florida.
Seven deaths in Florida have been blamed on Irma, along with four in South Carolina and two in Georgia. At least 35 were killed in the Caribbean.
“We’ve got a lot of work to do, but everybody’s going to come together,” Florida Gov. Rick Scott said. “We’re going to get this state rebuilt.”
Irma’s rainy remnants, meanwhile, pushed through Alabama and Mississippi after drenching Georgia. Flash-flood watches and warnings were issued around the Southeast.
While nearly all of Florida was engulfed by the 400-mile-wide storm, the Keys — home to about 70,000 people — appeared to be the hardest hit. Drinking water was cut off, all three of the islands’ hospitals were closed, and the supply of gas was extremely limited.
Officials said it was not known how many people ignored evacuation orders to stay behind in the Keys.
Federal Emergency Management Agency Administrator Brock Long said that preliminary estimates suggested that 25 percent of the homes in the Keys were destroyed and 65 percent sustained major damage.
“Basically every house in the Keys was impacted,” he said.
In Islamorada, a trailer park was devastated, the homes ripped apart as if by a giant claw. A sewage-like stench hung over the place.
An aircraft carrier was positioned off Key West to help in the search-andrescue effort. And crews worked to repair two washed-out, 300-foot sections of U.S. 1, the only highway from the mainland, and check the safety of the 42 bridges linking the islands.
Authorities stopped people and checked for documentation such as proof of residency or business ownership before allowing them back into the Upper Keys, including Key Largo, Tavernier and Islamorada.
The Lower Keys — including the chain’s most distant and most populous island, Key West, with 27,000 people — were still off-limits, with a roadblock in place where the road was washed out.
Jose weakening
Also Tuesday, the White House announced that President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump will visit Florida on Thursday to survey damage from Hurricane Irma.
Trump owns Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach and three other properties in Florida. He recently made two trips to Texas in the aftermath of Hurricane Harvey.
The White House has not revealed where the Trumps will visit in Florida.
Meanwhile, Hurricane Jose weakened overnight and could become a tropical storm later Tuesday, according to the National Hurricane Center.
Jose’s maximum sustained winds are 75 mph, which barely register it as a hurricane on the SaffirSimpson scale.
Jose is 450 miles northnortheast from Grand Turk Island and 645 miles north-northwest from San Juan, Puerto Rico.