Report: Irma affected every Marathon property, destroyed nearly 400 homes

There was not a single property in Marathon left untouched by September’s Category 4 Hurricane Irma.

That’s according to the most recent numbers put together by city staff and engineer James Barton of Delray Beach-based Florida Technical Consultants.

The hardest-hit portion of Marathon was the oceanside stretch between Vaca Cut, mile marker 53, to Sombrero Beach Road, mile marker 50, said Marathon Planning Director George Garrett.

“There were basically no unaffected properties for the most part,” he said, adding the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s definition of “affected” can be something as simple as branches or a downed tree on a property.

Of the 6,643 homes visited by surveyors, 394 were deemed destroyed, 1,402 had major damage, 829 had minor damage and 4,018 were “affected.”

In unincorporated Monroe County, Irma destroyed 675 residential and commercial structures, according to an initial report last month from county staff. Overall, 10,009 houses were affected by the hurricane that landed Sept. 10 and 3,884 were not affected in the unincorporated areas, that assessment said.

Of the 675 destroyed structures in unincorporated Monroe, 465 were on Big Pine Key, the assessment says. Eighty-one were on Cudjoe Key. Houses also were crushed on Big Coppitt Key, Geiger Key, Little Torch Key, Lower Sugarloaf Key, Ramrod Key, Stock Island, Rockland Key, Sugarloaf Key, Summerland Key and Scout Key.

Countywide, about 15,700 households have received Federal Emergency Management Agency grants, according to county public information officer Cammy Clark. The grants can include money for temporary rental assistance, home repairs and other needs not covered by insurance, such as replacing destroyed personal property, she said.

About 8,800 households county-wide have been given rental assistance money from FEMA, Clark said.