South Florida Sun-Sentinel Palm Beach (Sunday)
A year after Irma, the Keys still struggle
Even the popular restaurants and bars, the ones whose names you’d know, took months to recover after being trampled by Irma’s 130-mph winds. Some took most of the past year to rebound from a storm once so powerful that it triggered earthquake detectors. For many people working in those businesses and elsewhere, the housing they need — the affordable kind — is gone. For much of the Keys, the past year has been an arduous comeback.
When the Florida Keys bore the brunt of Hurricane Irma a year ago this week, the big question was when — or if — life there would return to normal.
Most of the Keys’ popular landmarks like Robbie’s Hungry Tarpon Restaurant, Mallory Square and No Name Pub are back in business.
But life for some people there will never be the same. Homes that were badly damaged were demolished and never rebuilt. Jobs disappeared and never came back.
And tourism, the lifeblood of the Florida Keys, has been slow to recover. Most towns are still behind in critical tourism dollars by double-digit percentages year over year.
Here’s a look at how some spots in the Keys stand today compared to the days that followed Irma’s crushing blow in September 2017.
Robbie’s Hungry Tarpon Restaurant and Bar
The popular marina, bar and restaurant suffered extensive damage during the storm. Its famous docks where visitors could feed the hungry tarpon were completely destroyed.
Within days, employees including Gilda Rroshi, were already cleaning up and rebuilding at Robbie’s, clearing out seaweed that flooded into the bar during the storm.
Waitress Emily Green was in the restaurant serving up customers last week. The popular destination has been fully repaired and tourists are back to feeding the tarpon.
Venture Out Resort
The Venture Out community in Cudjoe Key suffered major damage to more than 100 of its RVs, mobile and stilt homes.
Resident Ron Andrei, who rode out Irma in Key West, came home to find his unit mostly intact. Many of his neighbors weren’t so lucky. In desperate need of water, gas and a generator, Andrei spelled out a call for help on the roadway using hurricane shutters for the emergency helicopters to see.
The community was back to normal last weekend as resident Paulette Brake walked back to her home after visiting a neighbor.
Venture Out resident Trish Brummer, who is also an agent for Waterfront Keys Realty, said 134 lots consisting of older trailers from the 1970s and ’80s were severely damaged.
"The strength of our community is one of the reasons why we came back so quickly,” Brummer said. “We have so much pride in our ownership here that it drove
homeowners to get their properties back on track again.”
Mallory Square
The waterfront gathering spot in Key West where nightly sunset parties consist of sword-swallowers and fire-breathing jugglers wasn’t damaged by Irma. But like most destinations in the Keys, tourism hasn’t bounced back.
Will Flederman said he hasn’t been making as much money as he used to performing at the Loud Mime Show in Mallory Square, but it’s slowly getting better.
“A year later, it's coming back up,” Flederman said. “It’s not the same as we were making last year, damages are lessening and profits are going up a little bit. Mallory Square is still here. The sunset is still beautiful.”
Big Pine Key
Big Pine and Cudjoe keys bore Irma’s fury as the eye made landfall on Sept. 10, 2017. As ocean water crashed through, most roadways including U.S. 1 became impassible.
On Long Beach Drive on Big Pine, Irma buckled the roadway. The road on Sept. 12, 2017 was impassible and many of the properties were heavily damaged. A year later, there are few signs of the devastation.
No Name Pub
After Irma crashed through, the owners of the historic No Name Pub on No Name Key said the structure was “still standing.” But the property was trashed — trees were toppled and a boat had been lifted out of the water and dropped nearby. A year later No Name, a former brothel and one of the oldest bars in the Keys, was welcoming customers.
The economy
With so many homes damaged or destroyed by Irma, reconstruction is still going on. A year after the storm, construction worker Sebastian Col was cutting roof beams to repair a home that was severely damaged in the Jolly Ranch Estates on Little Torch Key.
Contractor Kevin Barlow of Barlow Building on Big Pine Key, said he had a shortage of workers after Irma.
"One of the hardest things was after Irma hit the majority of my employees didn't come back from evacuation,” he said. “They had no where to live, so the affordable housing — most of it got washed away and when they relocated and they found out that their home here had been washed away they had nothing to come back to.”
Some property owners haven’t rebuilt.
A stilt multi-family house near along U.S. 1 near Islamorada hasn’t changed much since Irma's storm surge swept away its foundation, leaving it uninhabitable.
In The Avenues in Big Pine Key, several empty lots remain for sale after Irma destroyed mobile homes there.
"One of the biggest challenges that we have right now are folks that are rebuilding, and they have to rebuild to the new standards,” said Roman Gastesi, Monroe County administrator. “The new standards are more expensive, they take longer, and some of the folks can't afford it unfortunately at this time. We're trying to help them with grants and other ways to help them.”