Treasure Coast dries off, sweeps up after storm’s near-miss
JENSEN BEACH — First the deputies told him to leave.
“The police came by and told me, ‘If you want to be a hard-ass and not leave, that’s on me,’” Rob deVeer said.
Then his family pleaded with him.
“I had family mad as hell at me,” he laughed.
But deVeer, 70, would not depart.
Instead, he defied Hurricane Matthew from inside his manufactured home, in a mandatory evacuation zone just feet from the ocean. Despite warnings about widespread destruction, his home wasn’t damaged and never lost power, and deVeer woke up feeling like a hero Friday morning. “We did real good,” he said. So did most everyone else on the Treasure Coast on Thursday night. The roofs of mobile homes weren’t stripped off, RVs didn’t fall over, flooding was limited and beaches remained remarkably intact as the Category 4 storm stayed well offshore.
As people returned to their homes Friday morning, some were even surprised to find their air conditioners running.
Kelly Zaso, who stayed at a friend’s house rather than risk staying in her Jensen Beach mobile home, was surprised to find that a few shrubs and an awning were the only things missing.
At Port Salerno Elementary, where more than 500 people evacuated from nearby mobile home parks and evacuation zones, relieved smiles brightened the faces of evacuees headed home.
Eugene King pulled the last of the belongings he’d brought to the shelter in a cooler on wheels that he loaded into his Lincoln sedan.
“I went home first to make sure everything was OK, and we’re fine,” King said.
King and some of the others who stayed at the shelter became such good friends that they’re planning to meet for dinner within the next couple of weeks.
The names Floyd, Charley, Frances, Jeanne and Wilma all roll off Jensen Beach resident Jim Christ’s tongue with a deliberately solemn cadence, like a war veteran cataloging a list of battles he’s fought.
Christ, a longtime Floridian, has survived the ravages of each storm — some better than others. So once he realized Hurricane Matthew left his house untouched, he wasted no time Friday morning taking his Shih-Tzus, P.J. and Mei-Lin, for a walk.
“I think I needed it more than they did,” Christ said of the fresh air, later adding: “The anticipation is the worst thing. Before the storm gets here, you don’t really know what it’s going to do.”
There were two hurricane-related deaths on the Treasure Coast, however. In each case, the storm prevented paramedics in St. Lucie County from reaching an ailing person. A woman in her 50s died after suffering a heart attack. An 82-year-old man who was having difficulty breathing died after being driven to a hospital.
Much of the public destruction came from boats that became unmoored. At the Jensen Beach Causeway, at least five boats were either partially or completely submerged or washed up against the shore.
“This is our home,” said Eveart Carline, 63, gesturing toward a 30-foot Pearson sailboat that was on its side on sand underneath the bridge.
He said he secured the boat with two anchors and spent the night in a Jensen Beach church. He was confident he’d be able to recover the boat once high tide returned and the winds died down.
Jarrod Rogers was emptying out a 22-foot Tanzer sailboat that had washed ashore at the foot of the bridge.
“This is my buddy’s boat — I’m just renting it,” he said. He said the boat was secured with anchors and a block. His friend would have to get a crane to put it back in the water, he said.
Though some homes and business in Martin and St. Lucie counties were still without power Friday afternoon, plywood boards were coming down in other places as local business reopened.
D o wn t h e s t r e e t f r o m t h e reopened Publix supermarket on Jensen Beach Boulevard, workers at Mulligan’s Bar and Grill were sweeping up fallen tree branches and wiping wet rags across the top of the bar in hope of opening up again by lunchtime.
Suzette Nangle, a server and shift supervisor, promised food would be ready by 12:30 p.m. along with the Beach House Margaritas — a Mulligan’s specialty gar- nished with a jumbo shrimp.
“We thought it was going to be bad,” Nangle said as her daughter swept the front walkway. “I was on the west coast for Charley. It was a Category 3, and it was bad, so after listening to the news and everything I thought this would be even worse.”
Across the street at the Jensen Beach marina, the boat for On the Go Bait and Tackle rocked gently, as firmly strapped in near the dock as it was when owner Marc Murphy and his friend Craig McConnell left it in the rain Thursday afternoon.
Back then, Murphy was worried his boat — the key to the business he began just three months ago — wouldn’t survive Matthew. But after realizing the storm had left it untouched, Murphy spent the day helping friends take shutters and boards off their houses.