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Not sure if we are talking key west or key largo (which is no where near key west really). According to a post in weather forum, Key West itself is fine, it escaped the eye wall and was on the weaker side of the hurricane. Some sensational repots saying the entire town is underwater. Don't believe them.
From last night: "MSNBC just ran a phone interview with the Ernest Hemingway Museum curator. They're fine. All the cats are fine. Some minor flooding in the town but people are out walking their dogs on Duval Street this evening. Power is out."
Some of the reporting is really of hyperbolic proportions. I've been in the weather forum here to get more objective and less sensationalized information.
I think we all know that keywest is not fine. Further you have no education on a grand scale of the earth and distance if you truly think that key largo is no where near key west. Incredible. Further your Understanding Of A Hurricane And The Core Is Abysmal.
You can be in or near the western eyewall of a hurricane and you will be so scared you could pee in your trosers, and anyone that says different is a liar.
There is a large mobile home park in Key West that was totally wiped out Inexpensive housing for many of the service workers at KW hotels,restaurants and other business'
They will have no place to go and it will be impossible to find cheap rentals.....don't think it's going to be much of a season in Key West this year.
There is a large mobile home park in Key West that was totally wiped out Inexpensive housing for many of the service workers at KW hotels,restaurants and other business'
They will have no place to go and it will be impossible to find cheap rentals.....don't think it's going to be much of a season in Key West this year.
They can bring in some of the empty FEMA units that they used for Katrina.
They can bring in some of the empty FEMA units that they used for Katrina.
A lot of them are in poor condition- they just sold off a bunch of them earlier this year because it was not cost-effective to rehab them- and I'm not sure the Louisiana/MGC trailers are the type that meet HUD windstorm code for use in the southern parts of Florida.
We were supposed to be in KW last week at our timeshare, oops. Love the Keys, our favorite place to visit. I agree with Starfish that the highway needs massive widening, at least 4 lane. However, there is a lot of opposition from local communities, businesses, and the costs for bridge widening, causeway widening is monumental. Mass transit (rail, etc) costs are millions a mile as well. Just not an easy solution.
Once things really get back to 'normal' support the Keys by visiting, recognizing that you may not recognize some areas due to the damage.
Thank you so much for the many very kind messages! I don't have time to respond to all individually. Still in exile, traveling around the country while I am too ill to return to the Keys in its disaster state. When it has clean water, full medical, internet, etc. back up, I can go back. That's looking to be soon though - maybe another week or two.
I have heard from most people now who stayed. And in looking at the death list so far, although that might change, the 15 people on it now don't appear to be the few I haven't heard from yet.
I have heard that people saw my house and it's still there, and I did see the aerial shot from NOAA that looks like maybe some small roof damage... but other than that, I have no idea what kind of damage, if any, to expect when I do return. Also, that shot is from so far away, what I saw on the roof could have been a branch, or a shadow... so no clue yet. I'm told the electricity resumed and the A/C was on - so that's clearly critical, and a good thing. I'm guessing the yard is a total loss... but maybe not? And I shoved a bunch of things in the storage area underneath, which is below flood, because I just was not well enough to drag them up into the house - so I have no clue what in that area I lost. I have not gotten clear numbers on feet of storm surge.
One thing I find really annoying, is how people keep knowingly telling me, "Things can be replaced" - like they have any idea what they're talking about. I don't know how other people live, but I live my life with purpose. Everything I own, has meaning, a story, a history. You can't "replace" memories. Sure, physical things are not permanent, nor is life. But, it's not like my life is full of meaningless crap bought from a big box store, that I magically have the money anyway to go buy a carbon copy of next week. People need to rethink that obnoxious platitude, given by the haves to the lowly have-nots like it means anything. I'll survive whatever loss I sustain, like I have survived countless losses before in my life. But nothing I lose at that house can be replaced - it will just be gone, leaving a hole that I will think about in years to come. Hopefully there's no water damage in my house, otherwise old photographs, handwritten love letters, cards from now-dead relatives, art - all that stuff would be gone, also totally irreplaceable.
I have heard mixed things from the people I know on the islands about what services they have, and what level of damage their homes have. It still seems pretty random, both in storm effects, and also in the process of clean-up. One house will have services, the neighbor does not. I long for the days when I can live easily totally off-grid, on a solar generator and satellite internet/cell, with a simple but efficient water maker. Not there yet, but getting closer all the time!...
Just to clarify an above comment, while I did say that FL needs to have at least one 8-lane highway out of the state, that widened highway comment was not meant to apply to the Keys - I meant Miami and above. I think we need light rail in SFL - modern, far faster than roads, more environmentally sustainable, and capable of transporting large numbers of people and luggage efficiently without noise or a wide physical footprint. But, making a very wide highway for cars throughout the entire Keys is just not feasible. For the astronomical amount of money it would cost to build extra lanes in the sky above the ocean, like in the case of the 7 Mile Bridge, you might as well just build the light rail, which is a far better solution for the money. And it doesn't make sense to widen some spots and not others, because all that does is cause total gridlock due to all the merging back and forth. Keys people need to just deal with the fact that it is a choice to live there - at this point, whether you were born there as a Conch or not, it requires a conscious choice to live on those islands. They are excessively expensive, isolated, and prone to disaster. If you can't deal with the fact that you might get stuck there because there is only one narrow way in and out, that can easily get wiped out in flood waters or debris, DON'T live there. There is a very good reason I ultimately settled on the Upper Keys, and not the Lower Keys, or PR or the US Virgin Islands. I don't have the kind of wealth to fly myself to safety with a private helicopter/plane. And I don't like the idea of sitting on an island being a sitting duck for a massive storm.
Fortunately PR has mountains, so there is some escape from the storm surge theoretically, but my heart just breaks for what they and their island neighbors are going through now with Hurricane Maria. It is not a good feeling to have a Cat 5 coming at you and have nowhere to go, and already be dealing with aftermath from a previous Cat 5/4.
Hurricanes are part of island life. Anyone seeking to move to such places intentionally need to fully understand, as I said in years past in this forum, that it is not a matter of if, but simply a matter of when.
First you ranted and blamed your little local newspaper for not "warning people" about the hurricane and now Florida is a death trap because a bunch of odd souls chose to live way down in the Keys KNOWING the road system?
I guess these pioneers (or like you said - mentally ill) don't watch television? Everyone knew this was coming for several days. And everyone knew it was going to be BAD. I left the state on TUESDAY and decided on MONDAY.
My guess is they didn't even have money for gas and that's why they stayed. What? They couldn't even get to a Miami shelter? The governor was on TV every few hours for DAYS saying you don't have to leave the state just go to a shelter or ask for help.
I saw people partying in the water drinking and laughing showing off for the TV cameras hours before the landing.
The services were NOT abysmal ; I beg to differ. There was a SLIGHT gas shortage that lasted a minute in one part of So Fl.
The greater shortage was in No FL right outside of GA when all the people started coming home. The first couple of gas stations... because there is only SO MUCH gas you can fill up for the pumps. Even at that I filled up at Macon and by the time I was a quarter tank low in FL I was able to top it off.
So yeah. If you CAN'T BE self sufficient don't try and act self sufficient in that remote part of the country.
I'm glad to see somewhere between the 10th and the 20th you realized that and took responsibility.
The taxpayer is not responsible to fund people's "dream" of pretending to be whatever stylized version of humanity it is they're pretending to be down there. Even though we ARE. And I don't see any appreciation for that. I don't understand why Liberals blame everyone else for choices they make and still complain even when they benefit from everyone else facilitating their lives with our hard earned dollars. While partiers laugh and party on a beach hours before a major hurricane they had over six days notice about.
The President had THE MILITARY in ports and out in the OCEAN with aide just waiting to come in, for cripes sakes. Seven Naval warships and aircraft carriers. Loaded with rescue workers, medicine, water, supplies, helicopters, the whole nine.
YOU'RE WELCOME.
Last edited by runswithscissors; 09-21-2017 at 09:32 PM..
First you ranted and blamed your little local newspaper for not "warning people" about the hurricane and now Florida is a death trap because a bunch of odd souls chose to live way down in the Keys KNOWING the road system?
I guess these pioneers (or like you said - mentally ill) don't watch television? Everyone knew this was coming for several days. And everyone knew it was going to be BAD. I left the state on TUESDAY and decided on MONDAY.
My guess is they didn't even have money for gas and that's why they stayed. What? They couldn't even get to a Miami shelter? The governor was on TV every few hours for DAYS saying you don't have to leave the state just go to a shelter or ask for help.
I saw people partying in the water drinking and laughing showing off for the TV cameras hours before the landing.
The services were NOT abysmal ; I beg to differ. There was a SLIGHT gas shortage that lasted a minute in one part of So Fl.
The greater shortage was in No FL right outside of GA when all the people started coming home. The first couple of gas stations... because there is only SO MUCH gas you can fill up for the pumps. Even at that I filled up at Macon and by the time I was a quarter tank low in FL I was able to top it off.
So yeah. If you CAN'T BE self sufficient don't try and act self sufficient in that remote part of the country.
I'm glad to see somewhere between the 10th and the 20th you realized that and took responsibility.
The taxpayer is not responsible to fund people's "dream" of pretending to be whatever stylized version of humanity it is they're pretending to be down there. Even though we ARE. And I don't see any appreciation for that. I don't understand why Liberals blame everyone else for choices they make and still complain even when they benefit from everyone else facilitating their lives with our hard earned dollars. While partiers laugh and party on a beach hours before a major hurricane they had over six days notice about.
The President had THE MILITARY in ports and out in the OCEAN with aide just waiting to come in, for cripes sakes. Seven Naval warships and aircraft carriers. Loaded with rescue workers, medicine, water, supplies, helicopters, the whole nine.
YOU'RE WELCOME.
???
Are you drunk?
No clue what any of this is about. It is one hell of a negative rant about nothing though, congrats. Just shooting spit into the wind.
I can't even begin to know what virtually any of this is referring to. But I'm not interested in trying, either. I have a far more positive life than people who post such drivel, and don't worry myself about aimless and incoherent hatred coming from strangers...
StarfishKey...? loved my previous visits to the Keys and it real made me sad to see the devastation. How did Islamorada fare in general and more specifically (perhaps my favorite bar in the world) Lorelei's? Have spent more that one vacation blissfully walking back and forth across the highway from the Islander Resort to Lorelei's for the magical sunsets.
I worried about the animals all over but especially at Theatre of The Seas.
Will return again someday to do what I can to aid in the recovery in my own small way by spreading around a few geenbacks.
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