Short visit to the Keys

It’s hard for us to believe, but January is almost over. We’re kind of surprised the time has passed so quickly because we haven’t really done much while waiting out the winter here in south Florida. 

This past Wednesday we finally took time from our busy schedule (that’s a joke folks) to ride down to the Keys. We were curious to see what damage was done by the Hurricane Irma. Irma was the Mega storm that had the whole east coast watching its path and hoping it would not hit them. The September storm cut a swath thru the Caribbean islands before turning north and taking aim at Florida. 

Here in the campground we had heard descriptions of “Complete devastation”, very few businesses left running and all the hotels on Key Largo wiped out. Next we were told all the businesses are going broke because there are no tourists. The only way to know the truth was a road trip to see for ourselves.

First a disclaimer, we only drove halfway down the chain of islands and did not go past Marathon. The eye of the storm hit the lower keys between Marathon and Key West. 

Sombero Beach in Marathon still being restored

Not to discount the personal tragedy of those who did lose their property to the storm, the keys have survived. We did see evidence of a lot of storm damage and there’s still some debris being cleaned up. We saw some businesses closed, but most of the structures survived, in fact I think there are more roofs still covered in blue tarp here in Homestead than in the Keys. 

As you would expect most of the structures that were lost were waterfront and hit by the storm surge. The newer homes built to hurricane code all seemed to have faired very well. We saw several trailer parks that some of the homes closest to the water were destroyed and all the ones several streets back are ok.

My last boat was like the one in the background

At the southern end of Marathon the Knights Key RV Resort is completely gone, but it had nothing to do with the storm. It is another campground that is being replaced with housing. There will probably come a day when there are no RV parks left in the Keys, the land is just too valuable. 

Knights Key Campground being redeveloped as condo's

The road is open, send the tourists, Life goes on in the Keys.