Hurricane Irma made landfall on Cudjoe Key as a Category 4 hurricane on September 10, 2017. Hurricane Michael made landfall in Mexico Beach as a Category 5 hurricane on October 10, 2018. These were very destructive storms, and our state still shows the scars.
We have friends and family on Big Pine Key, and they have not fully recovered from Hurricane Irma. There are still families living in RVs while they try to rebuild. We noticed that there are still plenty of roofs with tarps on them, and some 473 homes were utterly destroyed. But it’s not just human dwellings that were flattened. We did some kayaking in the Keys in May, and noticed that a lot of the vegetation on the smaller islands is decimated and unlikely to return. Some mangroves die if they lose only half of their leaves, and the middle and lower Keys saw many mangroves denuded. As the dead mangroves rot, the salt that the plants took up is returned to the water, creating microenvironments of very high salinity. This super-salinated water is not hospitable to new growth, and with the next hurricane these dead islands are likely to blow away entirely.
Thirteen months after Hurricane Irma clobbered Cudjoe and Big Pine Keys, Hurricane Michael did the same to Mexico Beach, Panama City, and the surrounding areas. When we traveled to Blackwater River State Park last month, we noticed a great deal of damage along Interstate 10, from signs that were still blown over and pine trees that were snapped off mid-trunk. Even nearly a year after the storm, two major rest areas on the interstate are still closed.
The takeaway from this is: Be Prepared. Before Irma, it had been 10 years since a hurricane made landfall in Florida — in fact, New York and New Jersey had more hurricanes than we did. But it appears that the long dry spell is over for Florida, and we will be getting our share of serious storms. We are now well into the 2019 Atlantic Hurricane Season, and there are many resources to help you create a Hurricane Plan. Make sure you have your supplies in advance of a storm’s arrival, because stores empty quickly when a storm is named and on the way. Where will you go if an evacuation order is issued? Have your trees been trimmed? Can you get out of your property in the event of a flood? How long after a watch or warning is issued should you wait to begin gathering your important documents (HINT: Don’t wait. Do this today if you can).
Confirm that you have proper insurance. It’s bad enough to have to fight with the company to make you whole after you suffer a loss, but not good at all to have insufficient or improper coverage to protect your assets.
Please be proactive and don’t let a storm destroy you.