I always dreamed of having a big Hubski party in Key West, but it might not happen, at least not any time soon.
My ex-husband bought a house in Key West in a mania of recovery in 2013. I've been renting it out most months. We used to go down together for two months in winter, but since his mania of separation, we have been each spending six weeks a year there, separately.
The house was built after the great fire of 1886. Back then, cigarmakers lived in compounds. They even had a trolley from downtown that picked the workers up and brought them home at night. There were cigar factories all over Old Town Key West. Our house was originally one of these cigarmaker homes, probably the superviser's. Over time, three of these homes were pushed together, so the house is very large and open. With two bedrooms, two pull-out Murphy beds, sofas and blow-up mattresses, I've had nine people sleep quite comfortably.
The walls are made of thick Dade County pine. It has withstood many hurricanes. The previous owners told me that they lived there through nine hurricanes:
We're close to Solaris Hill, the highest point on the island. It is 18 feet above sea level. We're 8 feet above sea level. Real estately speaking, it's in the X zone - which is an area that has never had a flood. If the storm surge is six feet, we're okay.
They are predicting the storm surge to be 8-12 feet.
On Wednesday, our friend and handyman, George, put up our hurricane shutters. Most of our friends have left - but it seems a lot of people hunkered down.
We watch and wait.
Somehow we still have power. We're backed up to local springs and near flood areas, but have been lucky thus far. Only lights flickering. Friends have reported no power and others flooding. The worst is supposed to pick up soon and continue for 9 or so hours.
The house is probably okay - but some roads are washed out. The airport is flooded, but not too bad. The air force is sending engineers to evaluate it. No safe water, no power, and the evacuation order is still on. Communication is down, but the county is able to post on Facebook:
Thanks Spencer. What's it like in Gainesville? I'm very safe. I'm in Canada - just the house is in Key West. Our tenant fled unhappily to Atlanta. He can only stay a couple more days in Atlanta and wants to go back to Key West -- but even if the house is fine, there is no power. The airport is closed. Latest word from Miami Herald is that Key West was somewhat spared the worst.
It's not too bad yet, but it doesn't fully arrive for another 5 hours. Its windy and the sliding glass door is shaking in a really unnerving way but the power is still on. I'm not that worried since we're fairly inland though. How's Canada btw? Was this an evacuation or just lucky timing?
Just got/getting through the thick of it and still have power. Woot! Our local weather man (who is the shit, walked us through as much bad weather as I remember here in FL) is saying Irma has finally spun out. She's just spreading her (hurricane force) winds at this point. The Villages should be hit around 4ish. Should hit you much later IIRC. How you holding up? Our pool is spilling over and the patio is flooded, but all good inside.
Good, I'm glad for you and your town. It's lost some of its intensity. I still can't get any feet on the ground in our neighbourhood in Key West. I saw some YouTube videos of people driving around shooting street scenes. Still no drinkable water, no power, no cell service, no airport, and no lifting of the evacuation for Key West. They're cleaning the highway so the crews can get in and fix everything. Things are really bad in Big Pine and Marathon.