Irma's Impact - Key West

originally published October 11, 2017

While Irma has come and gone, the impact from her 130 MPH winds is still being felt. Big Pine and Cudjoe Keys were among the hardest hit areas in Florida. A month later, piles of debris still line the streets, evidence of the homes destroyed and despair left behind.

The Lower Keys were cut off from the mainland in the wake of the storm. The only road into the chain of islands was closed pending inspection by structural engineers to ensure it was safe. Electricity was out and cell service was down. Residents wandered the blasted landscape in a daze, wondering when help would come, when they might be able to reach their loved ones to tell them they had survived. 

Indicative of this close knit community, residents began to reach out to help each other in any way they could. A local radio station was still able to broadcast and spread the word about a store which had a working land line. People lined up out the door for the chance to get a few minutes of precious phone time so they could talk to loved ones on the mainland. People shared supplies and helped give each other shelter. Once the roads were cleared, help was able to come in from the rest of the state. Floridians gathered donations - food, water, batteries, tarps - and delivered them to Key West residents by the truckload. 

It will be a long recovery for many people. Still, Key West is now open for business, welcoming visitors and hoping to bring in the tourist dollars that can help these communities rebuild. The Conch Republic will survive. 

Divers have been getting back in the water, both vacationers and professionals who wanted to survey the many dive sites in the area, to see how they fared in the storm. So far, the news has been good. Reefs are reported to be healthy and relatively undamaged. Depths have changed in some areas due to shifts in the sands. You may find a formerly familiar site looks quite different now. 

Spiegel Grove: The wreck appears undamaged, though now rests about five feet deeper than before Irma. Changes have occurred to the wreck but nothing as drastic as the damage caused by Hurricane Dennis in 2005. 

The Duane is now missing it's top smokestack. Over on the Benwood, a WWII era freighter, a long buried anchor has emerged from its sandy hiding place. 

The Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary continues to asses underwater regions surrounding Key West to assess any damage. 

Divers exploring the Ancient Mariner found that the wheelhouse has been sheared off by Irma. These photos show the current state of that wreck. 

In other parts of Florida, the recently scuttled Okinawa, resting on the bottom of the Atlantic as part of Pompano Beach's "Shipwreck Park" took a pretty hard hit. The ship was moved about 200' and now lists to one side, but remains fully diveable.

Visibility in many coastal areas remains poor. Blue Heron Bridge has had near zero viz in the weeks following Irma. My scuba shop hosted a shark tooth dive off Venice Beach on the West Coast this past weekend and reported near blackwater conditions. Not a lot of great ocean diving going on in South Florida right now. My wreck diving certification will have to wait for a little while but, compared what others have gone through this hurricane season, I certainly can't complain.