I recall that after Hurricane Wilma drowned a large part of key west in 2005 there were no reports of looting. Even after K Mart flooded with three feet of water homeless people in Key Plaza gathered up the floating merchandise and stacked on the window ledges at the store. On the other hand help wasn't long in showing up. Hurricane Katrina had hit New Orleans a few weeks earlier and Florida Governor Jeb Bush had the National Guard in the Keys as soon as the storm blew by. We had truckloads of water, food and ice available by the next day. Chef Boyardee never tasted so good! In New Orleans it was another story and the entire city was left to it's own devices for days. People starved, drowned and dehydrated in the submerged city. Then we heard stories of "looters."
From the AP archives.What I wonder were people to do, abandoned and impoverished anyway in a city that had literally drowned. I wonder how many of us would have resisted the temptation to take food and water (and beer) off the surviving shelves? Reports of widespread shooting and violence were apparently greatly exaggerated though who was to know at the time? Now in Chile people are being accused to "looting" in the city of Concepción that has been flattened by an earthquake, I'm not sure toilet paper would be my first priority were I destitute but to each her own:
From Reuters.And so it is one has to wonder what the protocol is when civilization has broken down all around you and the normal transactions of daily living have ceased. I suppose everyone wanted to believe that Haiti would end up a cesspit of violence after their earthquake, and this picture from a survivalist blog would reinforce that prejudice:
Yet we hear from rescue services that despite the horror, people in Haiti have behaved with admirable fortitude, restraint and self reliance. I guess people will steal given the opportunity, God knows our bankers have managed a grand theft of historic proportions right under our noses. About that I could do nothing but protest. I hope that when disaster strikes my hurricane supplies will survive intact and I will be able to hold out relatively comfortably until help arrives. I would hate to be labeled a "looter" were I forced out to hunt and gather supplies after a disaster. 
It is used by cars and scooters but it is also a pedestrian path and a bicycle route as well and fifteen miles an hour is a good speed to stick to as you never quite know what you might meet on the roadway in the park:
A hammock (hamaca in Spanish) in South Florida botanical talk is a small rise of high ground above the flood plain that allows hardwood trees to take root. You'll see clumps of tall trees among the mangroves all over the Everglades and in the Keys and Little Hamaca in Key West has been preserved as open space for city residents. A good job too. In 1962 this place was a key component in the front line defenses against Cuba during the missile crisis. (As an aside the film Matinée starring John Goodman is set in that period and worth a view). The US military set up mobile missile launchers around key West and also erected towers who purpose I am not sure of. In this period picture from the State Library archives it appears the towers were used to house tracking devices or radar of some sort for the hawk missiles which would be launched from their trailers:
The towers and the buildings and the protective berms are still there as we shall see in a moment. Before we return to the present there was one other Hawk Missile picture from the Cuban missile crisis that I really like. It was featured in the Citizen newspaper a while back and I've never forgotten it. It shows three women and a baby walking past the missile batteries on Smathers Beach apparently unsupervised and without a care in the world. I wonder if these days with all the terrorist paranoia we will ever learn to trust each other again like this:
I first came out here on a ride along when I joined the police department. The K9 officer putting up with me in his patrol car brought his dog out here for training, teaching the animal to hunt for contraband hidden among the ruins. These days my more pacific dog likes to stump around sniffing on her account.
There are tons of these platforms all over the place: 
Chevron is a common enough logo. Anyone remember Standard Oil? Don't worry, Esso (S.O.) became Exxon, Chevron, Mobil, Marathon, Conoco, Amoco and Mobil were all originally part of Rockefeller and Flagler's Standard Oil Company. Makes Goldman Sachs look like a piker!
Views are hard to find in the Keys so when presented with a berm rising up above the mangroves, Cheyenne and I were nothing loathe. 
Looking east towards Las Salinas, Oceanview and South Roosevelt Boulevard:
