Irma In Big Pine

The center of the storm went over the Keys somewhere between Cudjoe Key and Big Pine. 

Home to many trailers. 

The National Guard brought supplies:

Winn Dixie offered air conditioning serenity and wi fi.

More Pictures of Irma

I have hundreds of pictures but battle fatigue does set in at some point. You keep seeing wreckage and it burns out your eyeballs. So I'll post as many pictures as the temporary cell phone service offers. As of today there is some electrical service in spots around Key West and some emergency medicine available at the ER but there is no running water or Internet service.  The highway is closed at Mile Marker 74 in Islamorada, consequently there is very little civiliantraffic on the roads or in the streets. There is a dawn to dusk curfew in the city of Key West. 

Irma Pictures

A few pictures as permitted by our very limited bandwidth. 

Life After Irma

We are recovering slowly in Key West from a most spectacular direct hit by a Category Four Hurricane. Proper internet access still seems days away but we have occasional connections now so I can finally say I am alive and tired. My photos upload fairly easily at night on Instagram at Michael Conchscooter. I duplicate the posts on Facebook at that same name. Until we get broadband I shall not be able to post properly here.
It has been a very hard week with more to come.  My home is solid and dry but many aren't so lucky. There is no structure damage in Key West to speak of but landscaping has been devastated. The Lower Keys took the brunt and there is much damage and wrecked wiring there.
Cheers
Michael
Living at the Key West Police Depsrtment.

Night Hang Outs

I didn't have Rusty, I was on a lunch break and felt like riding my Vespa at random. I really felt like climbing a mountain road or riding through a forest but these options aren't available at the end of the road so I buggered off around town. Sandy's is closed weeknights from midnight to five but this closure was for maintenance the sign said. I am still not used to seeing Sandy's formerly open all the time, closed. No Cuban coffee twenty four hours? Well...

Badboy Burrito is another hangout that offers affordable food and there it was closed at two in the morning. How unsporting! 

flamingo Crossing for ice cream never looks like this during the day and I suppose that was the point as I rode and stopped and took off.   

 Next u as I made my way across town was Santiago's Bodega the tapas place on Petronia Street.

I got right the way to the end of the road and you know it was night time because the irrigation sprays were hosing the ball field at the end of Petronia and I got a face full of irrigation water as I rode by. No harm done it was still in the mid 80s in the middle of the night. There are a lot of comments about the roadways through what is to be the new park with the amphitheater and I'm going wait to see what it looks like when finished in a few months. They are planning a concert here in February so they have a deadline. The entrance to the park at Fort Zachary is open and working here: 

They are playing Dunkirk at the Tropic and I have a hankering to go.  So I rode by on my way back to work up Eaton Street from Truman Waterfront. 

I cut across from Eaton on Bahama Street and stopped at Southard to get this picture of the Cafe before I turned around and headed back to work.

Shorebirds

It wasn't intended as a catalogue, more as a meditation.

 Then the cormorant took off and  I took a picture by reflex. Then I heard the mockingbirds.

 They were calling out to each other from the tops of the trees. So I took another silent picture.

 The seaweed was piled up along the shore by the various winds blowing out of the south. 

 Good pickings for some of the delicate little birds hopping on top of the mat.

 Further along toward the old Bahia Honda bridge there were a few birds on the seawall.

 The bridge itself is giving up after 105  standing here taking trains and then cars:

 The end by Bahia Honda state park is repaired but this end, the west end, is crumbling:

 And then there are the mangroves:

In the end they will prevail where cement won't.