Danny Who?

Here's a thought: it's been ten years since Wilma blew into town and flooded Key West just months after Katrina wrecked New Orleans. No one across the U.S. noticed Key West go under water as the Crescent City's drama made everyone question their survival rating. It was my second season dispatching, I was hired right before the awful 2004 summer season of constant hurricanes and a year later I was taking calls from people whose homes were collapsing and whose streets were flooding. But, unlike New Orleans Key West did not see a break down in social order. I remember bums collecting supplies floating out of Kmart and putting them up on ledges out of reach of the flood waters. People got stuck on their roofs, cars floated away, but no one drowned and vigilantes didn't strut around waving guns. It was no fun but it wasn't distopia. I felt good about Key West. From NOAA this image of North Roosevelt; Hurricane Wilma sucked:

With Tropical Storm Danny churning around in the South Atlantic and predicted to become a Category Two storm before reaching the Caribbean this might be a good time to remember a great many people who live in the Keys have yet to enjoy their first hurricane experience. Key Haven wasn't spared by Wilma:

When the National Hurricane Center announced the Pacific El Niño promised us a lighter than usual season they did point out that "it only takes one." So could Tropical Storm Danny be the one? It's a bit early to say, let's face it.

The difficulty when facing the potential approach of a storm is that everyone has an opinion and those with no experience can be led to worry or worse can be persuaded to behave with a bravado that usually evaporates when it's too late. I've sat out a dozen storms but my job requires me to stay and facing 130 mile-per-hour winds from inside the police station is one thing. My wife the teacher evacuates the minute they close the schools. She leaves with Cheyenne and a tank full of gas before last minute traffic clogs the overseas Highway. The question is: what to do and when? The old timers, real and pretend, like to pontificate and act all certain. Me? Not got a clue. Sometimes people like to measure wind speeds as though the approach of a mere Category One is nothing to worry about. Maybe, but wind speed changes on a whim. It's all very mathematical but the Saffir-Simpson scale is just an attempt to measure the nature of Nature.

Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale

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Climatology | Names | Wind Scale | Extremes | Models | Breakpoints

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The Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale is a 1 to 5 rating based on a hurricane's sustained wind speed. This scale estimates potential property damage. Hurricanes reaching Category 3 and higher are considered major hurricanes because of their potential for significant loss of life and damage. Category 1 and 2 storms are still dangerous, however, and require preventative measures. In the western North Pacific, the term "super typhoon" is used for tropical cyclones with sustained winds exceeding 150 mph.

Category	Sustained Winds	Types of Damage Due to Hurricane Winds
1	74-95 mph 64-82 kt 119-153 km/h	Very dangerous winds will produce some damage: Well-constructed frame homes could have damage to roof, shingles, vinyl siding and gutters. Large branches of trees will snap and shallowly rooted trees may be toppled. Extensive damage to power lines and poles likely will result in power outages that could last a few to several days.
2	96-110 mph 83-95 kt 154-177 km/h	Extremely dangerous winds will cause extensive damage:Well-constructed frame homes could sustain major roof and siding damage. Many shallowly rooted trees will be snapped or uprooted and block numerous roads. Near-total power loss is expected with outages that could last from several days to weeks.
3 (major)	111-129 mph 96-112 kt 178-208 km/h	Devastating damage will occur: Well-built framed homes may incur major damage or removal of roof decking and gable ends. Many trees will be snapped or uprooted, blocking numerous roads. Electricity and water will be unavailable for several days to weeks after the storm passes.
4 (major)	130-156 mph 113-136 kt 209-251 km/h	Catastrophic damage will occur: Well-built framed homes can sustain severe damage with loss of most of the roof structure and/or some exterior walls. Most trees will be snapped or uprooted and power poles downed. Fallen trees and power poles will isolate residential areas. Power outages will last weeks to possibly months. Most of the area will be uninhabitable for weeks or months.
5 (major)	157 mph or higher 137 kt or higher 252 km/h or higher	Catastrophic damage will occur: A high percentage of framed homes will be destroyed, with total roof failure and wall collapse. Fallen trees and power poles will isolate residential areas. Power outages will last for weeks to possibly months. Most of the area will be uninhabitable for weeks or months.

 

So, there's a week to see what's what....

And you may care to check out The Hebert Box if you live in Florida! Good Luck!

 

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Housing: Affordable And Not

Clearly I am getting to feel better as I have started to take a fresh interest in the pages of the daily paper, and I am well enough nowadays to stagger downstairs to pick up the neatly folded newsprint tossed in my driveway. Oh dear what do we find? More stories about the abominable state of housing in the Southernmost City. And judging by a couple of stories on the front page tonight's city commission meeting could make things, at best, no better, and  at worst, no worse. 

The first chunk of housing involves a development on Caroline Street with expensive town homes under construction (see above from the front page of yesterday's paper). The question there is whether or not the homes should be permitted to rent for less than 28 days at a time. The city limits short term rentals, the idea being to preserve residential neighborhoods rather than turning them all into party central for a week at a  time...However in neither case are these multi million dollar homes going to be rented as workforce housing, it seems to me. The question is more one of helping to encourage sales to people who one day might like to live in Key West  but want to buy these town homes to use as rentals in the meantime which does the housing market no particular good. This issue highlights the difficulty of home ownership in Key West that is often masked by ridiculous prices combined with lack of amenity. You buy a home and end up with your neighbors being vacationers up till all hours splashing in the pool, playing music and being rowdy after a night's drinking on Duval Yay! That's what Key West is all about! When you've paid through the nose for your home this sort of behavior can render you pretty testy

The other housing development planned for the city is a collection of ten manufactured homes to be built on stilts on Flagler Avenue at 11th Street on a piece of land essentially cleared by Hurricane Wilma in 2005. Apparently one city commissioner of glorious but short memory wanted a city park but developers have been arguing over the parcel and now it seems these manufactured homes will sell for $800,000 apiece with a chunk of the land remaining undeveloped and "preserved." These three bedroom wonders don't exactly qualify as worker housing either at those prices. The best part is the city gets a whole $15,000 tribute for affordable housing funding from each home. As you might imagine around here  $150,000 won't go far to assuage the need for affordable homes. The best part about this development for me is the security wall and electronic fence that is planned to keep the ravening hordes of homeless at bay. The Catholic Soup Kitchen is next door...The Enclave will be a secure fortress, safe from the poor.

If there were any doubts about Key West's commitment to affordable housing, let them be dispelled at once. Even in my feverish state this appears just to be more lopsided fuzzy thinking from a leadership class that has not one spark of thoughtful creativity.

Life Sometimes Sucks

I  don't think of myself as being a vindictive man, I am quick to anger, quick to forgive and for the most part quick to forget. Thus I do not think of myself as having many enemies, though I may have more than I think. Nevertheless I work in an office environment and personality clashes are bound to occur usually hidden beneath a thin veneer of good manners. Someone might have intercepted a text conversation I had with a colleague last week and might have overhead me tell him that I would not wish this walking pneumonia even on So-and-So. Must be pretty terrible then came the reply as my friend knows my long standing antipathy for So-and-So, and normally I would not want to withhold the seven plagues of Egypt from afflicting that ill mannered character.  As it is I am starting my second round of antibiotics in an effort to shake this fever and my wife continues to function at half speed with her share of this bug and the likelihood of pleurisy for added fun and amusement. For back up I'm sucking down this crap like it was mother's milk, and my chest still aches.

I have managed to get back to work for a couple of half shifts in an effort to help out my severely short staffed colleagues. They are skittish because they fear infection but are grateful for my presence to relieve the endless rounds of overtime everyone has been sucking up. Overtime is great but this time of year  vacations eat into our supply of available staff and myself and one other getting sick have made things rather tense. 

I confess I am quite jealous of JW who was also coughing a bit but who is now repaired. Why him and not me? I have hardly ridden a motorcycle in a month, what with time spent with my wife and now being too ill to contemplate riding...They know something's wrong when I show up to work in the car. JW decided he knew what I needed and went and got it from Sandy's, the 24 hour Cuban Cafe up the street from the police station. Chicken soup he said, chicken soup it was. The odd thing about this fever is that it hasn't dulled my appetite one bit and indeed I am astonished how hungry I feel half the time. The other half of the time I am too dull to even think of eating or concentrating on any one thing. 

I find myself wondering about this illness more than I normally might. Its effects have been severe and prolonged even though I caught it very early and swiftly and started treating it right away. Normally I enjoy rude good health and I am not much given to taking pills so I have no resistance to medication or any adaptability to antibiotics or anything like that. Yet this strain is refusing to bow down to the power of our formerly invincible medications that have been abused, over prescribed and fed even to the animals we eat, used to bulk them up unnaturally. Now we are told we find ourselves unable to fight disease as we were once able to. I find this slow process of recovery rather intimidating and worrying.

 Cheyenne has continued to get her walks with me tottering out behind her trying to get a small share of fresh air once a day before retreating to my couch or my bed, books being too complicated to read, thoughts drifting as aimlessly through my mind as the clouds overhead. I count myself lucky she is elderly and patient and easily satisfied these days in the heat of August in the Florida Keys. With this illness come the nightmares that accompany the depressed mind of a sick person. My dreams have been stored in my memory more vividly than usual,  technicolor movies of unusual complexity filled with dark themes of decay and abandonment. My boss had a death in her family, a former colleague died of persistent cancer last week and a former girlfriend got diagnosed with a brain tumor. She is one of those women with whom I had a tumultuous relationship decades ago but with whom I have stayed friends and who now, for a while thought she might be dying so she invited my wife and I for a last visit. Death has apparently been postponed or hopefully diagnosed prematurely so the trip to British Columbia is off for now. It is all part of the process of aging, we know this yet the process comes as a surprise. 

So I extend my apologies for the silence on this page and thanks to Gary for filling in. I further apologize for the unnaturally gloomy tone of this start to the week, but my disposition has been somewhat inhibited by my lack of access to the outdoors, to summer swimming, to riding my motorcycle to...you name it pretty much everything that makes Keys summer living cheerful compensation for the crowds of winter and the year  round high cost of living. At this point I wonder if I shall ever get back on my  feet -  well yes I will of course but Good Lord, sooner please rather than later! Of course if you need to seek redress for some slight, real or imagined, my defenses are down and this would be an excellent time! I can only hope I will soon be back on an even and  blogging and photography will resume as normal.

Decorating in Key West

From My Sickbed:

Hi Michael,

"I have run out of essays as I struggle to shake off this awful fever." Well buddy, here in the south we usually take a sick friend a pot of chicken soup or some such nonsense. It is obvious that what your are in need of is not soup but an essay. So said Garythetourist. Thanks Gary.

 

Two phrases never applied to Key West; "Cookie-cutter" and "plain Jane." Those phrases don't apply to the architecture, to the sunsets, and certainly not to the locals. If something is perceived as ordinary, it is quickly adorned and decorated until it fits in with the rest of the funky, quirky island.

 

Naturally, houses are decorated so that a plain white wall demands a gecko...

 

the space between porch columns calls for a necklace of brittle stars...

and one simply can't have a stylish doorway without a fish...

and that fish may reside near the decorated mailbox sporting a manatee or a dolphin or a cat...

And the ever present big green trash can made up nicely with a fish

And next to a utility pole displaying Key West folk art critter things.

Every mode of transportation demands embellishment; a scooter enhanced with Marley and marijuana

While the cage sports images reminding us of the reef as it was in years past

Bicycles tricycles dogs fences and graves and trees and boats and kiosks nothing is free of ornaments baubles trinkets knick knacks and spangle. Everything from the lowly concrete block to the flat horizon; everything is made a bit more special by a bit of art and the unmistakable mark of the extraordinary.

Shine on Key West and avoid the plague of cookie cutter plane Jane like the plague.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Pneumonia Pause

I have run out of essays as I struggle to shake off this awful fever. Normal service will be resumed when I finally get over this nastiness. Soon I hope.

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No Name Monochrome

Photos taken at No Name Key on a walk with my beloved dog.

I was walking Cheyenne in the morning and the sun was rising in the east. I wanted the seaweed washed up under my feet in the picture. The horizon? Not so much!

If you'd like more words check out www.travelandsafety.com for my latest podcast.

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