Key West ... after the hurricanes
 

I'm reading here on Fodor's about people visiting Key West this Spring, and am not seeing the hurricane damage from last Fall mentioned. Here's a link to an article written two months ago:

http://www.timessentinel.com/opinion...342121914.html

My DH and I had thought we might visit Key West, for the first time, this year, but had second thoughts after we read about the damage done by the storms last year. Has anyone here visited recently? I'm wondering if we should hold off another year ....

We were in Key West immediately after the airport reopened after Wilma hit. It was really bizarre to see all the brown foliage. Being from the midwest, it looked more like home, since things were brown. However, the 'touristed' areas were already looking very normal. As in New Orleans, the old part of town was on the highest elevation (not that it's very high), and many areas there had minimal or no flooding.

If you left Old Town and went into the newer neighborhoods, the flood damage was horrific. Houses totally gutted with all of thier belongs stacked on the curb. Almost every local that we talked to had lost their cars to flooding, most just from water damage, but one cat had literally floated away, and was 'lost'.

Anyway, tropical plants refoliate rather quickly, and I'm guessing the ones that have died have been replaced. I'll be anxious to see if the huge Banyan trees at the Banyan Resort have survived. I'm going back the end of March. I'm guessing I'll be able to tell it isn't as lush as it should be, but suspect my travel companions, who haven't been there, will think things look fine.

Thank you so much, JeanH. I really appreciate your input! Any comments from anybody who's been there in the last month or so??? Thanks, guys! :-)

We just got back from there a week or so ago. And there's very little damage to be seen.

Even New Town, where the damage was worst, shows little effect. One place that was interesting was Sears. They apparently cleaned out the store interior, and are now restocking--looks like they're slowly stocking a new store.

I commented to someone about Publix. The store is elevated, and I figured the water might not have gotten that high. The person I spoke with said the culprit there was the loss of power. Any place that needed refrigeration was in trouble, whether visited by water or not.

MREs were a mainstay on the rock for a while: Those that stayed never want to see them again....

There was minimal flooding in Key West, mostly, I think, at the southern end of the island. The problem with salt water flooding is the plants die from the salt water. But if you can catch them in time and inundate with fresh you can save them.

They are old pros down there. Not to worry.

BTW, BB, it's still warm (your seat).

Tandoori Girl, I don't know what you consider 'minimal' flooding, but our daughter had 4 feet of water in the house she was renting and lost almost everything. She lived in New Town. Her landlord is going to demolish the house instead of rehab it and put it on stilts.

There were almost 2000 houses severely damaged and over 12,000 cars lost from the storm surge after Wilma. Then the following week there was another rainstorm that caused more flooding. This info is from the Keys News website. People were scrambling for housing, doubling up, living in cars until the FEMA trailers could get there. Pat was lucky as a friend of hers had an small apartment he was just starting to rehab and let Pat move in.
Yes, things are better now and probably look better, and the main tourist area got cleaned up the fastest, but there are still problems. But everyone pitched in and helped one another clean up and the churches served meals to those who came. Pat organized a group to clean up one churches lot because they were getting a hot meal a day from them in their neighborhood. Pat was lucky because Mom, Dad and big sister came through with money and goods to help her get started again, and we all gave extra goods to help her friends who lost their belongings too. No, the flooding was not 'minimal' to those who lost everything.

All I can say is that our son and partner just returned from Key West and were captivated by it. Has lots of history and ambience I guess. Didn't mention storm damage.

ozarksbill