Can we agree on one thing about hurricane evacuation? Can we put aside our fascination with minutiae and our escalating outrage with over-development, failing infrastructure and political partisanship, and agree on this: Monroe County, Key West and the other Keys...
Hurricane season demands
preparation all year
Our latest post

Key West hurricane prep | Part 1: Let’s get started
June is hurricane prep time in Key West. With so much hurricane prep info floating around, here’s what you REALLY need to know.

Key West hurricane evacuation | Part 2 | What to do if you leave the island
When a mandatory hurricane evacuation order is issued in Key West and the Florida Keys, how do you know when to go and what to do? We’ll help you decide.

Key West hurricane recovery | Part 3 | The worst is yet to come
Four kinds of people ride out a hurricane: Those with no where to go or no one to take them. Those whose clueless bravado having weathered a tropical storm or two leads them to believe hurricanes are just a bit more windy. Those who missed the evacuation window and...
Hurricane evacuation | Realistically, getting out ahead of a Cat 3 is not easy to do
Can we agree on one thing about hurricane evacuation? Can we put aside our fascination with minutiae and our escalating outrage with over-development, failing infrastructure and political partisanship, and agree on this: Monroe County, Key West and the other Keys...
Hurricane prep: Don’t forget to go analog
Ran into a friend earlier this week and we chatted over what's become a cliche: How's the repair work going? It's been nine months since Hurricane Ian blasted into the west coast of Florida as a full-on Category 5 monster. That same storm barged into Key West hours...
Florida hurricanes | Let’s stop pretending we ought to rebuild so that we “can get back to normal”
Each year in the 1950s and '60s, my grandparents left western Pennsylvania for the winter, pulling a trailer they then parked in one or another tiny crossroads towns that were then west coast Florida. They skipped hurricane season and left for home as summer and other...
Hurricane Ian | Just a tropical storm? Don’t kid yourself.
Ranger Ed and I should make a pact that we won't tell anyone about our visit overnight Tuesday with soon-to-become Hurricane Ian. Our sturdy little mid-1950s concrete block bungalow is so protected by our neighbors' properties, which are taller than ours, and by our...
Hurricane Irma | 5 years that changed Key West and the Keys
Once a month I drive to Marathon and back for a board meeting. I've done that since before Hurricane Irma clobbered Key West and the Florida Keys on Sept. 10, 2017. For five years that 100 mile round trip has been my gauge for our recovery from Irma's Category 5...
Key West hurricane prep: 4 lessons learned from Tropical Storm Elsa
https://youtu.be/JcxNFlB4aEU Well, that was fun. Perhaps Key West should have a hurricane prep drill every year like Tuesday's Tropical Storm Elsa. Because let's be honest, we don't expect a hurricane until, say, September, even though the season officially...
Finished the hurricane prep? Here’s a “forgot this for Irma” checklist
As if we weren't bollixed enough. A hurricane trolling the Keys? Really? We knew it was going to happen. It's hurricane season. Mother Nature doesn't care one whit if we're stressed with Covid-19 and what appear to be Revelations' end-times plagues. Here we sit, out...
Awaiting Hurricane Dorian from 300 miles away and worrying about the Abacos
Ominously odd air wraps around Key West this morning. Friend John Teets says "it almost feels viscous." Apt word... Even if one didn't know there were a hurricane way off in the distance, one still recognizes the dissonance. It did not get better overnight for Grand...
Who we? Worry? Why Key West should pay attention to Hurricane Dorian
Did you hear that collective sigh of almost-relief across Key West this morning? That's 25,000 or so of us diving into the overnight and 5 a.m., updates from the hurricane center. Looks like, maybe, almost, sorta that Hurricane Dorian's outer cone will skirt the Upper...
Where the heck IS Key West? A geography lesson for hurricane watchers
Dear off-island friends and family, We're OK. Really. We are. Just because the weather folks are going nuts speculating that Florida is square in the cone of soon-to-be Hurricane Dorian does not mean Key West and the Florida Keys are anywhere near that dude. I totally...