How Long Does It Take to Clean Up From a Hurricane?

A surprisingly long time. Especially when major roads and highways were under water for a long time. The picture above is North Roosevelt Boulevard under 6 feet of water. Other areas of the Overseas Highway suffered damage that takes a longer time to repair than most people would think. I mean... you can use it and drive over it but damage was done that needs to be addressed, repaired and improvements made. We are still it seems cleaning up from Wilma. And, may I add on a personal note I know many older Conchs who have yet to finished repairs to their homes as they live on limited budgets, are not wealthy and the damage done was severe. Not everyone living down in the Keys is rich and famous.. nope, not at all and people get by with less often while enjoying the other benefits of living in Paradise.

I received an email today from Monroe County warning me of road closures in case I was going to drive down to Key West this week. Oh I wish...

Generally I don't click on all the Monroe County emails, but today I did. Probably because I am planning a trip down there soon and wondered how the big new highway was coming along, how close they are to all the road work being completed.

This surprised me but shouldn't have surprised me... because this illustrates how long it takes to clean up from a hurricane. Road work takes forever to be done, so many steps have to be taken...from designing the improvement or making a plan, getting it approved, money budgeted and work crews hired and the work scheduled on a calendar and well... Hurricane Wilma was a while ago but still the clean up goes on..

S.R. 5 (US 1/Overseas Hwy) Hurricane Wilma Repairs at MM 15.80 to MM 16.00

Week of December 14, 2009

Lane shifts are expected on a daily basis between MM 15.8 and MM 16.0 on Monday, December 14 thru Friday, December 18 along the northbound lanes from 9:00 A.M. to 4:00 P.M. Please obey the speed limit. Motorists are encouraged to call 511 before they drive or log on to www.fl511.com to get real-time traffic and lane closure information. For more information, please contact Will Thompson at 305-797-0962 or via email at will@QCAusa.com.

Some interesting comments and pictures online referencing Wilma in the Keys:

http://floridakeystreasures.com/keysblog/category/florida-keys/upper-keys/islamorada/

Good pics there of the highway ... scroll down...


Cute story and lesson learned:

http://www.turtlehospital.org/blog/?p=265

Good picture...illustration of the fury of Wilma:
http://www.panoramio.com/photo/4967658

Best site is the official site that I took the picture above from...

http://www.srh.noaa.gov/key/?n=wilma

Interesting blog site...
http://conchscooter.blogspot.com/

Actually, think I have a picture of his scooter watching the sunrise parked at the edge of Duval Street... who knows...one scooter looks a whole lot like another in Key West.

As for me... my old conch roots are calling me and ongoing, forever road construction or not I am going down to look around and hear the call of the sea and check on some of my friends.

How long does it take to clean up from a hurricane?

A long time... sometimes things are rebuilt better...other times not.

In the old days in Key West after a storm the local conch teens would go down to the highway (Roosevelt) and look around for buried treasure... beer bottles floating from the liquor store... wasn't really thought of as looting but just a modern day twist on the old wrecking days that first put Key West on the spot as the wealthiest city in the United States "per capita" .... after a good storm you went down to the water to see what the ocean gave forth...

If you are driving down to Key West this week... know that for a small stretch of the way you will have to wait if traffic gets busy... and by the way... it's been YEARS since I went down to Key West and they were not building fences to keep the Key Deer in or rebuilding the road or working on the new widening project.

Put on a good Jimmy Buffett CD and kick back and enjoy the view... why are you in a rush to get to the end of the road?

Besos Bobbi

Ps...sample some of Jimmy's newest from Buffett Hotel. I already ordered mine ;)

http://www.amazon.com/Buffet-Hotel-Jimmy-Buffett/dp/B002RZVI20/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=music&qid=1260411512&sr=8-1