Hurricane Irma: 6 Days in the Florida Keys
“Today was the worst day of my life” — EOC Staffer, Monday Evening
That was the first time it hit me all day. After waking up at 4:00am, it really hit me at about 10:00 pm.
Hurricane Irma hit the Florida Keys as a Category 4 Hurricane; 120 mph winds and 8 foot storm surge decimated Monroe County.
Countless lives were ruined in the most terrifying and awesome display of nature’s imaginable power.
We passed news crews, checkpoints, national guard convoys… we were some of the first response teams there. To put it in perspective, at one point I was in the only vehicle on the entire 7 mile bridge.
There was no power, no cell service, no internet… we were completely cut off from anyone outside. Only the military and a handful of federal and state officials had satellite communications otherwise.
FEMA Urban Search & Rescue (USAR) teams cleared much of the major roads. Marathon airport was reestablished by Air Force Forward Air Controllers (FAC’s), and supplies started flowing in from National Guard C-130’s.
As we traveled through Key Largo, Islamorada, and Marathon, it appeared everyone seemed to have weathered the storm well. Sure, damage was plentiful, but thank the lord not life altering destruction.
However, that didn’t include the lower keys.
“You have a backpack and map? You’re just like Dora the Explorer” — First Sargent, 53rd Infantry Brigade
Monday afternoon, I joined a retired Air Force Colonel to scout locations for POD’s in the lower keys.
We hopped in a pickup truck with a spare tire, half a dozen 5 gallon gas cans, and a few bottles of water. There were a few locals on the road, but mostly Monroe County First Responders as many outside teams hadn’t made it yet.
Cudjoe Key was ground zero, the landfall point of this massive storm. Within roughly 12 miles either way was destruction of every manner possible.
It seemed surreal that everything was damaged — homes, cars, boats.
On Cudjoe, trees blocked half the streets, with downed power lines just as common. On Big Pine Key, wooden utility polls were snapped like twigs.
On Sugarloaf Key, the iconic Baby’s Coffee was ruined with its roof torn mostly apart, and another building completely destroyed. But the owners still managed to brew some coffee and handed out everything they had left for free. They literally forced food into my hands and joked charismatically.
This was a jolt… Thinking to my daily caffeine run, I tried to imagine that just suddenly, gone. And still they would be those same people, celebrating those around them regardless.
“A Point of Distribution or POD is where the public goes to pick up emergency supplies following a disaster.” — FEMA Instructional Manual
As we settled into the Monroe County Emergency Operations Center (EOC), my main role was to organize logistics for the Point of Distribution (POD) Mission.
This meant coordinating the establishment of 5 distributed POD’s secured by a platoon of Florida National Guardsmen, with the delivery of a massive amount food, water, and supplies to each.
For this, we worked with the US Air Force’s 821st Contingency Response Group and the Florida National Guard’s 53rd Infantry Brigade Combat Team to deliver food from the Marathon Airport.
Florida’s State Emergency Response Team (SERT) and the American Red Cross sent also supplies form Miami by tractor trailer trucks.
And all of this coordination was done with landline telephones…
In 5 days, we distributed over 1,070 pallets of supplies to 27,549 people.
Bottom line was we did our job. And to put that in numerical perspective how how many pieces needed to move, this is what capacities looked like:
- USAF C-130 = 64 Pallets
- SERT Tractor Trailer = 20 Pallets
- FNG Helicopter = 8 Pallets
- FNG Truck = 3 Pallets
“Most of the people working in that room have lost their home or car” — First Responder
The Emergency Response teams in the Florida Keys were a collection of some of the finest people from across the Country.
From the Los Angeles County Fire Department, Minnisota Incident Management Team, to my hometown Palm Beach Gardens Fire Rescue; the nation converged to lend a hand.
But most impressive were the people of Monroe County, some of whom lost much of what they owned. They worked nonstop for an entire week before many checked on their own homes.
One gentlemen I worked with even provided a constant comic relief, diligently working through our mission despite his home being destroyed.
The Florida Keys are strong because of its people — they are strong, passionate, and resilient. The future of the Conch Republic is bright.
I didn’t take a vacation in 2017, but I’m glad I was able to do something worthwhile.
