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KATRINA CATCHES KEYS BY SURPRISE |
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by Many Bolen and Stacy Rodriguez
Keysnews.com Citizen Staff Hurricane Katrina took the Keys by storm, and by surprise, Friday, bringing strong winds and heavy rain all day as its powerful bands lashed across the island chain. The storm's strong impact on the area was unexpected, especially in the Lower Keys, which only went under a tropical storm warning late Thursday. "Where did this thing come from?" asked Key West resident Randy Detrick. Keys residents who slept Thursday night awoke to downed trees, sunken boats and some serious flooding after the storm wobbled its way south overnight and took its time crossing South Florida. Some awoke during the night and saw the break of day when winds reached tropical storm force with 75 mph gusts in Key Largo. Others never slept after getting a late weather report that what was expected to be a tropical storm coming ashore in Fort Lauderdale had turned into a Category 1 hurricane that headed southwest, dumping heavy rain on the Upper Keys during the night. Almost everyone was caught off guard. Jo Cunningham, a Ramrod Key resident, said the water was level with the dock outside her house. "It was completely unexpected. I was surprised the tide got so high," she said. But she was taking the storm's unexpected visit in stride. "Just another mess to clean up. But it's all good," she said. "I'd rather have that than anything stronger. I'll take a 1 or a 2 any day, especially after Georges. We are very blessed here in the Keys." Officials at the National Weather Service office in Key West recorded a peak gust of 74 mph at Key West International Airport around 11:30 a.m. Friday. Winds were slightly higher at Sombrero Reef Light, an elevated offshore platform that showed a gust of 77 mph at 5:05 a.m. Friday, said senior forecaster Chip Kasper. "We were dealing with a strong tropical storm very similar to Dennis, and in fact, showed the same peak gust of 74 mph here at the airport," Kasper said. "It moved through the Upper Keys [Thursday] night, the Middle Keys early [Friday] morning and the Lower Keys later Friday, and did move a little to the south of the National Hurricane Center's official track." In addition to high winds, Katrina unloaded more than 7 inches of rain in Key West by 2 p.m., making Friday the 13th-wettest day in Key West history, with rain continuing to fall throughout the evening, Kasper said. He expected the skies to clear somewhat today, but residents and visitors should expect occasional strong squalls as the remaining storm bands pass through. The strong winds surprised many Key West residents who expected a rainy day, but not the massive volume of water that forced road closures throughout the county. "Thursday night, I was just expecting 40 mph winds, and we eat them for breakfast around here," said Jennifer Johnson, a marketing director for several Key West restaurants. She was playing dominoes in her Johnson Street home that was still without power at 1:30 p.m. Friday, watching the unexpected winds tear through the trees in the neighborhood. Stephanie Garrison said she got up in the middle of the night to pull down the rolldown shutters in her Boot Key Harbor condo. "I was awake most of the night between the wind and the rain," she said. "This morning, those boats on Boot Key Harbor were heaving back and forth." Carla Bellenger made sure her 4-year-old son, George Robert, was not frightened by winds that shook their second-floor home on Von Phister Street in Key West. "He's not scared at all, we're just playing," Bellenger said. "Although we were very surprised by how close it came as we were following it online." Bellenger's husband, George, had gone to Higgs Beach to check on the Hobie Cat sailboats he rents from there. "One guy was covered in palm fronds and taking shelter under a Hobie Cat," Carla Bellenger reported. Doug Gill, an Islamorada resident who often lives aboard his sailboat, said he was caught off guard by the storm's change in direction. "When we went to bed last night, we thought everything was all right, but it tracked southwest and caught us off guard," he said Friday. "We learn to depend on the [National] Hurricane Center in Miami, and they were surprised and so was every one else," Gill said. Old Town resident Jody Thomas said she had a feeling the storm would be bad. "I was out of town, in Melbourne, and something told me if I didn't come back [Thursday], I wouldn't be able to make it back on Friday," Thomas said. "I thought it was just a crazy feeling, but somehow, something in my gut told me to come home." Filmmaker Talmadge Heywood, in town for the final test screening of his new movie, "Veritas," at Tropic Cinema didn't know on Friday afternoon if the show would go on. He said he and his partner, Tommy Terpening, had not laid in supplies for the storm. "We got no food, but we got TV," Terpening said from the duo's Watson Street apartment. "Nobody around town thought it would come down like this, did they? We can't get out our front door." |
