No regrets? Key Westers who stayed reflect on their decision
BY TERRY SCHMIDA
Should I stay or should I go?
That was the burning question facing tens of thousands of Keys residents, as it became clear that Hurricane Irma was indeed destined to make an impression on Monroe County.
As always, however, the question of whether or not to stay was answered differently by locals, depending on their own particular situation.
For Key West artist Rick Worth, the decision to stay was a no-brainer.
“I’ve been through all the storms, and I believe in our city and its code,” he said. “Plus, I don’t necessarily believe the hype. Why believe that all these government agencies that have failed constantly in the past were going to come through this time?”
Worth, who lives in Old Town also thought that the difficulty evacuees were having returning home might color their thinking about leaving during future storms.
“If we didn’t have the mainland to go to, most people would have hunkered down, stayed, and made their situation work,” he said. “One of the biggest reasons to stay is to not be told what to do by the authorities. A lot of people who left this island will think twice about leaving next time.
“Besides,” he added. “This is my home. Not just a place to live. I have no regrets about staying and will do it again.”
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Across town, Faye Calfee and her husband Heath also made the decision to ignore the evacuation order.
“We chose to stay because of traffic, a lack of gas, and having nowhere to stay,” said Calfee, who works in retail. “And we didn’t think we’d feel safe in a shelter. And we were prepared at our house for the storm, and for the aftermath.”
Having survived the storm, Calfee wasn’t keen to see evacuated residents returning anytime soon to Key West.
“I don’t regret staying at all, but since our infrastructure is currently tapped out with 8,000 people staying here, adding another 30,000 is an asinine idea,” she said. “It’s a horrible situation here right now. I’ve had my nervous breakdowns, but this is our home and we’re surviving.”
To those evacuees determined to return as soon as possible Calfee had this advice:
“To paraphrase Sheriff [Rick] Ramsey, bring enough resources for yourself to last a week. If you can’t do that, then get back in your car and get the hell out. It’s not fun. We have no power. It’s hot. We’re rationing ice, and the water is brown out of the tap.”
Would she do it again?
“We’ve talked about that,” she said, referring to her charter fisherman husband. “No. We wouldn’t stay again.”
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Key Wester Sean McGuire knows more about weather than most people, having studied the subject at McGill University in Montreal, Canada. Accordingly, he and his wife, novelist Jessica Argyle decided to wait until the last minute to make the decision to stay. “We postponed deciding whether or not to leave,” said McGuire who works in a computer-related field. “Once we realized where and when it was going to hit, we looked into a room at the La Concha, where we ended up staying for two days.”
Though their house ended up being fine, McGuire and Argyle said they likely would have gone to Miami to ride out the storm if they hadn’t been able to get in at the La Concha.
“We have five cats, so evacuating would have been tough,” McGuire said. “Plus, this storm took the worst possible path. There really was nowhere to run to avoid it. We would have had to leave the state to get completely out of the way.”
McGuire was glad he stayed.
“Absolutely I would do it again,” he said. “This is such a special place. This is not Miami, where they’ll shoot you. And our proximity to all the military installations meant that the necessary resources started to come in really fast. However it has taken way too long for communications to come back. It took AT&T five days to set up a hot spot. That’s almost criminal.”
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