After Three Hurricanes In 13 Months, The 700 Residents Of Cedar Key, FL Among First To Face Their State's Future

[hatrack]

Timothy Solano could feel the dread rise within him as he sat with his wife and three young children in the family’s Cadillac Escalade on the two-lane causeway leading into this island fishing village on Florida’s Gulf Coast. Floodwaters had left the road ahead impassable, and Solano, a clam farmer for the family-owned business his father established nearly 30 years ago, could only speculate about the damage lying beyond what he could see. Overnight, Hurricane Helene had swirled ashore some 95 miles northwest of here as a massive, fast-moving category 4 storm, packing winds of up to 140 miles an hour. In the waning days of September, the hurricane would carve a vast swath of destruction from Florida to western North Carolina, causing catastrophic flooding across southern Appalachia. For Cedar Key, Helene was the third hurricane in 13 months. Idalia made landfall near here in August 2023 as a category 3 hurricane; about a year later, Debby hit the region as a category 1 storm. Milton would strike southwest Florida a mere 13 days after Helene as yet another category 3 storm, although that system would cause only minimal impacts in this part of the state.

EDIT

Cedar Key sits three miles off the coast of Florida’s sparsely populated Big Bend region, so named for the way the peninsula meets the panhandle here. The community, home to some 700 residents, is characterized by quaint historic cottages, with a town center consisting of pastel-painted shops and restaurants, some of which have reopened since Helene. The city hall was moved after Idalia to higher ground. “You have no idea what it’s like to take your clerk’s office, your records, your city hall, your entire police department, and move it every time there is a warning,” Cedar Key Mayor Sue Colson said. “Do you know how disruptive that is? And crazy it is?”

Colson, 78, is a retired hospice nurse who in addition to serving as mayor also directs the Cedar Key Food Pantry and works at the Cedar Key Chamber of Commerce. “I know when to recognize when things are terminal and when they’re not, and I also want the best use of life while you have it,” she said. “There may be hope, but you don’t want to get hung up on the hope to where you’re not realistic.

EDIT

Despite being spared the worst consequences of Milton, Cedar Key faces additional threats. The local sea level has risen nearly six inches since 1992, and a NOAA tide gauge recorded the fourth-highest rate of sea level rise acceleration in the nation here in 2020, according to the community’s vulnerability assessment. It cited the town’s low topography, aging infrastructure and high exposure to the Gulf of Mexico as concerns. “Things are changing here,” Colson said. “When you live on an island you’re attuned to the weather and to the tides and to the seasons much more than the average person.” By 2040 even a moderate storm or extreme high tide could affect as much as half of the island’s critical infrastructure, including the school, fire station, post office, library and food pantry, the vulnerability assessment predicted.

EDIT

https://insideclimatenews.org/news/05012025/cedar-key-florida-three-hurricanes-in-13-months/

[Oneear]

1. Cedar Key, FL What type of Water Pipe do you have? Do you have Galvanized Water Pipe Dipped in Zinc?

The Lead Pipe is not Healthy. Ask Florida for help fixing it by removing all Lead Service Lines. Digging up the lead water pipes will make Cedar Key, FL, Healthy Again.

[3Hotdogs]

3. I don't get the connection between lead water pipes and the rising annual water line.

[IbogaProject]

2. This family's Cadillac Escalade is part of the problem

These idiots got a W Bush era tax break for having that gas guzzler. I doubt they have ever voted for our party.

[4catsmom]

4. Cedar Key is a Democratic stronghold

who cares what they drive