ANNA MARIA – Mayor Dan Murphy said Oct. 11 he thinks the city’s north shore lost 30-35 percent of its white sands, but, he added, Bean Point has grown.
Murphy and Manatee County Sheriff’s Office Sergeant Mike Jones toured the city’s beaches after the high waters caused by Hurricane Michael receded. Murphy’s opinion of the state of the beach is based on opinion and visual inspection, not on a formal study.
“We got really lucky,” Murphy said, adding the sea oats planted along the coastline helped keep the sand on the shore. “That’s what they’re there for.”
Anna Maria’s beaches also were spared from major erosion during Hurricane Irma in 2017. According to a coastal impact report published by the Florida Department of Environmental Protection, the beaches of Anna Maria were listed as only suffering “minor damage” due to the storm losing a lot of its momentum after making landfall.
Murphy said there’s no plan to replace the eroded sand at this time.
ANNA MARIA – The City Commission has accepted a $1.37 million staff recommendation from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) that would help fund the construction of a new city pier.
During a special commission meeting on Wednesday, Aug. 29, Mayor Dan Murphy presented the FEMA recommendation for the commission to approve or reject. Murphy said the commission could challenge the FEMA offer in hopes of getting an extra $100,000 or $200,000, but he recommended accepting the offer.
Murphy said the city submitted to FEMA a $1.8 million estimate for damages the pier sustained last September during Hurricane Irma – damages that occurred when the aging pier was already slated for rehabilitation within five years.
The damage included the roof being torn off the bait shop and bar building, damage to the restaurant building and significant damage to the pier’s T-end decking.
Murphy said FEMA offered the city 75 percent of what was requested and that was due to questions about the scouring of the pier pilings that could not be definitively attributed to the hurricane. Scouring is erosion caused by moving water.
“I would have difficulty saying there was no scouring of the pilings prior to the hurricane,” Murphy said.
“If we challenge it, we go back to the steps we were in before – negotiating, getting engineers’ estimates and providing more information as to what we’re challenging,” Murphy said.
“If you accept this, they go on and complete the formalized offer. At that point, we could begin our construction. Until we get the formal offer back from FEMA, we can’t start that construction,” he added.
Murphy said it would take approximately 30 days to formalize the FEMA offer.
The state of Florida must also concur with the FEMA recommendation that also has to be presented to the Congressional Budget Committee because the funding request exceeds $1 million.
“They have to allocate the money to give us the resources to start the pier,” Murphy said.
“The bottom line is if you vote today to accept this offer, my estimate is that in the late October-early November time frame we could begin driving piles,” Murphy said, noting this would still keep the pier project on track for a December 2019 completion date.
Murphy originally anticipated construction beginning in September, but he and the commission have not yet selected a pier construction firm. After recently rejecting the first two bids received because the bids were too high, a modified request for proposals is supposed to be issued this week. Murphy said he expects the second round of construction bids to be submitted to the city by the end of September.
Murphy praised City Clerk LeAnne Addy for working on the FEMA funding for the past nine or 10 months.
“They lost all of our paperwork at one point. We’ve been showing records and we’ve been negotiating, and LeAnne has done a sterling job with bringing us to the point where we are today,” Murphy said.
Pier revenue sources
The mayor also presented the commission with a pier funding update. In addition to the FEMA money, the city has already secured $1.5 million in a Tourist Development Council recommendation for County Commission-approved resort tax revenues, $330,000 in County Commission-approved surplus beach concession revenues, $750,000 from the Florida Legislature and $650,000 from the city’s general fund.
Commissioner Brian Seymour noted the pier demolition cost approximately $750,000 and that leaves $4.4 million to build a new pier – a pier that includes a restaurant and bait shop at its T-end.
Murphy said the only amount listed in his revenue projections that has not been secured is the $500,000 he hopes to get from the pier tenant.
“I had always projected $500,000 from the tenant, whether it’s the current tenant or a new tenant,” he said.
The tenant’s contribution will be used for the interior buildout of the restaurant and bait shop.
Current pier tenant Mario Schoenfelder’s lease with the city expires in December 2020. He and Murphy have engaged in productive preliminary discussions but Schoenfelder had not yet committed to assisting with the pier funding and extending his lease. If Schoenfelder and the city cannot come to terms, a new tenant will be sought.
HOLMES BEACH – Four months since Hurricane Irma passed by, the owners at Cayman Cay are finally able to start repairs on 10 damaged units.
When the hurricane passed through Holmes Beach, it left properties in the city largely unscathed, except for the 10-unit south building of the Cayman Cay condominium complex on Gulf Drive. The roof of the building was damaged, leading to water damage and black mold in the units. With contractors and the city’s building department cooperating, property owners can now begin the process of cleanup and rebuild.
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Property owner and association Vice President Thomas Knarr said he’s relieved that the owners, including himself, are finally able to move forward.
In the months since the hurricane in September, the building has been empty, resulting in thousands of dollars in lost revenue for owners who rent their units and the displacement of one permanent resident and several part-time residents. Despite the release of permits from the city, Knarr said he fears the units won’t be ready for occupancy until late 2018 or early 2019.
The reason for the delay comes down to communication breakdowns among the Holmes Beach Building Department, contractors with AccuTech and the property owners.
“We’ve been fighting this for months,” Knarr said of the communication breakdowns. “There’s no way in heck we would have let that building sit there if we could’ve done something.”
In the aftermath of Irma, Building Official Jim McGuinness said the city released many emergency permits to help property owners recover after the storm. One of those permits was for cleanup at Cayman Cay. The emergency permit, issued Sept. 21, 2017, allowed for debris to be removed from the structure and the erection of a temporary roof structure. While the temporary roof structure was installed and the undamaged personal belongings of owners removed, no other work was done.
Knarr said the association decided against spending thousands of dollars to take out sheet rock, the roof structure and other damaged elements before a determination was made regarding how the FEMA 50 percent rule applied to the building.
The FEMA 50 percent rule governs whether a building should be repaired or torn down, depending on the cost of the project compared to the value of the property. If 50 percent or more of the market value of a building is slated for reconstruction, the property owner must elevate the new construction for protection from floods. McGuinness said that as the building official, he’s the only one in the city who can make a determination on the rule.
According to the building department’s file on the complex, the determination was made in favor of repair and rebuilding after a 2014 appraisal was received on Dec. 7. The cost to rehabilitate the building is estimated at $506,139, McGuinness said, versus an appraised value of $1,308,273. Though Knarr said the property owners’ contractors had been in contact with the building department in an attempt to obtain a determination on the 50 percent rule and move forward with building repairs, McGuinness said he was unaware of the situation prior to January, when Knarr contacted Mayor Bob Johnson.
“Our goal now is to help these people recover,” McGuinness said. He expected to issue the permits to rebuild the roof structure and basic interior structure of the building early the week of Jan. 8. It will be up to each owner to obtain permits for additional work in their units, such as the installation of new kitchen and bathroom facilities.
With permits in progress and communication issues resolved, Knarr said he’s hopeful there won’t be any more hang-ups on the road to recovery at Cayman Cay.
The local tourism website will relaunch in November with a version that is completely mobile-friendly, Elliott Falcione, director of the Bradenton Area Convention and Visitors Bureau, announced Monday.
The website is “the heart of what we do,” he told the Manatee County Tourist Development Council.
New features include a real-time map showing visitors what restaurants and attractions are near their location.
Travel starts with research, and most tourists search online, said Carol Johnson, the county’s Trip Advisor account representative, who gave advice to tourism operators on maximizing their presence on Trip Advisor at the TDC meeting.
“Develop your reputation online,” she said, citing the example that after Hurricane Irma, tourists confused Barbuda, which was totally destroyed, with Bermuda, which was not affected.
Irma caused damage and delays at Anna Maria Island’s two city piers, the TDC learned.
Bradenton Beach Mayor Bill Shearon reported that the day dock repair next to the Bridge Street Pier will be delayed because Irma impacted a southwest Florida supplier.
Irma also damaged the Anna Maria City Pier, TDC member Doug Copeland said, adding that it will be “a brand new pier” when it’s rebuilt. Permitting is expected to take 6-9 months.
The cost could be $4-5 million, TDC Chair Carol Whitmore said. Because the pier was damaged by a storm, FEMA will contribute to the reconstruction, Copeland said.
“As we move out of hurricane season our market is stabilizing,” Walter Klages, of Research Data Services, Manatee County’s tourism consultant, told the TDC.
September tourism statistics clearly show “a pullback due to Hurricane Irma,” he said.
But August tourism was up 4.7 percent in visitors, 4.1 percent in room nights and an “impressive” 11.1 percent in economic impact over August 2016, he said.
Visitors came primarily from Florida, followed by Europe, the Northeast U.S., the Midwest, the Southeast and Canada.
The average number of people in a party that visit Manatee County is three, mostly family and couples, but singles visitation is growing, he said. The average age is 46.
In other business, Florida Maritime Museum Supervisor Kristin Sweeting updated the TDC on the progress of The Folk School, which began in January, targeting heritage tourism with classes on maritime skills like net mending, as well as other Old Florida skills like soap making and canning.
The classes will move from the museum to the historic Burton/Bratton store’s first floor when renovations are complete, she said, adding that the upstairs of the historic building will be used for museum collections storage and a maritime research library.
BRADENTON BEACH – Chase Purtill and Shawn Wall returned to work last week at the Drift In after a harrowing vacation experience in St. John, where Hurricane Irma rampaged the island with Category 5 force winds.
Purtill has been vacationing in St. John, U.S. Virgin Islands, since she was 7 years old, but the northwest Bradenton couple’s recent trip was unlike any other.
This hotel Chase Purtill and Shawn Wall stayed in was missing most of its roof after Hurricane Irma passed through St. John. – Chase Purtill | Submitted
They arrived on Sept. 3.
“We knew there was a storm out there, but we didn’t know where it was going. We were hoping it wouldn’t build up that fast, but it did. There was no way to evacuate,” Wall said.
“We were supposed to stay in Coral Bay but the lady said we couldn’t, so we stayed at an inn in Cruz Bay we thought was safe because it was made of concrete and we stockpiled food and water,” Purtill said.
On Wednesday, Sept. 6, Hurricane Irma’s howling winds arrived around 10 a.m., and they didn’t let up until four that afternoon.
After the storm, this business was the only place that provided even limited cell phone reception. – Chase Purtill | Submitted
“You could hear the roofs being ripped off and 45 minutes into the storm our roof went,” Purtill said.
They planned on using the bathroom as a safe room, but that roof went too.
“The back bedroom was our only option. Shawn held that door for three hours. If that door flies open, that roof goes. After about two hours, I thought if the rest of the roof comes off we’re screwed. That’s when I started to get really scared,” Purtill recalled.
“It was insane. I saw the whole roof lifting off and I grabbed the futon mattress out of the living room,” Wall said.
The storm ends
The end of the storm was the beginning of a long journey home.
“We had to figure out how to get out. I heard the airport was gone, so where’s the next route? You might get a five-minute cell phone call, but it took 20 or 30 tries,” Wall said.
This was the view outside Chase and Shawn’s front door after Hurricane Irma left. – Chase Purtill | Submitted
“There was no electricity, and there won’t be for months. Shawn and another guy went out and picked up pieces to make another roof. Two days after the storm, the military started dropping MREs (Meals Ready to Eat) and canned water,” Purtill said.
“When we lost communication, the last thing we heard was the Category 5 storm was coming to Florida. I was fully prepared to come back to no house and no job. When you’re sitting with people who now have nothing, you come to terms with what that is,” she said.
“There were town meetings every day, and people were sharing information. The restaurants were running off generators and supplying free breakfast, lunch and dinner before the food went bad. The town worked together,” Wall said.
Headed home
“On the 10th or 11th, boats began evacuating women, children and the elderly to St. Croix or Puerto Rico,” Purtill said.
They saw children being put on boats while their parents stayed behind.
A military helicopter takes off after delivering food and water. – Chase Purtill | Submitted
“When you’re not going to have food and water, and there are no schools anymore, it’s easier for a mother to take care of herself than a whole family,” Purtill said.
Some children were headed for friends or relatives in the United States; others were headed into the arms of strangers.
“St. Croix people took their own boats over there with supplies and brought people back, and we knew we had to hop on one,” Wall said.
“It took us until the 13th to get to St. Croix, and the earliest flight out was the 18th. You had to find your own rooms, but we were downtown, so we had power,” Purtill said.
“We flew out of St. Croix, had a 30-minute layover in Puerto Rico and hopped on a plane to Tampa. We didn’t know how bad Florida was going to get destroyed, and we were glad to see it wasn’t destroyed here,” Wall said.
The Drift In held a welcome home celebration last Friday afternoon and evening while Purtill tended bar and Wall later manned the door.
Purtill said their experience changed her view on life.
“Material possessions that used mean something to me don’t, and you realize how many people truly care about you.” she said.
As a 48-year resident of this great place, just wanted to say how proud I am that almost all our Islanders left during Hurricane Irma. A mandatory evacuation has only happened once before. That was when I served as mayor and many did not leave. The mayors and cities served us well during this event. Were there issues? Of course. I am sure the cities and county will all go around the table and see what all of us can do better. Can we learn? Yes. We all got back to our homes and back to some sense of normal. As I wrote this on Saturday, there were still many without electric or food on the Island and in Manatee County. Thank goodness we missed the big one.
ANNA MARIA – The Anna Maria City Pier will be closed for at least a year due to damage inflicted by Hurricane Irma.
On Sept. 20, Mayor Dan Murphy received a structural assessment and damage report from the Ayers Associates engineering firm in Tampa. The report was based on the firm’s Sept. 15 inspection of the pier.
“We recommend immediate closure of the facility until appropriate repairs are made to the pier and buildings,” the report concludes.
The report estimates it will take 12 or more months to design, permit and reconstruct the pier originally built in 1911.
“Until those repairs are complete, the public should not be permitted on the pier,” the report says.
The inspection revealed broken, compromised and deteriorated support bents throughout the length of the pier, some of which were in that condition before Hurricane Irma.
Walkway planks adjacent to the bait shop were lifted, scattered and compromised. The missing bait shop roof is covered with tarp. The ceiling near the bar on the south end of the City Pier Restaurant had plywood falling through it and the roof was leaking.
Moving forward
On Monday, Sept. 25, Murphy and the City Commission held an emergency meeting regarding the pier. The commission authorized Murphy begin contract negotiations with Ayers to serve as the city’s second contracted engineering firm. If hired, Ayres will focus primarily on the design, permitting and management of now expedited $2 million pier reconstruction.
The reconstruction of the aging pier was already in the works, albeit on a slower path, before the hurricane damage occurred.
Murphy sent copies of the Ayres assessment to County Administrator Ed Hunzeker and Bradenton Area Convention and Visitors Bureau Executive Director Elliott Falcione. The county officials had already made a tentative commitment to provide up to $1 million in matching funds for the previously planned pier project, and Murphy plans to meet with Hunzeker this week.
Tenant-employee impacts
Murphy sent a copy of the Ayres assessment to pier tenant Mario Schoenfelder, and he met with Schoenfelder’s general manager, David Sork, who oversees the City Pier Restaurant and bait shop operations at the end of the pier.
“I told Mr. Sork to notify all his employees immediately to not hang around waiting. They are going to be out of work long-term,” Murphy said last week.
Schoenfelder’s current lease with the city is scheduled to expire in December 2020 but those terms may need to be renegotiated now that Murphy has declared the pier damage cannot be repaired within 120 days.
“We need to come up with a mutually agreeable plan,” Murphy said.
Murphy also sent Schoenfelder an e-mail containing a list of action items that need to be done.
“The city pier is at the top of my work load. I don’t know when you are returning to the U.S., but it would be helpful if you and I and Mr. Sork meet face-to-face to discuss your role and expectations going forward,” Murphy wrote.
Sork attended Monday’s emergency meeting. Afterwards, he said the pier closure has put approximately 35 employees out of work. The Bridge Tender Inn in Bradenton Beach has offered to hire some of the displaced restaurant workers, and after the meeting, City Commissioner Brian Seymour told Sork he could use another cook at his Anna Maria General Store.
“I’m physically, emotionally and financially drained, but we’ll come back, somewhere, somehow,” Sork said after the meeting.
ANNA MARIA – Hurricane Irma almost played spoiler for one Indiana couple who had been planning their Monday evening wedding at the Sandbar restaurant for a year.
But with a lot of prayer and a boost from Mother Nature, the wedding went as planned.
For Cara Camm and Josh Lowery, of Jeffersonville, Ind., last week was a nightmare that didn’t pan out.
The couple has known each other for six years and got engaged in June 2016. They didn’t know where to have their wedding until a relative volunteered Manatee County.
“My grandma lives in Bradenton, and she suggested we look at Anna Maria Island,” Camm said. “She said it’s beautiful and affordable, so we made some inquiries.
“The first call I got was from Patti (McKee, retired Chiles Group wedding coordinator),” Camm said. “She was very helpful and gave us a great price. It was perfect so we stopped looking.”
Camm said they got to see the restaurant in February and to meet with McKee, who set them up with a place to stay.
She said she was glad the search was over.
“We decided to get married on a Monday because it’s the start of the week, and the cost was a little lower,” Camm said. Then came the storm.
“It was the first test of our marriage,” she said. “We all kept the faith and prayed that the wedding would happen.”
Camm said they were overjoyed when they learned there was no storm surge, and they knew their wedding would be perfect. Of course, they had to wait for the power to return.
“We had no power after the storm and when the power came back, we had two weddings Saturday and this one on Monday,” said Chiles Group’s Wedding Coordinator Christine Greene. “We wanted to make sure all of the weddings were perfect.”
Camm said they look forward to spending vacations and anniversaries on the Island in the future.
“We just love it here,” she said. “It’s so laid back and beautiful.”
Bradenton Beach was minimally impacted by colossal Hurricane Irma, but our preparedness and follow-up was unmatched by any community in the state.
Lt. John Cosby, working the equivalent of a second job as Emergency Response Director for many years, spearheaded planning and execution of the city’s disaster response team.
Public Works Director Tom Woodard and his crew made all our roads passable by Monday, and they continue to perform clean-up operations.
Police Chief Sam Speciale personally greeted and directed returning residents at the Cortez Bridge on Monday at 3 p.m.
City Clerk Terri Sanclemente and the entire city hall staff were up and running on Tuesday morning.
Vice Mayor John Chappie visited the neighborhoods Monday and Tuesday, speaking with each and every citizen he could find to determine any problems or needs they had.
Commissioner Jake Spooner maintained contact with his constituents in Ward 1.
Thanks to each and every city employee and citizen who worked tirelessly to minimize the impact of the storm. It was a job well done.
Hurricane Irma was a teachable moment for those who had never experienced a major hurricane and for those who had.
My wife, Amy, and I experienced hurricanes Charley, Ivan, Jeanne and Wilma while living in Orlando, but Irma was our first west coast hurricane.
On Saturday, Sept. 2, I ordered a 2000-watt Wen invertor generator to pick up at the Wal-Mart on Cortez Road later in the week. I learned that invertor generators are better for cell phones, computers and other sensitive electronics because they produce a steadier electrical current than a standard generator. They also make less noise.
We didn’t have Facebook during our previous hurricanes, and Irma showed us how useful social media is for sharing information about the availability of water, food, gas and other supplies.
On Tuesday, Sept. 5, I was at the Lowe’s store on Cortez Road at 6 a.m. buying plywood. I knew 4 x 8 pieces of plywood wouldn’t fit in a small hatchback, but I learned that Lowe’s would cut them into smaller pieces that I could then resize at home.
When I arrived home to board windows for the first time, a friend called and said Irma was now a Category 5 hurricane and headed our way. He said our rented wooden home in Sarasota would not survive Category 4 or 5 winds – an opinion Bradenton Beach Public Works Director Tom Woodard later supported.
Our friend also had concerns about the large oak tree in our front yard and strongly suggested we join him and others from the Island who were driving to Georgia Thursday morning.
I’d never evacuated before, but I agreed, even though I hated the prospect of I-75 traffic jams and gas shortages. I later filled four new gas cans with 11 gallons of fuel that would power a generator or a northbound car.
The prospect of leaving behind the books and CDs I spent a lifetime collecting was almost as heartbreaking as the idea that we all might not have homes and jobs to return to.
Wednesday morning, I put my favorite drum set and two bins of books on a van headed for North Carolina, but I retrieved them before the van left because Irma had shifted east.
We canceled the hotel rooms for Thursday and waited to see what Friday would bring. Faced with no good options, I gathered more information from FL511.com (statewide traffic info), GasBuddy.com and WhatIsMyElevation.com.
Come Friday, Amy and I planned to stay home, but I stashed an older drum set and several bins of books at a friend’s block house in Bradenton just in case.
Later that day, we were convinced to go Brad Robinson’s brick house in west Bradenton. Brad is the son of former Major League Baseball player Don Robinson and Brad’s spacious home offered much better protection.
With Mabel the dog in tow, we arrived at Brad’s Saturday afternoon. I then made another trip home to retrieve my main drum set, the generator and camping supplies, food, water, clothes and a few precious pieces of Joe and Amy memorabilia. Our friend dropped off a second generator and some additional supplies before leaving for Georgia early Sunday morning.
Joined by Brad’s friends Mark and Jen, we spent Sunday waiting for Irma. We watched football, the Weather Channel, the local news and had an impromptu shrimp boil. I went to bed at 2 a.m. Monday with the power still on and I was on the Island taking pictures by 8 a.m.
Our home and Amy’s preschool suffered nothing worse than the loss of power, so we spent Monday night at a friend’s.
On Tuesday, the makeshift Sun staff laid out the newspaper in a Holmes Beach condo that still had power. I had to put some of my canned gas in Amy’s car to get us home that night. I then fired up the generator, plugged in the portable A/C unit, a fan and a phone charger. While Amy slept, I drank a couple beers and thanked Irma for sparing us from her worst.
Sea turtles and shorebirds have survived hurricanes for centuries, and Hurricane Irma damaged, but did not decimate, Anna Maria Island’s turtle and bird populations.
“We lost stakes to 35 turtle nests, but believe eggs from half of those are still in the ground unmarked,” while the remainder washed out into the Gulf of Mexico, said Suzi Fox, director of Anna Maria Island Turtle Watch and Shorebird Monitoring.
More than 50 adult black skimmers and many juveniles are still on the beach near the 5400 block of Gulf Drive in Holmes Beach, she said.
The birds are resting in the wrack (seaweed), she said, which the county will not rake up in that area to avoid disturbing them.
“The birds are so tired (from the storm) that they barely move or sound off as we walk up to conduct our survey count,” she said, requesting that beachgoers remain at least 75 feet from birds to avoid making them flush, which uses precious energy.
Beachgoers also need to be cautious because sea turtle nests that no longer have stakes can hatch at any time.
With 37 known nests left to hatch before turtle season ends on Oct. 31, “We’re still in the game,” she said.
Nearly 24,500 turtle hatchlings emerged from the 488 nests laid on the Island this season, according to Turtle Watch.
A team studied Anna Maria Island from stem to stern today, agreeing that Hurricane Irma took a bite out of the beach.
The storm, which was a strong Category 2 when it passed over Manatee County, caused “deflation and retreat” on the beach, which means the beach lost some of its depth and width, said Charlie Hunsicker, the director of the Manatee County Parks and Natural Resources department.
Charlie Hunsicker, director of the Manatee County Parks and Natural Resources Department, looks at a newly-exposed erosion control groin that was completely covered by sand at Cortez Beach before Hurricane Irma hit, while U.S. Army Corps of Engineers workers document changes in the beach. – Cindy Lane | Sun
“There has been some loss,” agreed Larry George, an environmental consultant with the Florida Department of Environmental Protection, part of the team that scoured the beach today under the blazing sun.
The beach already was eroded from Hurricane Hermine earlier this month when Irma struck, said Michelle Pfeiffer, of APTIM, Manatee County’s beach consultant.
Gabriel Todaro, of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, measures the beach from the dunes seaward with the help of an assistant. – Cindy Lane | Sun
Gabriel Todaro, of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, took measurements on the beach to compare later with previous mapping information to determine the extent of the erosion.
One clue is the sudden appearance of the tops of 1960s-era erosion control groins that lie perpendicular to the beach and have not been seen in decades. The red “Keep Off” lettering looks freshly painted, as if the team were excavating Egyptian ruins, Hunsicker said.
At Coquina Beach, the storm apparently pulled the sand toward the Gulf, flattening it as it went, and leaving a shallow channel where backwash flowed. Hunsicker said the waves eventually will wash the sand back up higher onto the beach.
Seaweed washed up by Hurricane Irma covers Coquina Beach, which remains closed this weekend due to downed trees in the parking lot. – Cindy Lane | Sun
Numerous patches of seaweed on the beach were carried all the way to the dunes by high tides in some areas. Seaweed, known as “wrack,” normally is limited to the shoreline on AMI.
The wrack contains food for shorebirds, which often rest in them, so the county will not rake up the seaweed from Longboat Pass to the first lifeguard stand on Coquina Beach, which is a no swimming area, or from a bird nesting area in Holmes Beach, or from Bean Point in Anna Maria, he said, adding that the county will clean up the seaweed from high-use beaches on the Island including Coquina, Cortez and Manatee.
Manatee County’s beach renourishment program, dating back to the early 1990s, prevented Irma from pushing the Gulf of Mexico over Gulf Drive at Coquina Beach, the Island’s narrowest point and a state-designated critically eroded beach, Hunsicker said.
Coquina and Cortez beaches have long been a priority for county renourishment efforts, with the recent reconstruction of three erosion control groins known as “Twin Piers,” named when the first two were built, he said.
That stretch of beach between Longboat Pass north to Cortez Beach gets no federal funding because no structures are on the beach other than lifeguard stands, Hunsicker said, adding that the county plans to ask the state for financial help to repair all or some of the damage.
ANNA MARIA ISLAND – Before Hurricane Irma arrived with predictions of Category 4 or 5 force winds, many Anna Maria Island residents evacuated to safer locales.
Some headed to hotels and homes in Bradenton. Others headed to north Florida, Georgia and beyond. On Facebook and in person, several people commented on how difficult the decision to go or stay became as the storm intensified. Many said they felt they had no clear-cut options in terms of hunkering down or leaving town.
Some, including Anna Maria City Commissioner Dale Woodland, decided to ride the storm out in their Island homes. He has a new roof, hurricane windows and protective window panels. He said he felt safe in testing the efficiency of his home improvements.
Woodland spoke by phone during the storm Sunday night. He said his home was holding up well. The whole thing felt like a Disney-like virtual reality version of a hurricane, he added.
Awaiting the storm
On Friday, a mandatory evacuation order was issued. That meant traffic coming onto the Island would cease at 6 p.m. Saturday.
With the evacuation in progress Friday evening, the Island looked more like a ghost town than a tourist town. Several businesses, resorts and homes were boarded up, some with pithy spray-painted messages addressed to Hurricane Irma.
The Historic Anna Maria City Pier was already closed. Three young adults riding scooters down Pine Avenue were the among the only ones out and about. Anna Maria Commissioner Nancy Yetter and her husband, Mike, had just pulled out of town. They were headed for a relative’s house in Wesley Chapel and left sandbags at their door step as a parting gift for Irma.
Before leaving town, Anna Maria Commissioner Brian Seymour enjoyed the raucous hurricane party at Hurricane Hank’s in Holmes Beach. Boarded up windows advertised $1 beers. On this night, Hank’s was the liveliest spot on the Island.
All the businesses on Bridge Street in Bradenton Beach were closed except for the Drift In. BeachHouse chef Donald White and others enjoyed a last night out before Irma’s arrival.
Up the street, the staff at Island Time Bar and Grill was buttoning up the restaurant and closing for the weekend.
At no point during the storm were the bridges raised and there was never a point where someone could not leave the Island.
After the storm
Early Monday morning, Manatee County Sheriff’s Office deputies were stationed at the entrances to the Cortez and Manatee Avenue bridges. Access was restricted to first responders, county and city personnel, members of the media and a select few others who had legitimate reasons to return as Irma’s remnant winds and rains still lingered.
Law enforcement officers patrolled the Island assessing downed power lines and downed trees. Public works personnel from all three Island cities then rolled out the heavy equipment and chain saws and cleared the streets as best they good, sometimes marking downed power lines for all to avoid and others to repair.
At the Bradenton Beach/Holmes Beach border, a Holmes Beach officer greeted the few who passed from city to city.
At 3 p.m. Monday afternoon, access to the Island via the Manatee Avenue Bridge was granted to returning residents and business owners who had hangtags and ID. Holmes Beach Police Chief Bill Tokajer said residents and business owners were given two hours to check out their properties before unrestricted access was granted to others at 5 p.m.
In Bradenton Beach, unrestricted access via to the Cortez Bridge and the Longboat Key Bridge was granted. Bradenton Beach Police Chief Sam Speciale said he opted for unrestricted access immediately so contractors and other service providers could respond to calls from residents and business owners.
Coming home
Like those who headed north the previous week, those returning home faced the fear of not finding gas along the way.
Bradenton Beach residents Steve Schewe and Nancy Kim retreated to Macon, Ga. On Monday night, they called from Ocala and said they had enough gas to get home, but they wanted to know if there was any gas for sale in Bradenton. They were told there was not.
The Drift In was open again Monday night, as was Oma’s restaurant, whose pizzas found their way to the bar courtesy of Swordfish Grill manager Adam Sears.
Tuesday afternoon, Anna Maria resident, Caryn Hodge, her mom and fellow city resident Ruth Uecker, and Hannah the dog traveled home from Panama City Beach. While calling from I-75, Hodge said, “We had a little trouble finding gas, but we found it where we could.”
While riding the storm out in Panama City Beach, Anna Maria resident Ruth Uecker impersonated the Weather Channel’s Jim Cantori. – Caryn Hodge | Submitted
Caryn works for the Chiles Group and she wanted folks to know that the BeachHouse in Bradenton Beach and Mar Vista in Longboat Key were opening Wednesday.
“We’re inviting everyone to come in and have some real food instead of those hurricane snacks,” Caryn said,” noting that the Sandbar remained closed because of power outages.
The Publix in Holmes Beach opened Tuesday morning and other businesses followed in their wake as Island life begins to return to normal.
ANNA MARIA ISLAND – Hurricane Irma passed over the Island Sunday afternoon and early Monday morning and left in its wake varied degrees of damage, including ripped up roofs and structures, toppled trees and downed electrical lines that led to widespread power outages.
Hurricane Irma redirected a street sign at the corner of Magnolia and Crescent Drive in Anna Maria. – Joe Hendricks | Sun
Anna Maria
A tour of the Island Monday morning revealed sporadic damage. The roof of the bait shop at the end of the Historic Anna Maria City Pier was mostly gone. Irma also peeled back exterior panels on the cell tower next to City Hall. Anna Maria Mayor Dan Murphy said some beachfront homes suffered wind damage and efforts were being made to contact nonresident homeowners.
The mayor said the biggest concern was the citywide power outages. Tuesday afternoon, Murphy participated in a conference call with Florida Power & Light (FP&L) representative Rae Dowling, who said power would be restored to customers on Florida’s west coast no later than Friday, Sept. 22, but hopefully sooner. Murphy advises residents to plan accordingly.
Later that evening, FP&L spokesman Dave McDermitt said the Sept. 22 date was a worst-case scenario, but every effort was being made to restore power sooner.
“We have crews out there as we speak working to restore service to one of the main power lines that’s serving the Island, and we’re hoping that’s going to be energized tonight. I don’t think that’s going to restore service to all customers, but it’s a good start,” McDermitt said.
McDermitt said the power restoration begins with lines that service hospitals, police, fire and rescue and 911 centers, while also working on major thoroughfares populated by grocery stores, banks, pharmacies and other critical services before servicing the lines that feed residential neighborhoods.
Holmes Beach
In Holmes Beach, a building in the Cayman Cay condominium complex sustained extensive roof damage. Large chunks of roofing material landed near Gulf Drive and a debris field lined one side of the building.
Manatee Public Beach remained closed Tuesday afternoon, and the two traffic lights on Manatee Avenue remained dark; as did the signal at the corner of Gulf Drive and Marina Drive, where temporary stop signs reminded drivers that non-operational traffic signals are to be treated as four-way stops.
Holmes Beach residents Joe and Jaynie Christenson and their son, Evan, spent Tuesday afternoon removing a fallen tree from their driveway and cleaning debris from their yard. Jaynie said Joe spent Monday night in the powerless house due to concerns that their home was more susceptible to looters and burglars because the alarm system was not operational. Jaynie Christenson questioned the need to allow non-residents back on the Island during an extended power outage.
Police Chief Bill Tokajer said his department was still running on generators as of Tuesday evening.
Bradenton Beach
At least one trailer in the Pines Trailer Park in Bradenton Beach lost its roof, which landed on the hood of a parked car.
Ranae Ratajczak told The Sun on Facebook that this is her roof at the Pines Trailer Park in Bradenton Beach damaged by Irma. – Joe Hendricks | Sun
On 12th Street North, part of a metal structure blew off a home and landed against the van in the driveway. Some soffits at Bradenton Beach City Hall were ripped loose and a large limb from the banyan tree at the Annie Silver Community Center snapped and partially blocked Avenue C. The canopy at the Shell gas station was also damaged.
The Historic Bridge Street Pier sustained no visible damage and none of the boats in the nearby anchorage broke free and crashed into the pier.
Most businesses along the north side of Bridge Street had power, but some businesses along the south side of the street did not. Most residents on the south end of the city had power, but some households on the north end did not.
Cortez
The Cortez Bait & Seafood Fish Market on Cortez Road sustained significant damage to its exterior façade. Two houses in the village had trees fall on them; a mobile home in Cortez Park suffered significant roof damage; and a large sailboat in the Cortez Cove Boatyard tipped on its side.
A six-foot wide section of the north side of the Seafood Shack restaurant folded back from the roofline and exposed the second floor to the storm’s elements. The restaurant also lost two signs, including the three-dimensional grouper sign. CEO Jed Lippincott said the restaurant was still without power Tuesday evening.
Swordfish Grill General Manager Bob Slicker said some areas of his restaurant had power and some didn’t. The same applied to the homes in the historic fishing village.
“I have power, but my neighbor across the street doesn’t,” Slicker said.
