Bahia Honda / Big Pine Key area

[riven1950]

I know this area took a big hit from Irma.

Looked online but a lot of info is dated.

Just wondering if anyone has first hand experience on how the area is recovering with infrastructure repairs. Things like sewer, water, cell service, roads, debris removal etc.. I know the individual building repairs are going to take a long time. Are the grocery stores and restaurants opening back up yet?

I know these are general questions, just wondering ow it is on the ground down there now.

[riven1950]

Thanks folks. that gives me an idea. Being from a hurricane alley area I know it takes a lot of time. Good luck to you and all in the area!!

[nycsteve]

Have a place in Big Pine. Was there for 3 weeks starting 10 days after Irma. The Winne Dixie is fully operational. Square Grouper reopened. All hardware stores open. Cocoa's Kitchen , open. The bulk of Marathon buisinesses , open. Key West, basically fine and open. Gasoline totally available in both Marathon and the Tom Thumb in BPK. Verizon cell serive, fully operational. Comcast, spotty. Walgreens and CVS open on BPK. This from the end of first week in October.

[Luke_Porter]

I live in Big Pine. Came back 1st of Oct and pretty much everything was up and running then.

I live on the west side of the island. My house had very minimal damage. Folks on the east side weren't so fortunate. There are like 2900 homes, 725 of them have severe damage.

Bahia Honda got hit pretty hard. They have done an amazing amount of work there and got opened a couple of weeks ago. The campground might be open by the end of the month.

There is plenty of debris everywhere. They say 100 million yards have been hauled out and another 100 to go.

[Doss]

JoeH wrote:

Doss wrote:

avan wrote:
In Marathon right now at Jolly Roger CG. Drove Curry Hammock and Bahia Honda yesterday. Allowed into day area but cg is barricaded off. Didn't ask about progress since it looked a long way off yet. Complete debris removal looks a long way off yet everywhere in the middle keys.

How about Knights Key park? Nice folks there, hope they did ok

Knights key was closed several months ago and vacated for condo development, so no one was there for Irma. When we drove by a few weeks ago, it was just a newly graded dirt lot with some construction equipment sitting there.

that is unfortunate.
Ever since we have been going there, there has been a threat of that but things kept coming up that delayed the project.
We hoped it would stay a campground

[avan]

First time here so don't know what the "before" looked like but the impact of Irma seems minimal. They've repaved some of the roads but doubt that's a result of the hurricane. There's been some overhead work going on and suspect that might have to do with cable or wifi. Certainly isn't electrical. I use my hotspot so haven't even tried their wifi Cable is working fine. They are pouring new concrete for their seawall. Suspect that it is part of an upgrade program rather than hurricane damage inasmuch as there isn't broken concrete etc either in the water or out on Hwy 1 waiting for pickup. I see no evidence of downed trees so my guess is that most of their hurricane efforts have been geared towards ground cleanup.

Based on what I've seen in some other parks like the ORA and state parks, JR dodged a bullet. Lots of wrecked MH's, 5vers, trailers and boats dumped along side of Hwy 1 in the middle keys awaiting 'trash pickup'.

[riven1950]

avan, How are things at Jolly Roger? nice CG and people there.

[JoeH]

Doss wrote:

avan wrote:
In Marathon right now at Jolly Roger CG. Drove Curry Hammock and Bahia Honda yesterday. Allowed into day area but cg is barricaded off. Didn't ask about progress since it looked a long way off yet. Complete debris removal looks a long way off yet everywhere in the middle keys.

How about Knights Key park? Nice folks there, hope they did ok

Knights key was closed several months ago and vacated for condo development, so no one was there for Irma. When we drove by a few weeks ago, it was just a newly graded dirt lot with some construction equipment sitting there.

[Doss]

avan wrote:
In Marathon right now at Jolly Roger CG. Drove Curry Hammock and Bahia Honda yesterday. Allowed into day area but cg is barricaded off. Didn't ask about progress since it looked a long way off yet. Complete debris removal looks a long way off yet everywhere in the middle keys.

How about Knights Key park? Nice folks there, hope they did ok

[avan]

In Marathon right now at Jolly Roger CG. Drove Curry Hammock and Bahia Honda yesterday. Allowed into day area but cg is barricaded off. Didn't ask about progress since it looked a long way off yet. Complete debris removal looks a long way off yet everywhere in the middle keys.

[dockmasterdave]

You might have better luck posting this to the facebook group
florida rv camping. There have been lots of posts from people who live there. I don't have any first hand knowledge, but have read that the debris piles are still there. I live in Naples and they just got the last of my hurricane debris last weekend.