My last entry makes things look very promising as if Hurricane Wilma was going to breeze by without really giving us a run for our money. For those of you who have seen previews for “The Weather Man” starring Nicolas Cage, I now understand why people were throwing shakes and softdrinks at him. I rely on the Weather Channel everyday and the storm report was far worse than what was predicted. What they did tell you on the national news was the wind speed recording at Summerland Key at 122 mph, but they didn’t tell you that Key West was 60% under a few feet of water on October 24, 2005.

I had battled trying to fix a hole in my roof at 4am so just having a little bit of sleep before sunrise was a welcomed thing. The winds were starting to die down and the intervals between gusts were getting further and further apart. I stepped outside to get some fresh air and take a look around off the deck and I was shocked at the scenery. Flood waters covered everything, at least 2 ft and rising so fast that any bug, frog, and critter was scurrying for any piece of refuge from the flood. We were flooding fast and I had finally witnessed a storm surge.

At the peak of the flooding the waters reached the top of our chain linked fence. I estimate it to be close to 4ft. I can only be thankful I live in a stilt home and my boats and belongings were mostly up high on shelves.

My brother who lives in Upper Sugarloaf Key was not as fortunate. His ground level duplex home was flooded entirely with 2 ft. of contaminated saltwater.

The upside to all of this is we live in a wonderful place. The kindness of even the most distant stranger to lend a helping hand with things is unbelieveable. Many of our close friends have come to the rescue of many that were unfortunate in the flood. They should be blessed with sainthood for their actions.

The water is starting to clear up quite nicely here. Wilma rearranged the backcountry flats a bit in her passing. Channels are narrower, beaches have moved or been eliminated on some remote islands of the lower Keys backcountry. Bottom line is that the fish are hungry and we will survive and keep fishing and feeling glad we were spared the total devestation of a hurricane.