Anxious residents begin returning to battered Florida Keys
Anxious residents begin returning to battered Florida Keys:- Heidi and Allan Neuzil grew frustrated Tuesday after waiting more than 14 hours for authorities to let them back in to the battered Florida Keys.
The parents of three boys were part of a large group of Keys residents awaiting permission to return to their homes and survey the damage wrought by Hurricane Irma.
“I just want to go home!” Allan Neuzil screamed at authorities from the side of the road.
He wasn’t the only one exasperated enough to yell at police. Other residents joined him as officers directed traffic and vehicles at the front of the line jockeyed to get ahead of each other.
Heidi Neuzil broke down as she pondered the potential scene they’d find upon arriving in Key Largo.
“I don’t know what we’re going to do if we don’t have a home,” she asked. “Where will we go?”
‘Oh my God, the roof!’
About 7 a.m. ET, police began letting residents back into the ravaged island chain. Upon leaving the Florida mainland, Key Largo is the first town in what is known as the Upper Keys, the easternmost third of the island chain that includes Tavernier and Islamorada.
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West of that, in the Middle and Lower Keys, rescue and recovery workers are working to clear roads and inspect bridges so that residents and business owners can return. But even in the Upper Keys, “water, power, sewer, fuel, medical service and cell service, are still limited,” according to Monroe County. The Florida Keys Aqueduct Authority was advising residents to boil their tap water, if they have any.
As the Neuzils made their way home in their pickup truck — adorned with the yellow residency sticker that grants them and others access to the Keys — Allan Neuzil pointed to a shipyard.
“Look, the dock is destroyed,” he said.
Irma’s path, city-by-city
Soon after they arrived home to find their residence propping up five downed trees.
“Oh my God, the roof!” Heidi exclaimed, beginning to weep again. “The roof is cracked in the back of the house.”
A closer look at the rear of the house revealed a morsel of good news: Only a small corner of the house had been breached by the trees and the powerful hurricane that blew them over.
The Neuzils’ boat was damaged as well, but it, too, had largely escaped Irma’s battering. The hull remained intact.
Source:-Â http://edition.cnn.com/2017/09/12/us/florida-keys-destruction-irma-returning-home/index.html
