Hurricane Irma: Some in Everglades City chose to stay put for Irma
Brent Batten
Everglades City Council member Parker Oglesby watched water creep up into his home during Hurricane Wilma in 2005.
He wasn’t going to wait around to see it again with Hurricane Irma.
“My house got 10 inches of water when Wilma came in and this one is supposed to be stronger,” Oglesby said Saturday in a telephone interview.
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Oglesby had watched Irma's progress on television from a relative's home near Cedar Key, one he thought would be safe when he left town but one that ended up being in the path of the storm anyway after he left.
But Oglesby said many of his neighbors, including other city officials and business owners, were planning to weather the storm in their homes.
Residents riding it out in town were reporting bands of rain and high wind as early as 3 p.m. Saturday.
It wasn’t the rain, or even the wind, that convinced Oglesby to leave.
“The problem with us is the wall of water with the storm surge coming through.”
County emergency managers on Thursday announced a mandatory evacuation of Everglades City to commence at 1 p.m. Friday.
Even before that, on Tuesday, they issued a reminder that Hurricane Donna in 1960, following a track similar to Irma. Donna made landfall near Everglades City and caused substantial storm surge flooding along the entire coastline.
Not everyone heeded the warning.
Collier County Sheriff Kevin Rambosk said the city’s isolation, compounded with a potentially devastating storm surge, may leave residents cut off for hours.
“They’ll be the first ones to get hammered,” Rambosk said. “But we know who stayed.”
Oglesby said that list may be relatively long.
“There are quite a few people there,” he said.