Eight people are known to have died in the Keys during or because of
Hurricane Irma, authorities said Wednesday.
Two people died in Key West; the other six in other parts of Monroe County.
“The deaths are both storm-related and due to to natural causes,” said Cammy Clark, the county’s public information officer.
Also, 40 people were injured during the storm.
Irma ripped through Cudjoe and Big Pine with end-of-the-world fury, destroying homes big and small.
Trailers were shredded, ocean waters rushed through the ground floor of beach-side houses and RVs were overturned, leaving much of the area ravaged almost beyond recognition.
“It’s been a nightmare,” said Mark Lum, 57, who rode out the powerful storm on Cudjoe Key, huddled with his dog Cruzan inside a concrete bunker-like bath house in the Venture Out development. “You live here in a resort, everything’s nice and pretty, and the next day it’s all gone.”
Hurricane Irma has destroyed a quarter of the homes in the Florida Keys and badly damaged many more, federal officials said Tuesday.