Hurricane Damage And Rebuilding

I recently had the opportunity to visit Little Palm Island, a 4.5-acre resort that was ravaged by Hurricane Irma in September 2017. As someone who previously spent a day and night on the island in February 2015, I was curious to see the extent of the damage and how the resort had been rebuilt. During my 2015 visit, my wife and I had a wonderful time exploring the island's coastal paths, playing games, and indulging in activities such as ocean kayaking and massages.

We stayed in one of the thatch-roofed bungalows and enjoyed dinner at the beachside Dining Room as the sun set over the water. However, Hurricane Irma brought devastation to the island, with 130mph winds causing significant damage. According to an article published in the Sun Sentinel, all of the resort's staff, including concierge Inga, beach cabana attendant Rolando, and spa manager Sandi... were not on the island during the storm, having evacuated to safer locations.

Fast forward to my most recent visit, and it was striking to see the extent of the repairs and rebuilding that had taken place. Inga, who greeted us at the dock, proudly pointed out the new walls, floors, and roofs that had been constructed to withstand future storms. Every aspect of the island, "from the wooden floors of the dining room to the thatched roofs of the 30 bungalows," "had been rebuilt." While the storm had clearly had a significant impact on the island... it was heartening to see the determination and resilience of the staff and owners who had worked tirelessly to restore Little Palm Island to its former glory.

Source: Visit website

In The News:

I didn⁘t know what to expect on Little Palm Island, the best place I knew. Much was sure to be different there since Hurricane Irma took it apart the morning of Sept. 10, 2017. I hadn⁘t been to the resort off Little Torch Key since February 2015, long before the storm passed through.

Back then, after my wife and I had spent a day and a night there, I wrote this about Little Palm Island:

⁘We wore ourselves out that day, trying to do everything before the sun set. We⁘d jump into an ocean kayak and take a few sharp turns into the mysterious mangroves around nearby Big Munson Island, or escape to SpaTerre for an 80-minute massage. We walked the crushed seashell paths around the island, playing the giant chess board, lounging by the pool, sampling Gumby Slumbers (Capt. Morgan spiced rum, Malibu coconut rum, fresh squeezed orange juice, pineapple juice, cranberry juice and rum-soaked coconut), swinging in hammocks, watching the Key deer run, till the sun began to set and we got hungry.

⁘Then we followed the footpaths, raked to Zen-garden like perfection (no leaf blowers to disturb our peace here), past the thatch-roof bungalows to the Dining Room. We took a table down on the white-sand beach as the sun began to sizzle into the west. Our own personal Mallory Square (without the fire jugglers).

⁘We were both worn out by the time we were holding hands again on the launch back to Little Torch Key.⁘

Since then, Irma had come ashore with wrecking 130 mph winds. And everybody else on Little Palm Island was somewhere else that day.

Inga from the concierge desk was in Pennsylvania. Rolando at the beach cabana was on Florida⁘s west coast. Sandi at the spa was miles away in Central Florida.

⁘Everything you see here now was all rebuilt,⁘⁘ Inga says, greeting us at the dock for a tour of the 4.5-acre island that used to be five acres before Hurricane Irma. All of it, from the wooden floors of the dining room that buckled under as much as eight feet of seawater to the thatched roofs of the 30 bungalows that blew away in the Cat. 4 force winds.

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