Big Pine Key residents celebrate recovery after Hurricane Irma

BIG PINE KEY, Fla. – Big Pine Key might have been one of the hardest-hit areas in the Florida Keys, but residents are celebrating a year of recovery after Hurricane Irma.

On Saturday, lower Keys residents and business owners gathered for the free Florida Keys Recovery Celebration at Big Pine Community Park, organized in part by State Attorney Dennis Ward.

Larry Kahn, longtime Keys resident and spokesperson for the State Attorney's Office, said the event was a celebration and an acknowledgement of other communities bracing for hurricane Florence.

"We wanted this day to be a day not of lamenting our problems, but of celebrating our recovery and our resilience. We're not there yet. But each day we're getting closer, and it's all thanks to the community groups, even groups out side of the Florida Keys, who have been supporting us," Kahn said. "And we're so thankful for everybody who has made our recovery easier after a category 4 storm. And we can't say that without saying that our thoughts are with the people of the Carolinas who are going to experience what we experienced."

Kids got to play with animals from the Monroe County Sheriff's Animal Farm, adults were free to sip beverages and enjoy food and music and everyone shared in the camaraderie of working through a tough year after a devastating storm.

The event was also sponsored by Coca-Cola Beverages Florida, the Lower Keys Chamber of Commerce, Centennial Bank, We Love Big Pine and the United Way of the Florida Keys.

Photos courtesy of Carol Tedesco



About the Author:

Janine Stanwood joined Local 10 News in February 2004 as an assignment editor. She is now a general assignment reporter. Before moving to South Florida from her Washington home, Janine was the senior legislative correspondent for a United States senator on Capitol Hill.