Hurricane Irma Aftermath: Citrus, Other Crops Devastated; 300K Without Power; Maria Bears Down

The necessities of life in Florida — air conditioning and a working kitchen — continue to return to residents knocked off the power grid by Hurricane Irma. By Monday evening, about 310,000 households and businesses were still without power across the states as crews work in the storm's aftermath, but normalcy included the re-opening of schools in Miami and Tampa. The hard-hit Florida Keys are open only to residents to clean up and assess the damage in a region where 25 percent of homes have been destroyed, but authorities warned residents will have to support themselves with basic necessities in the days ahead. And a tour of the state's agricultural areas Monday showed widespread devastation, with crop losses approaching 80 percent in some regions.

While all eyes in the northeast are on Hurricane Jose, folks across Irma-battered Florida are wearily watching the development of Hurricane Maria. Forecasters at the National Hurricane Center said Maria had strengthened enough to earn Category 4 status by Monday evening. The storm was located about 45 miles east-southeast of Dominica by 5 p.m. Monday and was packing maximum sustained winds of 130 mph while heading west-northwest at 9 mph.

On its current projected path, Maria is expected to reach Puerto Rico by early Wednesday morning. The storm is expected to clear the Dominican Republic, Haiti and Cuba by Saturday before taking a turn toward the Bahamas. Forecasters expect Maria to remain a major hurricane throughout the week. (For more hurricane news or local news from Florida, click here to find your local Florida Patch. If you have an iPhone, click here to get the free Patch iPhone app.)

Hurricane Irma's path "could not have been more lethal" to Florida's farmers and the scope of the damage to the state's fruits and vegetables is unprecedented, the state's agriculture commissioner said. Commissioner Adam Putnam and U.S. Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue flew over hundreds of miles of Florida farmland to get an aerial view of the decimated crops.

The citrus crop in southwest Florida was particularly devastated, Putnam said, and the extent of the damage became more evident this week. Some citrus producers in southwestern Florida say they've lost 80-90 percent of their crop, while producers elsewhere say 40 percent was ruined by the storm.

Patch was first to report that as Miami Beach was being battered by the unrelenting winds and blinding rain of Hurricane Irma, Commissioner Michael Grieco remained a voice of calm on social media. His first public Facebook post during the Sept. 10 storm came at 7:46 a.m., an hour and 24 minutes before Irma would make landfall at Cudjoe Key in the Florida Keys. Facebook said he was in Miami Beach. He was not.

As Floridians continue to pick up the pieces of their lives following Hurricane Irma’s devastating visit last week, officials from Polk County are offering advice about FEMA Disaster Assistance that applies to residents across the state.

The first thing Polk County officials want folks to know is that all residents who suffered property damage or losses directly caused by Hurricane Irma are eligible to apply for assistance even if they have insurance. “Homeowners and renters may apply,” Kevin Watler, county spokesman, stressed in a Monday email.

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Watch: The Florida Keys Are Reeling From Hurricane Irma Devastation

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Authorities say it could be the end of the week before the water level of the Withlacoochee River north of Tampa in Hernando County begins to drop. Hernando County Sheriff's officials said Sunday the river has reached major flood stage at the Trilby gauge. The river is currently at 16.79 feet and is expected to crest at 17.5 feet Wednesday.

Now that many evacuees have made their way home, Airbnb says that more than 200 people around the Southeast opened their homes free of charge to help people affected by Hurricane Irma. Users of the popular app in Florida, Georgia, South Carolina and North Carolina used the company's Disaster Response Program, which offers temporary stays for people during the storm. "It is literally neighbors helping neighbors, across communities and states, and it’s great to see,” the company said.

"The Keys are not what you left several days ago when you evacuated. Electricity, sewer and water are intermittent at best," said Monroe County Mayor George Neugent during a news conference Saturday. Returning islanders should bring enough supplies to sustain them for a while, including tents, small air conditioning units, food, water and medications.

Human residents of the Florida Keys were not the islands' only hurricane victims. Many of the pets of Monroe County are also struggling in the recovery from the storm, often in need of medical care and food. To help residents and their pets cope, four veterinary hospitals in Marathon are currently open.

By Monday night, the state said 311,639 residential and business power customers remained without electricity, for about 3 percent still without lights and air conditioning. On Monday night, Florida Power and Light, one of the state's largest utilities, estimated that about 160,410 of its customers were still without power, while Tampa Electric, which provides power to much of the Tampa Bay area, said it has restored power to all of its customers unless they were unable to re-connect because of flooding or damage to their home's electrical equipment.

In St. Pete, Duke Energy's failure to meet its self-imposed deadline of Friday night to restore power drew the ire of Mayor Rick Kriseman. The utility had said its customers in Pinellas and Pasco counties would have their power restored by the end of Saturday. Kriseman issued a statement saying he was extremely disappointed that the deadline would pass without power being restored to all of St. Pete. Kriseman added that while it was irresponsible for Duke to set a deadline and give false hope to residents, he recognized the progress the company had made.

The revised areas for power restoration and their deadlines are: By 11 p.m. on Monday, Sept. 18, Alachua, Citrus, Hernando, Levy, Marion, Seminole and Sumter counties. By 11 p.m. on Tuesday, Sept. 19, the severely impacted areas of Hardee, Highlands, Lake, Polk and Volusia counties. Also the northern Orange and Lake County border due to rebuilding the electrical system that suffered significant damage in those areas.

Miami-Dade County public schools reopened for classes on Monday, Sept. 18, as did Broward County schools and Tampa schools.

Florida Power & Light acknowledged on Saturday that it will not be able to meet its target to restore power to all customers on the eastern side of the state by the end of Sunday. FPL had also set a target of restoring power to all of its Florida customers by the end of the day Sept. 22. Some 347,590 customers remained without power in the state's eight most southern counties as of early Sunday morning, according to a Patch analysis.

"We’ve had some significant challenges," FPL's Robert Gould said at Zoo Miami. "We’ve seen some flooded areas. We had areas of tornadic damage, areas that are again not readily apparent."

Under the revised estimate, Miami-Dade County is now expected to have power restored on Tuesday. Broward and Palm Beach counties were also expected to take longer than expected to get power restored.

When Sister Margaret Ann, the chainsaw-wielding nun and principal of Archbishop Coleman F. Carroll High School in Miami, cut up downed trees on the property, her work was caught on video and she became a worldwide sensation. She laughed off the attention, saying her students are enjoying watching her on social media, and one even asked for her autograph.

"I think it has been really good for our community, and I understand that the video has really gone worldwide, so that's kinda funny," the nun said, who was glad the video gave the public a different view of nuns.

In Broward County, the lack of power has already been responsible for the heat-related deaths of eight residents in a steaming nursing home in Hollywood, and elderly residents of another powerless facility in the region were evacuated to buildings with air conditioning. The nursing home reportedly dialed an emergency number for Florida Gov. Rick Scott three times seeking aid. Including the nursing home deaths, at least 27 people in Florida have died because of Irma, and the storm has claimed seven other lives in Georgia, South Carolina and North Carolina, bringing the U.S. death toll to 34 Friday, most of them occurring after the storm had passed. In the Caribbean, which Irma hit as a Category 5 storm, 38 people have died.

Georgia hosted thousands of Florida evacuees, and several died in accidents. A young mother and her baby died when they were hit by a car in Cherokee County, while a 10-year-old boy from the Fort Lauderdale area died in the middle of a scuffle in DeKalb County when a driver tried to flee the violence. And two men from Florida — one from Tampa and the other from St. Augustine — were killed when the Dodge Charger they were riding in crashed in East Cobb County earlier in the week.

As Floridians grapple with insurance claims and applying for disaster relief, residents also seemed ready to cheer up and be in better spirits. Country music star Brad Paisley offered free tickets for his Saturday show in Tampa to first responders, and in classic Miami fashion, Miami Beach celebrated the lifting of the local curfew with a party.

As a thank you for their service during Hurricane Irma, first responders can pick up two free tickets to any of the remaining Marlins home games. The team has won 11 of its last 18 home games. The offer is also good for residents of Monroe County, who suffered some of the worst damage from Hurricane Irma anywhere in Florida. The Marlins return to Marlins Park on Monday for the start of a three-game homestand against the New York Mets.

Irma not only crushed homes and businesses, it crushed dreams. David Green, of Chantilly, Virginia, was finally ready to pursue a lifelong dream of becoming a charter boat captain. At 58, he was ready to retire from his job as a computer systems engineer. He bought a boat and planned to fly down to the Caribbean in November to embark on a new adventure. Green's yacht, the Mon Amie — French for "my friend" — was anchored in Paraquita Bay, a popular "hurricane hole" off Tortola, where boats are kept for safe harbor when storms pass; but he learned late last week that it sank.

"So many people can’t laugh at their situation. It’s impossible for me to do anything but try to keep my perspective. It’s just stuff," Green told The Associated Press.

Still, as the storm fades, memories remain. In Miami, residents spoke about their experiences with the storm, one woman recounted how she was evacuating to Coral Gables but left her dog's IV and special dog food at home, while another woman spoke of how she was unable to find a hotel room.

Some residents felt forgotten as they dealt with the storm's aftermath and moved around from one place to another. Margherita Lopez, 43, said she's been shuffled to three different shelters since evacuating her home in Key West.

"It's been a nightmare ... there should have been a better plan," she said.

Across Florida, local, state and federal emergency officials are struggling to assist the flood of evacuees, many of whom are seeking temporary or permanent shelter from a storm that cast a wide swath across the state. Even Keys residents who have a home to return to have been left without power, water and sewage service.

The state says about 7,500 people were in nearly 100 shelters as of Friday, and that the Red Cross planned to open four shelters in the Keys once the area was properly surveyed.

One woman living in a mandatory evacuation area said she decided not to evacuate, and while its a decision Punta Gorda resident Margaret said she doesn't regret, it's not one she'll make again.

"We dodged a bullet," she said. "God was good to us."

Meanwhile, officials said the Middle Keys reopened Saturday for residents who evacuated. Key West residents and those who live on the lower Keys west of Seven Mile Bridge will be permitted to return on Sunday. Residents of the upper keys were allowed to return earlier in the week.

The region, extremely popular with tourists, is not open to visitors yet and is anticipated to open Oct. 20 to visitors if everything goes according to plan.

For Floridians rebuilding, Gov. Rick Scott ordered Department of Business and Professional Regulation to suspend certain regulations and fees that may prevent, hinder or delay necessary response and recovery efforts from Hurricane Irma.

While Irma is long gone, the National Hurricane Center is keeping tabs on Hurricane Jose, and on Saturday, the NHC said Tropical Storm Lee had formed and Potential Tropical Cyclone 15 is expected to become Maria by the end of the day.

Patch editors Don Johnson, Deb Belt and Paul Scicchitano contributed to this report. Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.

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Photo: Layne Harris reopens The Café at Books & Books on Lincoln Road in South Beach with a limited menu, by Patch Editor Paul Scicchitano. A house rests on the beach after collapsing off a cliff from Hurricane Irma in Vilano Beach, Florida, Friday, Sept. 15. Florida’s economy has long thrived on one major import: people. Irma raised concerns about just how sustainable the allure of Florida’s year-round warmth and lifestyle are. The wind, rain and flooding inflicted an estimated $50 billion in damage. Photo by David Goldman/Associated Press