As winds intensify into the night, Florida Keys residents told to find shelter. Some don’t

September is usually an off time for tourism in Key West, but Duval Street is always busy with bar hoppers and souvenir shoppers.

But on Tuesday, as Hurricane Ian whipped the Florida Keys with high wind gusts, heavy rains and street flooding, the Southernmost City was eerily quiet.

“I think people buttoned up and are waiting,” Key West Mayor Teri Johnston told the Miami Herald.

By Tuesday afternoon, Ian’s center was about 85 miles south southwest of the Dry Tortugas. Sustained tropical force winds were expected “to be imminent” for Key West and the Lower and Middle Keys, said Jonathan Rizzo, warning coordination meteorologist with National Weather Service in Key West.

At 3 p.m., frequent wind gusts came in at 45 mph, with 25 mph sustained winds, Rizzo said. And many streets were already flooded.

Conditions deteriorated as the day went on, and by 6:30 p.m., Rizzo said wind gusts were measured up to 71 mph at Key West International Airport and 66 mph at the weather service’s Key West office.

Keys emergency managers took the storm seriously, telling people Tuesday to find shelter by early afternoon. The Lower and Middle Keys are under a tropical storm warning as Hurricane Ian heads toward the Gulf Coast of Florida.

The county opened a public shelter at Key West High School, for people who need a safe place during the storm. Monroe schools and government offices will be closed through Wednesday. And the county has grounded its air ambulance helicopter, which flies seriously injured or sick people to hospitals in the Miami area.

Bruce Halle, mayor of the small Middle Keys city of Layton, said during a Monroe County Emergency Management conference call Tuesday afternoon that more than 10 inches of rain had already fallen in his area.

In the Middle Keys city of Marathon, officials reported some street flooding, but mostly from rain, not surge.

Terry Abel, fire chief for the Upper Keys Village of Islamorada, said parts of the Old Highway alongside U.S. 1 were flooded, and ocean water had breached the highway in some parts of Sea Oats Beach.

Rizzo told county, local municipal, state and federal officials that weather conditions were expected to improve in the Keys Wednesday morning, “however, the water rises after that.”

The storm as it passes is expected to exacerbate already higher-than-normal “king tides” that swamp the Keys this time of year. Rizzo said to expect surrounding waters to be one to three feet above normal high tides. In areas in the Upper Keys on the east end of Florida Bay like the flood-prone Stillwright Point and Twin Lakes neighborhoods, saltwater is likely to make some roads impassable through the weekend.

Key West mostly empty

Only a few groups of visitors walked up and down Duval on Monday night. Most restaurants and shops were closed, though some were in the process of boarding up.

Those that stayed open, including Willie T’s at 525 Duval, were busy, with tourists and locals grabbing drinks or a bite, but mostly drinks.

Outside of 801 Bourbon Bar on Duval Street, popular for its nightly drag shows, performer Marilyn Daniels sat on a stool outside talking with friends. Daniels, 57, has lived in Key West since 1987 and said she has never evacuated for oncoming hurricanes. Daniels also didn’t mind that business was slower than usual.

“This is how it is in Key West. When we have stuff like this, the locals support each other. The ones that stay know we’re open for business,” Daniels said. “We make enough to pay our bar tabs, and, we get to provide a little relief from the stress that comes from being in a storm.”

Some of the city’s best-known watering holes, including the Hog’s Breath Saloon, Irish Kevin’s and the Bull, were closed Tuesday. Others, including Rick’s, Sloppy Joe’s and Fat Tuesday’s, welcomed the pre-storm business.

Keith Kneeland, 50, drove his scooter near Southernmost Beach Tuesday night as the winds intensified. Nevertheless he was unfazed, calling Ian a “glorified storm.”

“The fact that they didn’t give an evacuation and tell tourists to leave shows we know what to do down here,” Oneeland said.

On the Overseas Highway heading down to Key West, there were as many cars parked on the elevated approaches to the bridges that connect the 120 miles of road as there were in the travel lanes. Locals park their cars there in anticipation of hurricanes to save the vehicles from the corrosive saltwater surge the storms often bring.

In Key West on Tuesday, the telltale flooding of a nearby hurricane was evident on almost every street by late morning. Gene and Evelyn, a couple from Pennsauken, New Jersey, who declined to give their last name, have been coming to the Southernmost City for 25 years.

Ian was a soggy send-off to their quick trip, which began Saturday and was scheduled to end Wednesday, but the couple said they have no complaints.

“This one snuck up on us,” Gene said. “But, you know, it’s hurricane season.”

Evelyn added that it had been all blue skies up to late Monday.

“We had gorgeous weather until last night,” she said Tuesday.

Many tourists stranded in Key West did what tourists do — get their picture taken next to the red, yellow and black buoy monument that lets you know you’re at the southernmost point in the continental U.S.

But during a hurricane, a stop there is more akin to a trip to the water park.

One after the other, people lined up next to the giant buoy. And they didn’t have to wait long to get drenched by the waves crashing over the sea wall: The impact sent water as high as 30 feet into the air, then straight down on whoever was standing underneath.

“We’re quite enjoying this, to be fair,” said Sander Eshuis, 43, who was visiting Key West from the Netherlands with his wife, Lenneke Eshuis, 37.

The couple said they’ve had sunny, warm weather until Monday, so they’re not disappointed so far with the rain, wind and clouds. Plus, it’s something they’ve never experienced.

“We measure wind speed in the Netherlands up to scale 12. This would be like scale 14 or 15, which we don’t have,” Sander Eshuis said. “It doesn’t exist, this type of weather.”

The sight of 11-month old Caroline Llama peeking out of her mom Mattison’s rain jacket like a blue-eyed baby kangaroo Tuesday evening drew a lot of attention.

The Llamas, including Caroline’s 2-year-old sister Evelyn, their dad Max, 28, and his parents, the senior Max, 46, and his mom Kendra, 45, were all born in Key West.

They decided to walk around and see how their city was faring in the midst of Ian. Collectively, save for the babies, the family has been through this several times before.

Asked what they thought of the storm, the younger Max replied, “It definitely creates a buzz on the island.”