Inclement Weather has Emergency Workers Scrambling
Boats capsizing, plane crashes, downed lines and trees are just all in a day's work

Posted Thursday, March 10, 2011

 
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When everyone else is indoors, watching the rain and wind through the windows, emergency workers are out in the weather scrambling from call to call.

The cold front hitting the Florida Keys today had dispatchers hopping with weather related calls, which they passed on to various public safety agencies to respond to. Most of the calls took place between 12:30 p.m. and 2:30 p.m.

A boat capsized offshore of the 81.9 mile marker near Lorelei Marina, sending FWC units en route to pull people out of the water. Dispatch notes are not clear about whether there were two or three on board, but no one appears to have been injured in
the incident.

People on board a 21 foot sailboat offshore of Summerland Key on the ocean side reported having engine trouble and said they were taking on water with four people on board. The Coast Guard responded to the call for help.

A caller reported four people parachuting near Sugarloaf Key landed in shallow water near Starfish Lane after winds blew them off course. It appears all were fine. No one required medical assistance.

A number of calls about power lines down, or sparking sent deputies and workers from Keys Energy Services and Florida Electric Co-op out into the weather to check them out.

* The Boca Chica area where lines were reported to be sparking.

* Big Pine Key near Kyle Boulevard, where a line was down and sparking in the roadway.

* In Key Colony Beach near 9th Street, where lightning may have hit a transformer, according to the caller.

* in Marathon at keys RV park where a light was reported to be knocked down.

* On Cherokee Street and Mayan Street on Upper Sugarloaf Key, where trees were reported to be down and blocking the roads. Monroe County Public Works responded to remove the road blocks.

Calls about a Plane Crash just offshore of the 76.2 mile marker send deputies, officers from FWC and the Coast Guard to the area. The call turned out to be just a small plane with pontoons which had landed on the water to escape the wind and rain.
Everyone was fine.