Hurricanes ravage Egmont Key, force harbor pilots to relocate

Damage on Egmont Key

Mark Wilson reports

EGMONT KEY, Fla. - Egmont Key's once pristine beaches are now a wasteland of debris.

Parts and pieces from here and elsewhere show an island crying out for help. Nails, barely visible, stand at attention on the underside of wayward dock planks so danger lurks with every step.

Tara Hubbard, a fourth generation Floridian whose family owns the famed Hubbard's Marina, has been coming to the island since she was a child. She joined FOX 13 for a brief tour of the damage on the island.

"Oh yeah, this is a mess," were her first words stepping onto the North beach.

Hubbard is also co-founder of the non-profit Take Mar whose Egmont Key Alliance is devoted to protecting and preserving the island.

"Our marina started in Pass-a-grille, so my great grandparents came here. I've been here my whole life and this is so sad," Hubbard said gingerly stepping through debris.

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From the beach, we ventured toward the Fort where the normally walkable paths aren't even visible and barely passable. Sand covers nearly everything, and we found a likely waterline nearly 15' feet high on a north Fort wall. The historic lighthouse remains as do its lights.

"That's awesome," she said when she saw them.

We also found several gopher tortoises enjoying the island to themselves.

Erosion is another concern. The island had already lost nearly half of its mass in the past hundred years. Helene and Milton only accelerated that. It's too soon to say how much sand the storms took, but the northwest side of the beach shows a sharp 3-4' cliff on the sand washed away.

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"There's so much relevant cultural and historic value here I do fear the damage to the island may be irreparable," Hubbard explained.

Accessible only by boat, Egmont Key is a barrier island that sits at the entrance to Tampa Bay, south of Pinellas County, just north of Anna Maria Island. During the 19th century, it served as camp for captured Seminoles at the end of the Third Seminole War, was occupied by the Navy during the Civil War, and Fort Dade was constructed on the island in 1898 as the Spanish-American War threatened.

Hubbard, like many others, is concerned about the damage and what it may mean to public access down the road.

But the most visible damage is on the east side of the middle of the island where Tampa Bay's Harbor Pilots launch their pilot boats to guide the giant freighters into Tampa Bay's port. Their docks and all of the pilot houses have been destroyed as was the island keeper's home.

READ: Treasure Island's mayor resigns after home 'damaged beyond repair' during Hurricanes Helene, Milton

Terry Fluke is Director of the Tampa Bay Harbor Pilots Association and tells FOX 13 News the one-two punch of Hurricane Helene's surge and Milton's winds was their biggest fear realized.

"This is our worst-case scenario, we lived it over the course of two weeks," Fluke said.

The Harbor Pilots are now launching out of temporary space at the Tierra Verde High and Dry marina and are now accelerating plans for a new station off of Egmont Key near the approach to the Sunshine Skyway Bridge.

"The irony is, the justification for building that property is exactly what happened two weeks ago," Fluke told FOX13 News.

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Since Egmont Key is a National Wildlife Refuge and a Florida State Park, questions loom about repairs and reopening. Hubbard is concerned with the Harbor Pilots moving off the island, it could be forgotten about.

"Yes, I'm nervous with all the devastation regionally that could happen," Hubbard said.

Still, Take Mar and it's Egmont Key Alliance stand ready and waiting to bring the island back starting with an organized clean-up in the next few weeks.

"We are being sensitive that this may fall low on the totem pole now, but I don't want to lose site of the plan to make sure that the public still has access and hopefully soon," she said.

Meantime, Egmont Key's two beacons of resilience stand tall and small. A gopher tortoise just happened to cross the path of the historic lighthouse on our visit. Perhaps a hopeful sign the island will recover after all.

To follow Egmont Key's updates and access, click here.

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