Photo by KELLY FARRELL

K Guengerich McKinney, owner of Tarpon Bay General Store on Isles of Capri, has only a few small items such as plants to move because several recent storms have kept her on her toes. The storm threats have also left the store and cafe nearly empty the past few weeks she said.

Photo by KELLY FARRELL

Staff

Islander Gary Grant, known as one of Jack Lookout's "bar stool meteorologists" shares his plans to put the shutters up last minute as Hurricane Ike is forecasted to travel through the Gulf without making a South Florida landfall.

Photo by KELLY FARRELL

Staff

K Guengerich McKinney, owner of Tarpon Bay General Store on Isles of Capri, has only a few small items such as plants to move because several recent storms have kept her on her toes. The storm threats have also left the store and cafe nearly empty the past few weeks she said.

Photo by KELLY FARRELL

Staff

Jim Ketchum, co-owner of Goodland's Marker 8 Restaurant checks on the building Monday and will keep the plywood and materials needed to board up in the back of his pickup truck just in case Hurricane Ike takes a last minute turn toward South Florida.

MARCO ISLAND — Tropical storms and hurricanes seem to be headed at Southwest Florida one after the other like snowballs the past few weeks. Some Islanders say the experience is making them storm savvy, while others say they’re storm weary.

The statistical peak of the Atlantic hurricane season is Wednesday, Sept. 10. The month of September averages three storms a year; this year, there have been four tropical cyclones watched by forecasters in the first week of September alone, according to the National Hurricane Center. The storms were active all on the same day and kept some people glued to the weather channel last week.

“It does get sort of tiring,” said K Guengerich McKinney, owner of Tarpon Bay General Store in Isles of Capri, regarding the storms.

Overall she said learning that Hurricane Ike was likely to head northwest of Florida’s west coast, was a relief.

“But I’m still leery. I worry about surge and tornadoes being spawned. Even if you don’t get hit, you don’t get any business. People are just watching it, preparing for it, saving their money,” she said.

While hurricane threats may hurt her business, McKinney said there is somewhat of a positive to all the recent storm activity: she has less work to do.

“With Hanna, we knew Gustav and Josephine were out there, so I didn’t put everything back,” she said.

Some of the heavier, more expensive items such as decorative glass bulbs, which she says are worth about $300 each, remain tucked away safely in the store instead of hung outside. Plants however may need some rearranging as winds are anticipated to pick up this week.

Even if the storm passes the coast by, Lou McFee says they have a plan.

“I’ll jump in the RV with the four dogs, the old lady and the cat. I’d go east. You just go the opposite way. I go with the old K.I.S.S. theory. Keep it simple stupid,” said McFee as he cleaned up yard debris outside the store.

McKinney has another idea: “Someone go to Alaska, bring some icebergs down and cool the water,” she said, begging for anything that would bring some business back to the area.

“Collier Boulevard looks like a bowling alley. There is nothing,” she exclaimed.

George Lampert, manager of Marco River Marina described the effects similarly.

“There’s no business. I could have laid down and took a nap on Bald Eagle here the last couple weeks,” he said.

Lambert said the marina pulled some boats out of the water on Saturday but cancelled the process when Ike’s projected path was to miss Marco Island.

“The first time we had to do a lot of stuff to prepare, but this is like the third time. There’s not so much to do,” Lambert said.

The preparation is timely and costly.

“It takes about four days to get ready and two days to get unready (for a storm). With 50 employees doing nothing else for about a week, it’s real expensive but you can’t ignore it,” he said.

The marina has about 275 boats on any given day.

“That’s a lot of plastic to be flying around,” Lambert added.

His suggestion for where to wait out a storm: “If you want a safe place during the storm, go to Jack’s.”

Jack’s Lookout is next door to the marina and the bartender who has worked there about 13 years, Barbie Haas, calls the place “storm central.”

“At any given time we have at least 15 bar stool meteorologists and they all having different opinions,” Haas said.

While some businesses may suffer, Jack’s Lookout has the opposite experience, she added.

“We usually wait until the last minute to prepare because we get a really good business. People get a hyper excitement about an impending storm. We’re the last ones to close down and first ones to open the door,” she said.

City public information coordinator Lisa Douglass said the city is in great hands for any storm.

“We’re constantly fine tuning stuff. Our group is like a fine oiled machine between our city manager (Steve Thompson) and (Fire) Chief Mike Murphy,” she said and added that Thompson has a “calming effect.”

Murphy and Thompson have led cites through nearly 200 tropical storms and hurricanes in their combined careers.

Thompson said he’s been through about 40 storms in his career between Virginia Beach and South Carolina. Murphy’s career includes over 25 years in Florida with an average of more than seven storms a year threatening Florida, he knows the drill.

Douglass said she doesn’t anticipate needing the Code Red system for Hurricane Ike, a level 2 hurricane west of Marco as of Tuesday. She said the Code Red phone and e-mail alert system is most effective when used only during extreme emergencies.

Behind Ike, Tropical Storm Josephine is brewing but has a long way to go before it might have any impact on the U.S., according to the National Hurricane Center.

The end of hurricane season is Nov. 30 and many Islanders say the relief could not come a day too soon.

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