As this hurricane season nears its end, Cedar Key is still climbing out of the rubble left by Hurricanes Idalia and Helene, hoping to survive the year unscathed.
Hurricane Idalia made landfall in 2023 as a Category 3 just 58 miles northwest of the island, the strongest hurricane to hit the Big Bend region in 125 years, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. A year later, Hurricane Helene struck as a Category 4, wiping out residents’ progress toward rebuilding the city.
Cedar Key Mayor Jeff Webb, a 58-year-old third-generation resident, said his city is self-reliant. Just three months after Helene struck the island, business owners reopened their doors to customers.
“We love help, but we don’t count on it,” he said.
After facing destruction for the past two years, Webb said this season — in which no hurricanes have made landfall in the U.S. yet — has been a breath of fresh air for residents. U.S. Atlantic hurricane season runs from June 1 to Nov. 30 each year.
“When you get two in a row, it affects people on a psychological level,” Webb said. “It felt strange not to be in a level of chaos.”
Residents are holding their breath, hoping to avoid a storm like Idalia or Helene, Webb said. Another hurricane would be “statistically unsupportable,” he added, as the island only sees major storms every 40 to 50 years.
Jason Samenow, the weather editor for the Washington Post, said via email this is the first time in 10 years that the U.S. has not had a hurricane make landfall. Storms have missed the U.S. this year because of “prevailing steering currents” near Bermuda, which have ushered storms away from the east coast, he wrote.
Hurricane Melissa — currently formed over the Caribbean — could be the last opportunity for a significant weather event this season, he added.
Cedar Key residents remember the last major hurricane all too well.
Timothy Solano, the 29-year-old owner of Cedar Key Aquaculture Farms, said Helene tore nets and ripped clam bags from the ground, impacting seafood farmers in the area.
Florida has become one of the nation's top clam producers, with Cedar Key accounting for 90% of the state's production, according to the UF Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences’ Online Resource Guide for Florida Shellfish Aquaculture. As of March 2024, the island is home to 163 certified leaseholders out of 336 certified molluscan shellfish producers in the state.
In 2024, Solano’s company lost 14,000 bags of clams because of Helene, with each bag containing thousands of clams. He lost at least $140,000 in clamming materials and hundreds of thousands more in product, causing a decline in annual sales.
“It’s not just your business losing money,” Solano said. “It’s also the families that work for you that are losing.”
Cedar Key businesses want the best for their employees, he said. The community strength in Cedar Key is the reason Solano said he wouldn’t want to raise his children anywhere else.
“They got your back no matter what,” he said. “During hurricane times, it really, truly shows.”
Stephen Mullens, a 39-year-old UF assistant instructional professor of meteorology, recognizes the season is not over. He said storms that form this time of year usually form closer to Florida.
“If we can make it to the end of October without really having a storm close to home … maybe we’ll get out of the season without getting hit,” Mullens said. “We could sure use one of those.”
Hurricanes are less likely to make landfall toward the end of the season. Out of over 175 years of hurricane tracking history, only about a dozen hurricanes have hit the mainland U.S. after Oct. 22, according to Michael Lowry, WPLG-TV’s Miami-based hurricane specialist.
Unfortunately for Florida, eight of those dozen made landfall in the Sunshine State, according to Lowry.
Hurricane Melissa is expected to hit Jamaica. Whether the U.S. or Florida is in its path seems unlikely, according to NOAA’s hurricane tracker.
Contact Noah Lantor at nlantor@alligator.org. Follow him on X at @noah_lantor.
Noah is the Fall 2025 assistant multimedia editor at The Alligator. He previously worked as a staff photographer for two semesters, covering community stories and sports across Gainesville. Before his time at UF, Noah worked on the sidelines at Maryland and Penn State photographing their football teams. He has also done freelance and graduate photography work in his home state of Maryland. In his free time, he enjoys following hockey, football and traveling to rural places.
