An approaching tropical storm system prompted Dry Tortugas National Park off the Florida coast to plan to close to recreational visitors at 6 p.m. Saturday, while officials at Everglades National Park on the mainland planned to close the Flamingo Campground that evening.
A joint release from the parks said the approach of tropical weather system "Invest 99L" spurred the closure decisions. At Dry Tortugas, officials said the park would remain closed until the storm passes and staff are able to assess storm damage and safely open the park. Once the park reopens, the ferry and seaplane concessions will resume day-trips to the park, weather permitting.
While the park is closed to recreational activities, ships are permitted to transit park waters. Additionally, safe anchorage is permitted in the Garden Key and Bird Key harbors within the one nautical mile zone of Garden Key. Boaters are advised that no services, emergency or otherwise, will be available and the islands will be closed.
Everglades National Park and its concession operators planned to remain open. However, the Flamingo campground was to close Saturday night. The Long Pine Key campground is already closed for the summer season. Additionally, no backcountry permits for camping will be issued for Saturday or Sunday. Park visitors should check the weather before coming and exercise caution on roadways inside and leading to the park. Localized flooding is predicted and downed branches are possible.
In order to protect government property and visitor facilities spread across a large geographic area, the Everglades and Dry Tortugas Hurricane Plan calls for preparations to begin at 72 hours before predicted landfall. While this tropical system still has not been named, the forecast has continued to call for it to become Tropical Storm Hermine. All along, the predictions have also indicated that it may spin up quickly. The parks’ Incident Management Team will continue to monitor the storm and adapt plans as needed.
Updates will continue to be available on the parks’ websites and social media channels.
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