WUFT | News and public media for north central Florida
Rebuilding Cedar Key: A child fisherman longs for the town to make a pre-hurricane comeback
By Matthew Montalto
July 18, 2025 at 4:00 AM EDT
CEDAR KEY, FL — Like many of the life-long Cedar Key fishermen, Jacob “Jake” Allred remembers his first trip to the pier.
“I was six years old,” he said. “We’ve been coming almost every weekend ever since.”
The fisherman and his family would drive from Ocala to the Cedar Key Pier any weekend they could to go fishing. He remembers catching all sorts of things.
“A lot of times late at night,” he said, “these kids would [go] shark fishing. They’d bring stingrays and anything you can think of to shark fish off that pier. I thought it was so cool. So one day, we bought one of the rods that they used and we went shark fishing and caught a seven-foot lemon shark. It was fun.”
He said his mom, Jodi Czaplick, would say he basically ran the pier.
“My whole family made this joke because if somebody catches something for bait,” Jake said, “I’d go to my parents and negotiate with them to get whatever they caught. I’d ask them and say, ‘Are you going to use that?’ Most of the time, they’d say, ‘No, you can have it,’ and I was like, ‘Sweet!’”
But the 10-year-old can’t fish there anymore. Jake now has to fish on the sidewalk next to the pier’s remains. It has been closed since Hurricane Helene and Milton hit last year. Now, the island town is preparing for the next hurricane season.
Jake said he is still devastated by the hurricane damage and can’t believe it’s still not there when he comes back to visit.
“I was like this is our fishing spot,” he said. “Can we fish here anymore? Can we do anything here anymore?”
Jeff Webb is the mayor of Cedar Key. After 20 years of service in the Marine Corps, he had a sense of homecoming when he moved back to the island in 2019. Webb’s family has a long history on the island where his grandmother was born.
“I always wanted to come in and come back to my favorite place in the world,” he said. “So, when we had the chance in 2019, we left Northern Virginia and came on down. The place is a small community, so coming back just felt like everything came full circle.”
Webb said Hurricane Idalia in 2023 opened his eyes to the support his community still shows each other.
“I remember the day that the waters receded within an hour,” he said. “It seemed like the whole island had come out and began working to repair the businesses and the homes. It was like ants coming out and just absolutely putting the town back together, not waiting for anything. That was the first taste of experiencing the resiliency of the people of Cedar Key.”
That next year, Big Bend Florida was hit with three more hurricanes: Hurricane Debby and the aforementioned Helene and Mitlon.
Since the island was slammed with three storms in three months, the town has started elevating houses and shops by putting them on stilts.
Webb said stilts are a long-term solution for the community, referencing Island Place Condos, apartments right on the water most vulnerable to storm surge.
“The condo has been devastated not only by hurricanes but by any major storm,” he said. “It gets beat up pretty bad. So, the homeowners and the Association had to decide to commit a significant amount of resources to raise the property. It's a huge investment and it describes the community’s commitment to restoring Cedar Key and rebuilding for the future.”
Storm surge and flooding make the low-lying island of Cedar Key especially vulnerable. Megan Borowski is a meteorologist for the Florida Public Radio Emergency Network and said the effects from storm surge can be major.
“If you have very strong hurricane-force winds,” she said. “Think of it as a bulldozer on steroids, taking all the Gulf water and pushing it in the direction of the winds.”
Borowski said storm surge can work both ways: pushing water inland or sucking water out, depending on the direction of the storm. Last year, water was only ever moved inland.
The National Hurricane Center measures storm surge using the sea, lake and overland surges from hurricanes (SLOSH) model, taking into account storm intensity and tide times.
“All these things can be taken into account in a weather model now,” Borowski said. “It’s not just the weather, it's the ocean depth and different surfaces impacting the actual water movement. I’m still in awe, and it is one of the reasons why I am interested in meteorology.”
Since the storm has passed, Jake, the 10-year-old fisherman, and his family make the trip out to Cedar Key almost every weekend. They go so often that they feel they practically live there and have been able to see the community slowly rebuild.
“It’s a second home to me,” he said. “I love seeing the progress on the place, and I hope the pier will be open soon.”
“I was six years old,” he said. “We’ve been coming almost every weekend ever since.”
The fisherman and his family would drive from Ocala to the Cedar Key Pier any weekend they could to go fishing. He remembers catching all sorts of things.
“A lot of times late at night,” he said, “these kids would [go] shark fishing. They’d bring stingrays and anything you can think of to shark fish off that pier. I thought it was so cool. So one day, we bought one of the rods that they used and we went shark fishing and caught a seven-foot lemon shark. It was fun.”
He said his mom, Jodi Czaplick, would say he basically ran the pier.
“My whole family made this joke because if somebody catches something for bait,” Jake said, “I’d go to my parents and negotiate with them to get whatever they caught. I’d ask them and say, ‘Are you going to use that?’ Most of the time, they’d say, ‘No, you can have it,’ and I was like, ‘Sweet!’”
But the 10-year-old can’t fish there anymore. Jake now has to fish on the sidewalk next to the pier’s remains. It has been closed since Hurricane Helene and Milton hit last year. Now, the island town is preparing for the next hurricane season.
Jake said he is still devastated by the hurricane damage and can’t believe it’s still not there when he comes back to visit.
“I was like this is our fishing spot,” he said. “Can we fish here anymore? Can we do anything here anymore?”
Jeff Webb is the mayor of Cedar Key. After 20 years of service in the Marine Corps, he had a sense of homecoming when he moved back to the island in 2019. Webb’s family has a long history on the island where his grandmother was born.
“I always wanted to come in and come back to my favorite place in the world,” he said. “So, when we had the chance in 2019, we left Northern Virginia and came on down. The place is a small community, so coming back just felt like everything came full circle.”
Webb said Hurricane Idalia in 2023 opened his eyes to the support his community still shows each other.
“I remember the day that the waters receded within an hour,” he said. “It seemed like the whole island had come out and began working to repair the businesses and the homes. It was like ants coming out and just absolutely putting the town back together, not waiting for anything. That was the first taste of experiencing the resiliency of the people of Cedar Key.”
That next year, Big Bend Florida was hit with three more hurricanes: Hurricane Debby and the aforementioned Helene and Mitlon.
Since the island was slammed with three storms in three months, the town has started elevating houses and shops by putting them on stilts.
Webb said stilts are a long-term solution for the community, referencing Island Place Condos, apartments right on the water most vulnerable to storm surge.
“The condo has been devastated not only by hurricanes but by any major storm,” he said. “It gets beat up pretty bad. So, the homeowners and the Association had to decide to commit a significant amount of resources to raise the property. It's a huge investment and it describes the community’s commitment to restoring Cedar Key and rebuilding for the future.”
Storm surge and flooding make the low-lying island of Cedar Key especially vulnerable. Megan Borowski is a meteorologist for the Florida Public Radio Emergency Network and said the effects from storm surge can be major.
“If you have very strong hurricane-force winds,” she said. “Think of it as a bulldozer on steroids, taking all the Gulf water and pushing it in the direction of the winds.”
Borowski said storm surge can work both ways: pushing water inland or sucking water out, depending on the direction of the storm. Last year, water was only ever moved inland.
The National Hurricane Center measures storm surge using the sea, lake and overland surges from hurricanes (SLOSH) model, taking into account storm intensity and tide times.
“All these things can be taken into account in a weather model now,” Borowski said. “It’s not just the weather, it's the ocean depth and different surfaces impacting the actual water movement. I’m still in awe, and it is one of the reasons why I am interested in meteorology.”
Since the storm has passed, Jake, the 10-year-old fisherman, and his family make the trip out to Cedar Key almost every weekend. They go so often that they feel they practically live there and have been able to see the community slowly rebuild.
“It’s a second home to me,” he said. “I love seeing the progress on the place, and I hope the pier will be open soon.”