A group of Florida Keys residents used rum to ignite and burn hurricane warning flags Saturday to mark the official Nov. 30 end of the 2024 Atlantic hurricane season.
The 2024 season featured above-average activity and spawned 18 named storms, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Eleven of them became hurricanes including Helene, Milton and Rafael, which brought tropical storm-force winds to parts of the Keys before making landfall elsewhere.
Saturday’s annual flag-burning event featured blasts blown on a conch (pronounced KONK) shell, a symbol of the Keys, and speakers who remembered those affected by the 2024 hurricanes and expressed gratitude that the island chain was spared any significant impacts.
Paul Menta and Jai Somers, leaders of the Florida Keys’ ceremonial Conch Republic administration, then doused the hurricane flags with rum and set them on fire.
“In the Conch Republic, community is everything,” said Menta. “And thankfully, because we weren’t affected, our community was able to go out and help other affected areas in many different ways, in many different times — with money, with supplies, with food, or maybe just with some kindness.”
The event was staged beside the U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Ingham, a maritime museum docked at Key West’s Truman Waterfront. It attracted several hundred spectators who applauded as the flags burned to ash.
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