Turns out, there were no pirates on the beaches of Indian River Shores during the mandatory evacuation of our barrier island for Hurricane Dorian.
But that doesn’t mean there weren’t unsavory modern-day swashbucklers heading for the seaside town that ranks among the most affluent communities in America.
“It was a legitimate concern,” Shores Police Chief Rich Rosell said.
Despite ordering the mandatory evacuation of the island on the morning of Sept. 2, county officials left open the three bridges from the mainland until midnight, allowing people to drive onto the island at a time when people were supposed to be driving off.
The result was a flow of traffic into and through the Shores – which didn’t become a problem until the afternoon, when the security guards manning the entrances to gated communities, including John’s Island, obeyed the evacuation order.
Not only did the guards leave their posts, but the gates were left open to allow homeowners to enter and exit the private communities in the event of a power outage.
Then it happened: Rosell’s second-in-command, Capt. Mark Shaw, reported while on patrol that “people who don’t live here are coming into the town.”
Just as Rosell feared.
“The last thing we needed during a mandatory evacuation was to have people out sightseeing, driving around John’s Island to see what it looks like,” the chief said. “But from 2 p.m. until about 5 p.m., we had 1,100 cars driving into Indian River Shores that didn’t need to be there.”
So Rosell did what he felt needed to be done: He restricted traffic on State Road A1A, effectively closing the highway to outsiders.
Officers were stationed at both the north and south town limits, where they stopped every vehicle – in both directions – to check the drivers’ identifications and turn away anyone who wasn’t a Shores resident or had no business there.
“We didn’t close the road,” Rosell explained. “Anybody who lived here or had business in the town was allowed to go through. If you were coming up from Vero Beach and driving to your home in Summerplace or Windsor, we let you through.
“And if we let a blue Chevy through, we radioed ahead to the officer at the other end of town to let him know what was coming,” he added. “But if it was a carload of kids out joyriding, we turned them around.
“We didn’t have anybody give us a hard time.”
Not until about 7 p.m.
That’s when Rosell received a phone call from Sheriff Deryl Loar, who, when a state of emergency has been declared, becomes the chief law enforcement officer in the county – outranking the police chiefs in Vero Beach, Sebastian, Fellsmere and, yes, Indian River Shores.
Loar wasn’t happy.
According to Rosell, he had informed Tad Stone, the county’s fire chief and emergency services director, that he needed to restrict traffic into and out of the Shores on A1A to protect town residents and their property.
According to Loar, Stone told Rosell he couldn’t close A1A to through traffic because it was a state road under Florida Department of Transportation jurisdiction and a hurricane evacuation route.
Stone did not return my calls.
Loar said blocking a state highway – and a designated evacuation route – during a mandatory evacuation was “unheard of” and “not a good idea.”
So when the town’s police were still stopping traffic on A1A an hour after Loar said Stone told Rosell he couldn’t do so, the sheriff intervened.
“I told him, ‘This is Sheriff Loar, and we’ve got an issue to talk about,’ and we had an exchange of words,” Loar said. “Ultimately, it came down to me telling him: ‘I’m giving you an order to stop blocking the road.’”
Loar, though, was sympathetic to Rosell’s predicament and asked him what he needed from the Sheriff’s Office to secure the Shores. The chief, with only 12 officers working through the storm, said he needed to cover the 15 open gates at private communities in the town.
“I told him, ‘You’ve got it. Help is on the way,’” Loar said. “I sent a strike team – a lieutenant, a sergeant and 10 deputies – to Indian River Shores to patrol the town and watch the gates.”
In fact, at some point during the night, Loar’s deputies arrested two 16-year-old boys after chasing them on a beachside trail to a parked car. The juveniles said they were smoking marijuana on the beach, but no evidence of the drug was found and both were charged with loitering, prowling and resisting arrest.
Rosell’s version of his conversation with Loar?
“He wanted me to open up the road, and I told him that if do that, I’ve got all these gates open and don’t have the manpower to cover them,” Rosell said. “So we compromised.
“We didn’t have an argument,” he added. “I just explained that I was doing my job, because the county put us in a tough situation by not closing the bridges. You’re telling everybody they have to leave the island, but anybody can come over?
“It doesn’t make sense.”
Rosell said his relationship with Loar is “fine” and that they’ve met since the storm and shook hands. Although he’s running for sheriff against Sheriff’s Maj. Eric Flowers, whom Loar is endorsing in the 2020 race, the chief said politics had nothing to do with their “dust-up.”
Said Rosell: “He’s been the sheriff for 11 years, and I’ve been here for four. Do I agree with everything he does? No, but we usually stay in our own lanes.”
As for pirates being offshore …
“There were no reports of pirates,” Rosell said. “I made a comment about the pirate treasure lost offshore in the 1700s, saying the only ones I would even consider letting pass through the checkpoints are the guys who have the underwater rights to the treasure because they have a right to protect their claim.
“I refer to them as the pirates.”