Editor's Note: W have heard back, at last, from Captain Ryan Stone, the liveaboard in Key West who chose to ride out Irma aboard and Livestream the experience on Facebook. He is unscathed. His boat, Andromeda, which was at a dock at Key West Bight Marina, came through like a champ, unlike many others.

Asked how Andromeda fared he replied to Waterway Guide, "Pretty good, not a lot of damage, but the anchorage got wiped out. There are boats sunk and piled up everywhere." Read more about Ryan and see his post-Irma photos.

MIAMI — Andrew. Charley. Frances. Ivan. Jeanne. Dennis. Katrina. Rita. Wilma. Gustav.

Over the years, these storms taught me to respect nature and fear man. I covered them as a reporter; I endured them as a Florida resident. They showed me how wind can wrap steel around a tree and how boats get flung on dry land while cars submerge. How trees and docks can snap like matchsticks. How a shutterless building can have its roof pop off like a can lid. How little misjudgments can lead to big trouble. How desperate people without power, food or gas can be far more dangerous than any storm.

And, perhaps most important, how something will go wrong if it can—but you’re never sure what that something is.

Hurricane Irma would teach me that lesson, again, like no other.

People who have never lived through a hurricane often have a hard time understanding why anyone would stay in the path of one. Are you stupid? Get out of there! But everyone has their reasons, or rationalizations. And when you’ve survived a few of these things, you figure: What’s one more?

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