CEDAR KEY, Fla. – The shallow waters surrounding Cedar Key are a haven for wildlife and people looking for a quiet place.
It’s a place Scott Larsen calls home.
“I walked in and went, ‘this is it,'” Larsen said. “That’s what I’m looking for. This is the city I’m looking for.”
Larsen is a former television producer who spent several years in Los Angeles before deciding to settle down and retire in Florida.
After long drives and hours of searching, he found Cedar Key and ended up buying an RV campground, called Low Key Hideaway and Tiki Bar, about three years ago.
“Just trying to make us like a one-stop shop, you can come here and stay there and have a good time,” Larsen said.
This meant augmenting the existing tiki bar with food trucks, airship tours and sunset boat tours.
His house was even on the property, but, according to Larsen, in the last year and a half, Mother Nature has only had him live in his house for about a month.
First came Idalia in 2023, which damaged many of his properties.
Then came Debby, who, to him, was more manageable, but still taxing when it came to remodeling the motel rooms and making sure the mold didn’t grow.
“You have to pull the base and cut out some of the drywall,” Larsen said. “I mean, even that much water does a lot of damage.”
However, Helena was the straw that broke the camel’s back for Larsen.
“It came in so violently that the hurricane doors were broken where they opened, shattered and windows were broken and it was just destroyed beyond belief,” he said.
When he saw his home and business destroyed once again, Larsen decided it was time to do things differently.
“You can’t fight that Mother Nature we have to work with,” he said. “We need to know that the water will pass.”
So his motel is gone. He’s replacing it with an extension bar and putting epoxy all over the place so all he has to do is pressure wash after the next hurricane.
He’s also putting all of their stuff in rolling containers so nothing gets damaged, and he’s bought a stilt house in Cedar Key so it’s up against the storm.
But even with these solutions, there was something Larsen didn’t expect – a lack of volunteers right after Helene.
“Hope was gone on this island, like it was just gone,” Larsen said. “And all the businesses were saying we’re not coming back, and that was hard.”
According to Larsen, the large groups of volunteers behind Idalia and Debby didn’t show up for Helene, so he decided to put out a plea on Facebook.
This plea, to Larsen’s surprise, went viral.
“It got 1.2 million views and it just snowballed from there,” he said.
Larsen began using his newfound Internet fame to coordinate aid for Cedar Key.
“All my life, I’ve been looking for a way to give back and do something for people,” he said. “And I haven’t understood, what is it? What do I have to offer to do that?’ And after that, when I realized that there is a need for this, there is a need for someone to take the volunteers … and help people.”
Larsen said he has hired crews to clean up debris, clean up destroyed buildings and help restore his beloved city with the goal of making lasting improvements rather than fixing what will be destroyed this season. next of the storms.
“I know everyone else really wanted out,” Larsen said. “I’m like, no, we don’t have to. We just have to do things differently. We have to have a better plan.”
Additionally, because the only grocery store in town was torn down, Larsen is converting his former home into Cedar Key’s grocery store.
With all that’s going on, Larsen still takes time to enjoy the reasons he came to Cedar Key in the first place.
It’s the stunning beauty of nature and community that is the focus of this former TV producer, and he’s doing everything he can to keep it that way.