Hemingway’s granddaughter says family ‘devastated’ if his Key West home destroyed by Hurricane Ian

Ernest Hemingway’s granddaughter has said the family watches in pain as Hurricane Ian ravages the Florida Keys, praying that his beloved Key West mansion will be spared.

Mariel Hemingway, 60, said her grandfather was passionate about his homes and the community around them.

On Tuesday, when Key West shut its shutters — closing schools and offices, canceling flights and warning residents of storm surge up to three feet above normal high tide — the actress said she feared the 180-year-old property, which was Hemingway’s home to 1931 to 1939.

The house was originally given to Hemingway and his second wife, Pauline, as a wedding gift from her uncle.

It’s home to a colony of six-toed cats, descendants of Hemingway’s pet Snow White: on Tuesday night, the cats hid safely in a bunker.

“If one of his homes were destroyed, the pain and grief would be felt,” she told DailyMail.com.

“It would be alarming if any of his houses were damaged.”

The Florida home is certainly well-equipped to withstand storms: It sits 16 feet above sea level, has 18-inch-thick limestone walls, and three generators.

The celebrated author owned three homes – in Key West; Ketchum, Idaho; and the Cuban capital of Havana — and enjoyed transforming them into lavish residences where he would work, rest, and entertain.

His Florida Keys home was used as a location in the 1989 James Bond film License to Kill.

“He would buy his houses from France to Ohio because he loved them and the areas and the people,” she said.

After his divorce from Pauline in 1940, Hemingway moved to Cuba and Pauline remained in the house until her death in 1951.

The house was sold for $80,000 initially as a private residence. In 1964 it was converted into a museum.

Mariel, whose father Jack was the only child of Hemingway and his first wife Hadley Richardson, said he would have been relieved that his Cuban home had been spared by Hurricane Ian.

On Tuesday afternoon, rain and strong winds increased in Havana, but the city – under a tropical storm watch and preparing for a possible storm surge along the vast waterfront – was previously spared the brunt of Ian’s wrath.

Havana’s dilapidated infrastructure often suffers storms much smaller than Ian’s as buildings collapse and drains are strained.

By late afternoon, as Ian’s wind howled across the city, power in the capital began to falter and the streets emptied as most Havana residents sought refuge in anticipation of possible flooding and storm surges.

Electricity went out on the entire island of Cuba on Tuesday evening

North of Cuba, Hurricane Ian is expected to bring hurricane winds up to 130 mph and as much as two feet of rain to the Tampa area on Florida’s Gulf Coast from Wednesday through Thursday evening, starting early Wednesday through Thursday evening, the National Weather said. Service.

“He loved Cuba and the devastation it has seen would have touched him greatly. The Cuba house was his favorite,’ Mariel said.

She said that when the house in the Keys was headed toward Hurricane Irma in September 2017, it took hours for the news to seep through.

“When the Florida cat was hit by a hurricane before, the only news that came out was that his six-toed cat had survived,” she said.