Being from Miami, Max Winitz has experienced enough hurricanes and tropical storms to know that having Hurricane Irma moving towards Florida and Sarasota in any way at all meant a potential serious problem for Nathan Benderson Park and the 2017 World Rowing Championships.
As a spokesman for the event, Winitz knew that the storm could have a major impact on the venue and even threaten the event itself. Storms were always a possibility, especially in the Atlantic Hurricane season, and this one was predicated to bring serious wind and rain.
"It's no secret that this event was taking place in hurricane season, so the risk was always there," Winitz said. "Being a Miami native, I saw Irma and something in my gut told me this wasn't going to be good for Sarasota."
Irma did strike Florida, and cause immense damage, but by the time it reached Sarasota, it had diminished over land and Nathan Benderson Park suffered only very minor disruption, and damage to just a string of newly planted palm trees.
It helped that the event organizers had contingencies in place to deal with possible severe weather. Construction to the grandstands were limited to the lower sections, vendor and spectator tents were not yet erected, and the water level of the lake was lowered prior to the Irma reaching the park.
Yesterday, the fallen palm trees were back in place, the vendor and spectator tents were up, the race course and boat areas were crowded with crews from all over the world, and the World Championships were set to begin with opening ceremonies Saturday evening, followed by racing Sunday morning, without any weather damage issues.
"We lucked out, and that's an understatement," Winitz said. "The Sarasota area really, really lucked out. It's so unfortunate to see what happened in Florida. and really just South of here in towns and cities like Fort Myers and Naples. They really got hit bad.
"But once it approached Sarasota and Manatee Counties, it was a Category 1 hurricane. When it hit the Keys it was Category 4. From an infrastructure point of view and an overall event point of view we had butterflies in our stomach. We were a bit uneasy, but we were resilient and we came out of it and now we're just two days away from putting on this world class event."
And, Winitz added, tickets sales for the event have been peaking. Every available grandstand and VIP ticketed seating area for the two championships days - next Saturday and Sunday - have sold out.
General admission tickets are still available and Winitz said estimates are that some 40,000 spectators will visit the event during the course of the full week.
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