June 1 – November 30
The Week to Move It Is Not the Week of the Storm
Every year, the calls cluster in the two days after a cone appears on the map. By then the roads are filling, the causeways are queued, and the honest answer is often that there is not time.
Tell us what, from where, and roughly when. No obligation, and no inventory list needed to start the conversation.
Plainly
Why the last minute does not work
A collection is not a pickup. It is an inventory, a sealing, and a drive, and the inventory is the part that cannot be rushed without destroying the reason for doing it. Add a building that needs a service lift booked, a gated community that needs authorisation, and a causeway carrying an evacuation, and a two-hour job becomes impossible. The clients who never have this problem are the ones who moved their property out in May.
The rhythm
A season that works
March – April
Book the May collection. Decide the list once and reuse it every year after.
May
Collection. Art, jewelry, documents, metal. The house keeps the furniture.
June – November
Vaulted, above the flood plain, behind two 14,000-pound doors.
October – November
Scheduled return, checked against the same inventory.
Routes
Where the geography bites
Some routes are far more exposed than others. An island with one causeway, or a hundred and thirteen miles of highway with forty-two bridges, does not behave like a drive up I-95.
60–90 min
Key Biscayne
One causeway on and off the island, with a toll and a single point of failure. When a storm is forecast the Rickenbacker is exactly where everyone is at once, so Key Biscayne is the one market where we insist on booking well ahead of a cone rather than during it.
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45–75 min
Miami Beach & Surfside
Causeway-dependent and, from Surfside north, largely mid-rise condominium. Since 2021 the building-access rules here have tightened considerably, and management offices are noticeably more careful about who is allowed a service lift — expect to be asked for documentation that a house never requires.
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55–85 min
Palm Beach & West Palm Beach
The island is reached by three bridges and has its own rules about commercial vehicles, hours and where you may stop. Palm Beach also holds the highest concentration of properly catalogued private art in the state, which makes collections here faster — the condition reports usually already exist.
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2–2.5 hrs
Naples & Marco Island
Alligator Alley is a hundred miles of two-lane divided highway through the Everglades with almost no services and long stretches without phone signal. We plan a Naples run to cross it in daylight with a full tank, because there is nowhere to stop with a loaded vehicle and we would not stop if there were.
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2.5–3 hrs
Fort Myers, Sanibel & Captiva
Sanibel and Captiva are reached by a causeway that has been rebuilt since Ian, and the islands remain acutely storm-aware — a large share of the work here is people who lost something in 2022 and decided the next one would not catch them. Collections on the islands are timed around the causeway rather than the calendar.
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1.5–4.5 hrs
Key Largo to Key West
One road in and one road out, for a hundred and thirteen miles, with forty-two bridges and no alternative if any of them closes. That single fact governs everything: we do not run the Keys with a loaded vehicle when weather is building, and a Key West collection is scheduled with a spare day around it. It is also why Keys residents vault property on the mainland in the first place.
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The vault
What the building is rated for
- 9R construction — the highest UL vault structure rating available, and the Federal Reserve standard.
- Two 14,000-pound John Tann doors, imported from England, forming a waterproof and airtight seal.
- Rated above 250 mph sustained wind, and sited above the flood plain.
- Operating on the Galt Ocean Mile since 1983, through every storm since.
Common questions
- When does the season run?
- June 1 to November 30. The Florida peak is mid-August through early October, and that is also when a collection is hardest to arrange at short notice.
- When should I actually book?
- For a May collection, call in March. For an October or November return, call in the summer. Everyone in South Florida wants the same two weeks and the calendar genuinely fills.
- Can you collect once a storm is named?
- Sometimes, and often not. When a cone appears everybody calls at once, the roads get worse by the hour, and we will not put a loaded vehicle on a causeway ahead of weather. The honest answer is frequently no.
- Is the vault above the flood plain?
- Yes, and the structure is rated well beyond a Category 5 wind load. Two 14,000-pound doors form a waterproof and airtight seal. That is the point of the building.
- What about after a storm?
- Retrieval resumes when the roads and the power do. Contracted clients can arrange emergency access in advance — which has to be set up before the season, not during a warning.
- Does a generator matter for a vault?
- For access control and climate, yes. For the vault structure itself, no — the doors are mechanical and do not need power to stay shut.
Book the May collection in March.
What, from where, and roughly when. You do not need an inventory to start the conversation, and if the job belongs with an armored carrier we will say so on the call.