Hutchinson Island, Florida

Hutchinson Island is a barrier island on the coast of Martin and St. Lucie counties, Florida. The southern one-third of Hutchinson Island is in Martin County while the northern two-thirds is in St. Lucie County. It is bounded on the east by the Atlantic Ocean, on the south by the St. Lucie Inlet, on the west by the Indian River, and on the north by the Fort Pierce Inlet, which separates it from what is known in St Lucie County as North Hutchinson Island, or sometimes "North Beach." North Hutchinson Island extends into Indian River County, but it is rarely called that north of the county line. In fact the Indian River county portion which extends to the Sebastian Inlet is usually called Orchid Island, although it is not a separate island.

The Martin County portion of the island is all unincorporated. Its southern part, which is sometimes called Stuart Beach, receives its mail from Stuart Zip Code 34996, while the northern part receives its mail from Jensen Beach Zip Code 34957. Martin County has successfully limited buildings on the island to four stories and thus has no highrise or midrise buildings, unlike St. Lucie County to the north. The closest incorporated places to the Martin County portion are the towns of Ocean Breeze and Sewall's Point. The city of Stuart is west of Sewall's Point.

In 2004 the island was hit by two hurricanes which made landfall on the Martin County portion of the island. On September 5, 2004, Hurricane Frances made landfall with winds of 105 miles per hour (169 km/h). On September 25, 2004, Hurricane Jeanne made landfall with winds of 120 miles per hour (190 km/h).

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