MikeCAdministrator
(Admin)
Thu Oct 27 2005 12:51 PM
South Florida

South Florida has been torn up by Wilma. Many places down there won't see power until mid or late November. Power outages there have been extremely widespread.

Many from south Florida are making their way up to Orlando and the resorts and hotels here. Hotel rooms here have been filled up do to "wilma evacuees". Most are avoiding living without power for a month.

Anyone know personal stories down there? A few friends and family I have in south florida lost windows, parts of roofs, and all were out of power


Ed in Va
(Weather Master)
Thu Oct 27 2005 01:50 PM
Re: South Florida

Hmmm...what's showing halfway between Beta and the wave:

http://www.ssd.noaa.gov/PS/TROP/DATA/RT/watl-wv-loop.html


dolphin4
(Registered User)
Thu Oct 27 2005 02:34 PM
Re: South Florida

Martin County is getting power fairly rapidly. We did not have the severity of destruction as the other counties and not nearly the amount of damage as last year. Half of the county has power restored and most of the business' on US1 in Stuart have power and so does East Ocean Blvd. My principal called this morning and schools will probably be open tomorrow. Good luck to all involved in this misery.

Beaumont, TX
(Storm Tracker)
Thu Oct 27 2005 09:05 PM
Re: South Florida

If you evacuated be sure and apply for your FEMA money.

CaneTrackerInSoFl
(Storm Tracker)
Fri Oct 28 2005 11:06 AM
Re: South Florida

These are the videos I made of Wilma:
http://beinfest4prez1.zippyvideos.com/gallery.z


Thank god for hurricane proof windows.


And here are my pictures of Wilma:

http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/beinfest4p...m/ph//my_photos



This is from the Kendall area near Dadeland and Baptist in Dade. Pretty good stuff.


DJINFLA
(Weather Watcher)
Fri Oct 28 2005 01:38 PM
Re: South Florida

I don't really consider Sebastian as southern Florida, but am surprised at how much of Wilma made it into Indian River County. A little flooding and mostly tree limbs down. A few cases of worse damage (mobile home turned), but overall it was the little sister of Frances and Jeanne. The biggest problem has been power. A good chunk of people (at least in Sebastian) have well water, so many of us are without water as well. But, on the so-called "postive" note, FPL has been making repairs and supposedly, there's only 34% of us still without power. We're expected to get it, hopefully, by November 8.

Most businesses are open, most lights working, and school started back up today. It's somewhat difficult finding ice (Walmart and Publix seem to be the best source) and some gas stations in the southern part of the county have experienced long lines and some gas shortages, mainly because of those poor folks from further south who have to travel this far to get gas, ice, etc.

Overall, the county is looking good. Now if I could just have some electricity when I get home from work tonight, I'd be happy. This camping out in a house gets real old. I think the kids and I will go north and "camp out" in a hotel room and do laundry.


Wellington, FL
(Registered User)
Fri Oct 28 2005 02:25 PM
Re: South Florida

I've read this site for over a year, but this is my first post since moving to Palm Beach County, FL in July of '04. Frances and Jeanne were eye-openers and I've watched the tropics ever since.

We live in Wellington, which is about 15 miles west of West Palm Beach. As another poster has mentioned, Wilma's back side was worse than her front side. Our neighborhood is new, but we still had trees down, tiles off and screened patios torn down. Many of the neighbors came outside during the eye (the dogs needed walked) which probably lasted an hour and a half. It was breezy, but beautiful. But when we came back inside, the wind really howled. My personal remembrance of Wilma will be her disruption to the power system. With no power, there's no pumping of gas. With no gas, generators don't run and relief supplies don't get delivered. Fresh water and waste water systems become compromised. Many south Florida neighborhoods have been under a boil water order for several days now. Some communities couldn't flush, etc.

Our power was off almost four full days and just came back on around 3AM, but that is much better than the two weeks that was being forecast. I can't tell you how glad I am that we were well-prepared. Tons of frozen water in the freezer helped me to keep most perishables cold and we really didn't even get too far into the canned food. We are lucky that we have a gas stove and water heater., but I have a camping stove and propane anyway. I didn't have any reason to leave the house in search of ice and water. I did begin to worry about sewer backups when they started talking about the waste water generators not having enough fuel. That would have been nasty!

We are trying to conserve the fuel in our two vehicles until the gas lines become a bit more tolerable. I think this weekend will be much improved.

An elderly woman from a mobile home village in Boynton Beach spent two nights with us. Her home had only cosmetic damage to a shed and porch, but her neighborhood was littered with aluminum and landscaping debris. They still do not have power, but she wanted to be at home so we got her a portable radio, checked her food supply and took her back.

I've been very happy with the flow of information via the radio concerning power, water safety, gas stations, etc. There's always room for improvement, but I think Florida tries very hard to be prepared, as well as inform and protect their citizens.

I'm glad to be able to read this site again. I've been going through withdrawal hearing little snippets about Alpha and Beta and not knowing "The Truth" as seen through the eyes of flhurricane.com!

Brenda


KC
(Weather Hobbyist)
Sat Oct 29 2005 06:27 AM
Re: South Florida

I was one of the lucky ones in Collier County! We had power and water by 5pm on Monday. Many of my co-workers are still without power. LCEC had to take all of Marco Island back down early on Friday - seems the strom deposited salt on the transformers and they started sparking and popping on Thursday night. The fire companies are washing all of them down before power can be restored. My office has limited power being supplemented by massive generators. Fortunately, water service was restored on Thursday - no more porta-potties! Yippee! The other great news was that curfews were lifted, so our employees can now travel safely to and from work. I'm going to check on a couple of our employees who lost their roofs later today. We'll be heading into downtown Naples for the first time. Stay safe everyone!

RedingtonBeachGuy
(Moderator)
Sat Oct 29 2005 06:22 PM
Re: South Florida

just back from my second visit since Wilma to Palm Beach & to the Greenacres area. Power has been restored to most areas now. Schools are set to open next week some think. Gas lines are dwindling down now that power is coming on.

As for personal stories, I heard some nutty tales like people intentionally leaving their windows and doors open hoping for wind damage but only getting flood damage. Their goal: to get FEMA money (the 'Big Easy' as it is called down there since Andrew). Lots of local flooding, trees down everywhere, pool enclosures rifling through windows, tile roofs slung like cannons, things like that. We had 4 generators running to manage 18 refrigerators for a 32 home subdivision without power and another 3 generators running to allow one light per home.


Unregistered User
(Unregistered)
Fri Nov 04 2005 08:18 AM
Re: South Florida




Hi friends,
i am italian i am anna,excuse me for my english,i write you from italy,i have a problem,i'm very very worried for my friend Michael.I haven't his notice and with hurricane many people are without home.
Can you help me to have notice of michael?
I'd like know only if he is well.
He 's 32 years old,black hair ,he is transferred by few in south florida .The surname is guadi.
Please help me to know if he stay fine.
Thanks for attencion.

My email is: ladyoscar33@netscape.net


Unregistered User
(Unregistered)
Wed Nov 09 2005 06:05 PM
Re: South Florida

anna, did you find michael????


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