Wordwatcher meets Wilma (pics)

I knew at least a week before the masses that South Florida needed to pay heed to Wilma and so I added supplies to my usual hurricane stuff and was prepared to ride out Wilma. What I and the rest of Broward county didn't expect was a direct hit from Wilma as her eye crossed the county.
Be assured, I didn't risk life or limb to take these pictures, I never would, all were taken from a safe location.

This is the view from my kitchen, facing west. Notice the fence and the street lights. This image was taken as Wilma approached us coming in from Naples.

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less than 20 minutes later, the hurricane gusts started coming in, trees were already losing their branches.
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of course during the worst of it, I stayed inside my shuttered house and away from windows. Even with the shutters, we could feel the glass pulsing and feared they would implode. The worst thing was the howling that could be heard thru the pipes in the house. It was as if, the sink was screaming at us.

Then came the eye, and I found this little frog holding on for dear life to one of the plastic chairs.
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notice the houses in the pics carefully
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I still had a fence at this point in the storm.

Within minutes, the second half of the eyewall was already upon us and this half imo was much more fierce than the first half. The hurricane gusts, I would speculate were within the 100-120mph range, and sustained winds were 75-85mph.
Now look at the same houses and the very ominous sky.
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these were taken before I decided to retreat from the window, btw this view faces east, so I was protected from the wind coming from the west.
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Things got pretty wild after this and I stopped taking pics until the storm passed. When I opened my kitchen door, this is what I saw.

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The rest of the pics is of damage in my neighborhood.
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There's alot more including some video clips but my time online is limited so this is it for now.

I also have pics of the long gas lines encountered on our way up to Orlando.

Is the frog ok?

Wait not a one line post, will wait for other pics/video when you get it up.

Great pics World. Glad to see that you and your loved ones are all right. Man that had to be freaky when the pipes started howling. We had a micro burst hit here (Pittsburgh) last spring and the winds probably topped a hundred for just a few seconds. That was scary enough for me, so I can't even imagine winds such as that sustained for hours. I hope you didn't sustain to much damage.

WOW... Great pics there . Hope no one was hurt!

Did you check on the frog after the storm?

Look forward to seeing some more

Great pictures Worldwatcher!!!

Thanks!

Wow -- great pics thanks WW Glad you and yours are ok. Like everyone else I worry about the frog How weird does that make all of us. When you are getting things fixed -- be sure to be sure the contractors are good and have insurance etc.

I really hope that was not your car! I too would like an update on the frog.

Great pics, and I hope you dodnt have much damage if any.

thanks I guess, though I'd rather be watching someone else's pics from the comfort of my own home right now.

I'm sorry to say I don't know the fate of the frog. He looked like a survivor and pretty smart to me, I'd like to think he's alive.

There was also a duck in the canal behind the house which I have pics of (not uploaded yet), I also don't know what happened it. But again I think it survived.

I'm not claiming the fence or filing any claims or seeking any govt assistance. I'm very fortunate compared to others and consider my lucky that we didn't experience anything worse. My $$$ shutters just paid for themselves by taking me thru Wilma. Others in the neighborhood and of course the county if you've seen the coverage had their windows blown out and worse.

We're undecided about when to leave Orlando, hubby will need internet access by monday for work purposes again and we're still without power and under a boil water order. While I can certainly deal with those things, the gas situation made it worse. Right now, more gas stations are getting back on line, but the wait is still about 1-2 hours with no limits instead of the 3-4 hour wait for a $20 limit. So things are getting better and well I'm homesick. I hate being away from granny even though we left them with our generator and all our gas and my cousin just delivered her baby and I'm anxious to be with all of them. A decision will either be made tonight or tomorrow if we hear more positive news or get a hotel with internet and power closer to home....I'm aiming for Miami now, since I'm hearing there is about 50% better than Broward and many areas have regained power already.

Florida Power & Light has thrown around dates like November 8 to 23rd as general estimations of the when power will be restored to some areas. And while the 23rd may be a worst case scenario, it's still very feasible that it might be so for some people. I would have thought that our power would have been back on by now...usually 3 days is the most for us because we're on the same grid as a high school and a few elderly facilities but as of 7pm it still wasn't on

[edit on 10-28-2005 by worldwatcher]

World I have to ask. If you could go back in time would you have done everything the same? Stayed etc....

Riding out the storm isn't a big deal, that part I would have stayed for...but the after effects, the disruption of life, being off the grid, all those things I could certainly do without.

I think in the future when a storm threatens, people really need to think about "AFTER" the storm instead of "DURING" the storm.

The only thing I would do different this time would be to stock up on more gas. (btw, I had 2 cars with full tanks, and two 2 gallon cans of gas plus three 1 gallon cans.

I'm very dissappointed in South Floridians, these idiots for some dumb reason chose not to listen to any meteorologists and didn't prepare, or they didn't take Wilma seriously. I don't think many people expected Wilma to be a Cat 3 when she hit Naples and pretty much stayed that way as she made it across the peninsula and hit the east coast with wind speeds of either a strong cat 2 or weak 3.

My neighbor actually laughed at me, when I asked him if he wasn't going to board up on Sunday...what an idiot. You should have heard him describing his fear Monday afternoon when he came out of his house. I hope Wilma teaches many a lesson here, but sadly I fear that many Floridians have bad memories.

[edit on 10-28-2005 by worldwatcher]

Wow,

What are those 2 big orbs in your first pictre?
Not the sun or moon, did you have the cameras where raindrops could hit it?
Thanks for the uploads.

Happy everyone is ok...

i'd rule out orbs, it was raining and orbs usually show up in pics when it is raining, the rain was probably bouncing off the fence. Trust me, there were no spirits outside my house at the time.

these pics were from 10/26 as we made our way up to Orlando.

This is the line of cars into the service plaza, but the line goes back for about more than a mile heading north and about a mile heading south.

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Florida Highway Patrol controls the flow of traffic into and out of the service stations. I was in a moving car, but I think you can see the FHP car at the edge of the pic

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The line southbound direction, all along the way both directions, people were out of their cars, some were pushing their cars, people were walking dogs, etc.

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Halfway into Palm Beach county, we started seeing convoys of trucks loaded with supplies, generators, tree cutters, electrician trucks, some escorted by police heading south.
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I think this was at the Fort Drum service station, same issue, it wasn't till after the Canoe Creek service station that the gas issue wasn't such a big deal. This is all along the Florida Turnpike btw. Sorry my other attempts of getting the convoys of trucks came out all blurry.
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[edit on 10-28-2005 by worldwatcher]

Glad for the explanation..hope you are home soon.
Weather shots like this are freakish to me..

Glad to see you all made it safe to Orlando.... I hope you found a good hotel to your liking...

I was assuming you had a full tank of gas when you asked me about it...I'm glad to see you did, so hopefully all you had to do was drive by those long gas lines, not wait in them. I was in the Orlando area on Sat. and gas stations were fine, but that could have changed with the exodus... Glad to see that the problem thinned out as you got closer....

I'm glad to hear you had minimal damage too....and I hope your perspective on it makes others think about AFTER the storm. To be honest, that's ALWAYS my bigger concern... I've been without power due to these things before and that's much worse than listening to the wind howl outside.... You really don't realize how much you rely on it (especially in 95 degree heat) until it's gone.... Not to mention the boredom factor (though at least I have a few books in the house I haven't read, hehe...)

Anyhoo, congrats on the storm and thanks for the communication during your ordeal. I was glad to be able to let everyone know you were ok...

Hi WW,

This is a wonderful post, as it ALMOST gives us a sense of what you went through.


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This is my favorite picture!!

I sure do hope he made out well. I agree with you that many people did not take Wilma seriously. Hopefully this hurricane season will cause some people to better prepare themselves. Going a whole month without electricity is darn near impossible for me to imagine! I wonder why it is going to take so long?

We greatly appreciate you sticking it out so you could provide ATS with some wonderful Wilma shots, next time though, PLEASE LEAVE!!!

Seriously, I'm glad you and you're family are safe, here's to a speedy recovery for your area!

I keep looking at the center picture, is that just a piece of garbage being blown around in the sky?

Troy

Thanks for the photos and the story! I, too, am happy that you made it through OK. Here in Georgia, this was by far the best "news" account we've gotten since the newsies tend to let the story follow the storm.

My mother-in-law lives in Pembroke Pines in the Century Village complex and one of her sons was visiting with her when Wilma hit. A couple of days later, they drove here to Athens, Georgia because she needs to continue her radiation treatmens and there was no word on when that was going to be able to continue.

Thanks, again!

Thank you for the pictures and your first hand information.

Looking to these pictures I can imagine what you went through. I am very happy your family and you are safe and well and that damages were not so bad as they could have been.

Thanks for sharing.
Ptolomeo

P.S.:
I am afraid that forgetting, is one of the most important problems of humankind... Next time a hurricane threatens, I don´t expect a better reaction. Only those who have been able to learn the lesson will do something...

Thanks so much for the photos and the update, WW! I'm so glad your house wasn't as badly damaged as the others.