Hurricane Wilma My Story

Hurricane Wilma

As Hurricane Wilma aproaches the coast of Florida all of Florida prepares for the worst. As it get closer it starts picking up speed from 105 mile an hour winds to 120 then finally impacting the land at 125 and while it passing trough Florida its winds pick up and reach up to 150 miles in some areas. Luckily i wasnt in those areas hurt most but hurricane wilma but Doral not very far from here got the worst winds and had massive damage done to it. As hurricane wilma finally reaches us everyone is bracing themselves even animals all over all the pigeons you usually see flying around are now on the ground digging their little claws in and hidding their heads as wilma hits. 10 minutes into the hurricane all power goes out in our area. As we try our best to be safe it gets harder because Wilma will stay here for 2 hours. Finally the worst is over and when its finally safe everyone goes outside to check the aftermath and to view the damage. Many people lucky to be alive in such a strong and massive hurricane. It is said to have hit harder than Andrew did. All i could do is hear the news on this radio our neighbors lended us. Later i found out that 60 percent of all Florida didnt have power. Then we got reports that 6 million people were left in the dark. Im so glad FPL(Florida Power and Light) was ready for this disaster they had over 6,000 people working to restore light to all of Florida again. And schools were closed for the rest of the week October 24-28 because of the lack of power.

Day One
As we check to see the aftermath of what Wilma did i saw many downed trees. I saw cars fliped over like nothing. I even saw this big tree that had fallen ontop of 5 cars. My mom made us some food using this little barbeque she had and we ate the rest of the meat we had in our fridge otherwise it woulda spoiled. We didnt have much to eat since all our perishables have spoiled. We were lucky a truck came by giving out some food. It wasnt much but it would get us trough the first day without any problems. As nighttime aproaches you dont see a light for miles and miles. Everything is mostly calm and the polic set a curfew for south Florida residents in Broward county had from 7pm-7am and We in Miami-Dade had it from 8pm-6am anyone caught breaking curfew had 6 months of jail or a 500 dollar fine. It wasnt that bad without power since there was almsot zero humidity and the weather was around 60 degrees so it was bareable. Many people were signing and having a great time because the worst had passed and they were alive and safe.

Day Two
We were almost out of food and the FEMA food truck didnt come by our sector at all so we waited and waited and my mom made some breakfast with the little food we had. I turned on the radio and heard they were giving out free ice and water at 2pm in a some locations and i heard them say one by us. I later told my dad about this and when we got to one around 1 something pm there was a enourmous line of people waiting for ice and water and as 2pm came closer there was no sign of any trucks coming at all. I turned on my little radio and they said that they we finally coming out of homestead base at 3:30 with police escorts to make sure they got there quick. I though we were in it bad since out of the 11 sectors they were giving out food and water only 6 were but then i heard that not 1 single location in Broward county had anything at all. Finally the trucks came in all countys around 6pm and we finally got our ice and water. By 4 pm we already left because them wait was to long then we went to a local Win-Dixie and bought some caned food and water and the shortest line was a 5 minute wait. Finally we got out and when we got home my mom and my sister wanted to go out to see what was opened so i went with them when we got to the intersection by our house we saw this car crash a F-150 greyish blue colored truck crashed into this small suv which apeared to be like a KIA and the front end of the ford was completly destroyed piece went everywhere and the KIA seemed to be jsut fine except for the small dent in its back. the owner of the KIA came out to see the damage and while he was walking up to the truck it made this zig-zag spin and fled the scene to bad for him since i got his VIN and so did the driver behind the truck . As we were walking we saw this trees all over the road and down one street the whole street was completly covered in trees. You wouldnt belive how many trees were downed and all over the place.On the way home i saw this balcony cover for this town house that was a few 100 feet away and I looked at it like WOW. We had enough food for dinner but barely any for breakfast. I quickly went over to my friends house to check on them and to see how they were doing and they were in pretty good shape just shaken up thats all. And when i got home I heard a few FireTrucks then I saw this big fire not very far away and the flames were all over the place and the smoke was everywhere. Finally after 10 minutes all the flames were washed out and the FireTruck speeded away to another location that was on fire.Then we all went to sleep and around 3:40 am the power in our sector had been restored. We still dont got telephone or cable but atlwast we have power and water .


finally got internet today

Hi fum,

Thank you for posting your experiences. I am glad that you and your family made it safely through the storm. You are lucky to have your power restored so quickly as many people will be without power until mid november.

Do you and your family have a pre-hurricane plan to prepare yourselves for the time after the hurricane hits? Alot of people didnt prepare themselves for Wilma because they thought she would be a small hurricane. I think it is important to have some plan in place for your family in case you have to survive on your own for a couple of days without outside aide.


Did your house survive the hurricane pretty well? I hope so. Thanks again for posting your story.

thanks that really means alot and also yeah some people will get power back by november 18th which is pretty far away also we sort of have a plan we always got supplys on hand ohh and i saw george bush and his heli flew over my house twice im so special lol

Hmmm, where's the Red Cross and FEMA, are they giving out ATM cards yet ?

Ohhh I could have fun with that statement but I value my membership here too much.

Welcome to the newest reality TV show. Survivor: South Florida

Ok, here's the challenge. Get to one of 11 drop off points for ice and water, but be patient as some will have ice some water and some neither so, choose carefully. Next, wait in line for 6 hours for your two bags of ice then race to the nearest gas station to wait another 6 hours for gas. But, be careful as some have gas and some have power but, few have both and it's cash only. The first one to make it home with ice and a full tank of gas and gas can for your generator wins.

Want to know what you're playing for?

"YEAH"

Power! You'll get it some time next month....





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Now to be honest, I live in Broward County and it's terrible but, all I hear on the news is Miami-Dade. If you're lucky, they tell you that the power will be back in your lifetime but, everyone is more concerned with Miami-Dade than Broward and we were hit a lot harder!

Go figure.

lol i got my power long ago
lmao fema giving out atm cards your halarious man we barely got food and water from them

Originally posted by fum
lol i got my power long ago

Have you ever heard of envy? Well, you have now...

What about the new "Blue Roof" program from FEMA? Wait in line to sign a pice of paper that allows the Army Corps of Engineers to send out a contractor to put a blue tarp on your roof. Why? In case the missing tiles from your roof causes a leak. PROBLEM....

1) No barrel tile roofs.
2) No Flat roofs.
3) No contractors available for 3 to 4 weeks
4) FEMA's run out of tarps.

So, all in all, buy an umbrella.... it's cheaper and who knows, you might even stay dry.

The only thing that really bothers me about all of this, is I have flasbacks of the Army. I mean I wake up to the hum of a hundred generators kicking off in the morning and go to bed when they finally shut off...

Ahhh... love the smell of burnt petrochemicals in the morning.

Well guys, it's starting to rain, I'd better bring my generator into the living room....


[edit on 11-1-2005 by wetwarez]

[edit on 11-1-2005 by wetwarez]

lol im so sorry i didnt know you were also in south florida suffering with the rest of us lol and yea the humming of those generators and the smell can really bring someone back to the good old army days

Yep... live in Broward... which, according to the news, dosen't exist as long as there's a tree fallen in Miami.

Talk about changed sights though... all of my trees have been denuded... looks like winter.... no foliage... Down in Miami though, couple of trees down and lights out.... trees still have leaves.... I wonder if most of the FEMA funds will go to Miami again this time. Never any insurance fraud there.... never happen...

wow man that sucks so much florida hardly pays attention to broward which is sort of messsed up because theres almost as many peopel over there as in miami-dade that need the same help

and also when is wordwatcher ganna post in my thread grr no one likes my topic imma get pics so u people can start posting more lol