Hurricane Wilma

Posted on Wed 10/26/05 in South Florida

The electricity gods of FPL blessed our home with power today. So, here I am, reunited with the World Wide Web, once again.

Like Hurricane Katrina earlier this year, Wilma was a LOT fiercer than we had expected, and I am very glad I put up our hurricane shutters. This was, by far, the worst storm I’ve ever experienced. Beth, Willie (dog), Bopper (cat) and I stayed at my parents’ house since my Uncle Norman was visiting from NYC. We figured if we were stuck somewhere, we might as well be stuck with him. And we were. The first night I awoke at 4am, when the storm began to creep in. By 6:30am the power was out and the wind had arrived. This continued relentlessly for nearly seven hours. We all waited for the eye to pass so we could take the dogs out for a leak, but that never happened. I am guessing that we were hit by the strongest winds just outside the eye of the storm. For all you mid-westerners out there: If the eye of a hurricane passes over, the wind stops and all appears to be calm. Our weather radio announced continously that the eye would pass over soon, but we never felt a break.

Beth somehow slept through the entire storm while I worried about a the possibility of a palm tree flying through the unprotected, upstairs window she slept underneath.

After the wind had died down around 2pm (still Monday), everyone congregated outside survey the damage. We drove to our house to check it out. While we disliked what we saw, we acknowledged that we were very lucky. The worst of our damage was the toppling-over of our beloved Julia mango tree (shown below).

Some of our neighbors had roofs torn apart, fences destroyed, water leaks, and other larger messes. We returned to mom and dad’s house to help them out and plan for a longer stay. NOBODY in five counties had power at this point. Nearly as stressful as assessing the cleanup was driving on major roads with zero working stoplights. Many people simply ignored treating intersections like 4-way stops and plow on, nearly crushing patient drivers daringly making left turns.

After a brief stop at CVS for water and Chips Ahoy cookies, I made myself available for cleanup services. All my parents’ neighbors were cutting trees, running extension cords from generators, and discussing options for getting gas.

My dad and I ended up collecting the gas cans from the six adjacent houses and planned to try the single gas station in town the next morning at 3am. Dad went alone and returned at 7am with many gallons of gas. Upon his return we had acquired a 4000Watt generator for $450 from a neighbor’s brother. Dad said the lines at the gas station was insane and that people were starting fights and yelling and getting really out of control. I am not one to wait in line; I would rather eat raw toads for dinner. I moved many trees and excavated thousands of leaves from the pool during the last couple of days until we finally received power today—at which point, we came home. I’m proud of my wife and my family for both tolerating each other for over 72 solid hours.

And now I am getting ready to retire to my own bed, not knowing whether I will be going to work in the morning or staying home to finally work on my own house. Our shop in Opa Locka did not have a scratch on it; however, I know there will be difficult times for the many aircraft owners whom owned the airplanes which were crushed and upside-down on the surrounding airport grounds. We do not yet have power at the shop, but we might tomorrow. As I close this article, all I can hear outside is the sirens of police cars chasing after punks who have violated the 7pm curfew tonight. Some people, I guess, believe they are better than others and deserve special privileges.

And through all this, the last three days have been the most beautiful days imaginable.