The Devastation of Wilma Day 1
Wilma+0
Here in Weston my battery backup for the computers began freaking out about undervoltage around 6:00AM and we totally lost power by 6:30AM on Monday, October 24 (This happens to be our wedding anniversary). hurricane Wilma was expected to get sheered off be the high preassure system to the north and downgrade to a Category 2 hurricane. This did not occur and Wilma ravaged florida as a Category 3 strength storm and inflicted significantly more damage to the east cost than the west coast. I had packed all the stuff from the yard, and two of our vehicles in the garage the night before so the only thing we really had outside was the Nissan 200SX. We had purchased a small generator before hurricane Katrina passed over Florida, and we have two 5 gallon cans of gas, so we thought we were pretty well set for a Cat 1 or 2 storm and we didn't put any shutters up because our house is not equipt for them and we didn't want to damage the house like we did in 2004. We got out of bed around 8:00AM to keep an eye on everything while the storm approached. At this point the storm was to the West-SouthWest of us and the wind was battering the south side of our house. I brought the generator from the garage, though the house, and put it outside our front windows. Once the generator was running,we plugged in the refridgerator and a television; (insert DirectTV advertisement here, we never lost signal) and began to watch a large category 3 rocket across the state towards us at 20 miles per hour. Already the damage in our neighborhood had exceeded our expectation and all previous hurricanes we have personally been through. We could see from our bedroom window that a pool screen enclosure of our of our neighbors had collapsed into the pool and trees were taking a beating. We witnessed an inflatable raft temporarily rest under the Nissan before it proceeded across the cul-de-sac and out of sight beyond the houses on the other side. At around 11:00AM, the eye approached and we ventured outside to see many screen enclosers and trees had fallen. Knowing that the wind would shift once the eye passed, I took the opportunity to move the generator so that it would be downwind of the house and then the wind started to pick up so I went back inside.
After the Eye Passed
Now the wind was battering us from the west and we immediatly saw more damage occur in a short period of time. After hours of being beaten in one direction now trees and fences and screens were being assaulted from another direction and many things succumbed to the storm at this point. We saw a much more powerful storm on the back side. Since we had not shuttered we watched the wind gust across our house. A large 15' by 5' piece of patio roofing blew into our upwind neighbors yard and we watch anxiously as it made a leap into our front yard and hung up on one of the pygmy data palms. Our neighbor, Odalys, called to warn us about it as we both were concerened about it impacting one of our front windows. As we watched it flew up over the other palm, bounced off the ground and the last we could see was it shooting up into the air appearantly missing the Nissan. Odalys and Tony reported that the awning flew 40 feet in the air before it left thier field of view. I later checked and saw a single 1/4 inch white mark where the awning grazed the car! Between two and three in the afternoon, the storm had moved far enough away that we were seeing only tropical storm force winds and we ventured out to see the carnage.
Raymond came over because the shed in the back yard had come apart in the second half of the storm and wher eit was located was submerged. We moved all the equiptment and moved the shed to another corner of the yard where the fence still stood and put everything back inside. Ray went back to his family and we did some minor cleanup in the yard, including some shattered glass from a patio table we had left outside during the storm, and some of the foliage lying about. I brought the iron chairs and Halloween decorations back out of the garage and moved the vehicles back where they all belonged so we could move around in the garage. Cindy wanted to drive up to plantation to visually inspect the office there so just before sunset we headed out. It is about a ten mile drive and we didn't see any lights, and no working traffic signals! There were very few people on the road at this point so 4-way stop rules actually worked ok this first night. We actually had turn around on our way out because one road was completely blocked by a fallen tree. It was so terrifyingly dark that I just wanted to get back home.
What's Related