Hurricane Wilma - On a serious note

SkyPup · Oct 24, 2005

( Skypup, you got a storm update ?
I cant get my relatives to answer the phone in vero.
Ernie )

They are in the line of a massive Class III 130mph storm with an eye 60-70 miles across, sure hope they managed to get out of Dodge when the gettin' was good, too late now.....

Gatorboy · Oct 24, 2005

( sure hope they managed to get out of Dodge when the gettin' was good ) 

I don't think many on the East Coast of Florida have evacuated. Those living right on the west coast, near the eye are the ones that needed to bolt. Florida is low, but not below sea level. It appears all the media hype over New Orleans has caused everyone to think that every hurricane will cause massive flooding everywhere.

SkyPup · Oct 24, 2005

True, the west coast will take a terrific storm surge of >15 feet on low lying Marco Island and Naples in Collier County, but the 125-130 wind plus gusts on the East Coast in Fort Lauderdale, Palm Beach, Fort Pierce, and Vero is nothing to sniff at either....all windows should be boarded up with shutters at those speeds.

Gatorboy · Oct 24, 2005

I just got an email from my mom down in Cape Coral (west of Fort Myers) and thought I'd share it:

<ul type="square">
 Just a quick note to let you know we are fine and made it though Wilma. Wind and rain was pretty torrential. One big plus, we never lost power which was a big surprise. Dad wandered outside and saw a few shingles off of the back side of the roof, downed tree limbs and the top blew off the pontoon boat so, all and all that it was minor.

Mom [/list]

Usually the power goes out down there on a heavy thunderstorm, I was really surprised that the power never went out during the passing of Wilma.

MossRoad · Oct 24, 2005

Glad your family is O.K. /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif

Cowboyjg · Oct 24, 2005

Ditto....

buckle97 · Oct 24, 2005

Glad to hear the good news, Dave.

Lawrence

SkyPup · Oct 24, 2005

Unable to get in touch with either mom and dad or the sister's homes in Fort Lauderdale.

Sister-In-Law answered the phone "Worst most powerful storm we've had in over 50 years that I've lived here. No power, no water, entire street looks like a giant landfill spaghetti of trees, cars, roofs, etc."

"I'm going back to bed to try to get some rest, it was a mind bending experience..... the noise was incredible."

The Southern edge of the eye passed over them around 8:30AM, 120mph winds with gusts to 150, not much rain.

dmccarty · Oct 24, 2005

I talked with my parents who are near Stuart this morning. Last week I talked to them and they were going to run from the storm but then Wilma decided to stay in Cancun for a few days so my parents stayed put. The boarded up the house and hunkered down.

I looked at radar this morning aournd 9:50ish and the eye was in North Palm Beach. Check 30 minutes later and they where in the eye so I called on their land line. They answered! /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif No damage so far. They heard a thunk on the roof but they don't know of any damage. Told them to stay inside until the back end of the storm had passed since a man was killed by a tree in Coral Springs.

I'm guessing Marco Island got hit hard. I use to know people who lived there and spent quite a bit of time on the island myself. Its pretty flat except for the high spots made of old oyster shells thrown down by the indians. I know some houses where built right at the edge of narrow beaches with maybe three feet between high tide and the floor...

At least Wilma was not a Cat 5 anymore.

Later,
Dan