October 25, 2005
MSNBC
Photo: Her mobile home destroyed by Hurricane Wilma, Mayelin Ramirez of Pompano Beach, Fla., nonetheless sweeps up some of the damage Monday. (Terry Renna / AP
MIAMI - Beginning an agonizing, all-too-familiar process, Floridians on Tuesday lined up for generators, chain saws and other clean-up supplies after Hurricane Wilma cut a costly, deadly swath across the peninsula.
The storm slammed across the state in about seven hours Monday, causing several billion dollars in insured damage and leaving six million people without electricity.
“Really, really tired of this. This is the third time I’ve been without power (this year), first Katrina, then Rita, now this,” said Miamian Joe Fraghatti, 30, who spent an hour on Tuesday morning in a fruitless search for gasoline. “I’m definitely thinking of moving west.”
Wilma was also blamed for at least six and possibly as many as eight deaths statewide.
Officials in the state’s three most populous areas — Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach counties — were prepping to distribute ice, water and other items to storm-struck residents Tuesday, while utility-restoration efforts could stretch into weeks.
“It will be days or weeks before we are back to normal,” Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Alvarez said.
President Bush promised swift help for the storm-ravaged areas. He signed a disaster declaration and was briefed on the situation by Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff, acting FEMA director David Paulison and Bush’s brother, Gov. Jeb Bush.
“We have pre-positioned food, medicine, communications equipment, urban search-and-rescue teams,” the president said Monday. “We will work closely with local and state authorities to respond to this hurricane.”
But state logistics chief Chuck Hagan said at a briefing on Tuesday that “meals continue to be a problem.”
Photo: A third of Key West, Fla., was under water at one point Monday. (Lynne Sladky / AP)
“All the food we had in the state ... will be pushed out today and we presently do not have any meals in reserve,” he added.
The hurricane arrived as a Category 3 and littered the landscape with damaged signs, awnings, fences, billboards, roof tiles, pool screens, street lights and electrical lines.
Three major airports closed
Felled trees and blown roofs dotted expressways, and all three of South Florida’s major airports — Miami International, Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood and Palm Beach — were closed, halting air travel.
“Miami is a major point, and this is a major disruption,” said John Hotard, a spokesman for American Airlines — which has a major hub in Miami.
At a Home Depot in Weston, 22 miles west of Fort Lauderdale, about 100 people stood outside in line Monday night, many seeking generators, propane tanks and other supplies. They were being let in 10 at a time to prevent overcrowding.
“Nobody’s arguing, nobody’s fighting, nobody’s pushing,” said Garry Greenough, who had 10 trees fall in his yard, one on his home. He needed a chain saw to cut the debris.
Wilma moving at 53 mph
At 5 a.m. ET Tuesday, Wilma’s center was located about 310 miles east of Cape Hatteras, N.C. The system was still a Category 3 storm with 115 mph winds, and was moving incredibly fast for a tropical system — 53 mph. It was expected to lose its tropical characteristics over cooler Atlantic waters late Tuesday or early Wednesday.
Yet the mainland may still get one last brush with Wilma. It was expected to link up near New England with an area of low pressure already off the coast, raising fears about renewed flooding in areas already hit hard by eight consecutive days of rain earlier this month.
A flood watch was issued for Tuesday covering most of Massachusetts and Rhode Island, along with parts of northern Connecticut and southern New Hampshire. By midnight Monday, heavy rain was falling across New Jersey.
Unseasonably cool temperatures hovered over much of Florida early Tuesday, meaning the lack of air conditioning wasn’t making a tough situation even more unbearable for those in Wilma’s path.
Officials warned residents to boil water in parts of Palm Beach, Broward and Miami-Dade counties. A water main breach in downtown Miami sprayed water 15 feet in the air.
“We’ve lived here 37 years and we’ve never had a hurricane like this,” said Paul Kramer, 71, of Tamarac, in Broward County. “We didn’t expect this. This one got our attention.”
Waiting for tourists
In Key West, Chuck Coleman’s routine also was broken. Normally this time of year, his two charter fishing boats would be packed with out-of-towners hoping to chase sailfish.
But on Monday he was standing on the dock, losing perhaps $1,000 a day until the customers come back. Although the dock took a beating and the fish freezer is a loss, the boats weren’t damaged by Wilma. But they can’t run if there’s no one to go fishing.
“Without tourists we die,” said Coleman. “There is no other form of income.”
Wilma pushed a wall of seawater about 8 feet above normal tides into Florida Keys and dumping thigh-high water in the streets of Key West.
The town, home to 25,000 people, may have sustained $100 million in damage, City Manager Julio Avael said. “We have hundreds of homes under water, thousands of vehicles damaged, and we need to place residents in shelters,” he said.
Insurance estimates
Eqecat Inc., a risk modeling firm, said early estimates projected that Wilma’s insured losses would range from $2 billion to $6 billion. AIR Worldwide Corp. estimated that insurance companies will have to pay claims ranging from $6 billion to $9 billion. Risk Management Solutions estimated a range of $6 billion to $10 billion.
Authorities confirmed that two people were dead in Collier County, two in Palm Beach County, one in Broward County and one in St. Johns County. Before hitting Florida, the storm killed at least six people in Mexico and 13 others in Jamaica and Haiti as it made is way across the Caribbean.
There were reports early Tuesday of a third death in Palm Beach and a second in Broward, although officials in both counties could not immediately provide confirmation of those fatalities.
To underscore the storm’s vast reach, a tornado touched down near Melbourne on the east coast, 200 miles from landfall, damaging an apartment complex. No one was injured.
Biggest power outage
Wilma, the eighth hurricane to strike Florida in 15 months, prompted Monique Kilgore to use a handsaw and shears to get rid of debris in front of her Fort Lauderdale home.
“I want my house to look nice,” she said. “I’m also bored. I can’t sit in the house any longer. No power, no lights — you know.”
“We ask your patience,” Armando Olivera, president of Florida Power & Light Company, told customers Monday. “We will do everything we can to get the lights back on.”
More of the company’s 4.3 million customers have been affected by Wilma than by any other natural disaster in the company’s history, Olivera said. In heavily populated areas such as Miami-Dade County, as many as 98 percent of its customers lost power.
Miami-Dade County enacted a curfew from 8 p.m. to 6 a.m., in large part because only 18 of the region’s 2,600 traffic lights were working. Broward County’s curfew was from 7 p.m. to 7 a.m., and police assigned additional officers to patrol streets and protect businesses from looting.
The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.
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