Wilma hit South Florida on Monday and life in the region today is still
hampered by lack of electricy, backed up sewers, no water and
gas shortages. 1 to 2 million people are still with power in the counties of Palm Beach, Broward and Miami-Dade. If you search Wilma on one of the blog search tools like Technorati, IceRocket or BlogPulse.com you will see lots of blog posts by people posting for the first time since they lost power on Monday. Power is very slowly coming back in the area. 15,000 poles were knocked down by Wilma according to an article in the Sun-Sentinel.
"While 60 percent of the 3.2 million customers who lost electricity after
Wilma had power restored by Saturday afternoon, only about 45 percent of
Broward County residents affected were back up. Only about 43 percent of
those affected in Palm Beach County is restored." A Miami Herald
article says South Florida residents are weary and that "warm weather
returned, long lines prevailed, a largely joyless weekend loomed."
Dianne Rambling on.. says South Florida is now running on a cash-only economy: "Everything is on a cash basis too as the gas pumps are all
electronic now. Why didn't they at least have a 'manual' pump somewhere
where hurricanes can strike several times a year? Dumb and dumber."
The Miamist says the Miami Metrorail is running but the Metromover is not. Critical Miami is reporting on the situation with occasional Miamist slams. Miamity, which clams to be in a pre-launch phase, is covering the post-Wilma recovery as well.
Rebecca Saylor reports some good news that the gas lines have dropped from a 5-6 hour wait to a one hour wait and that restaurants are starting to open.
Alphawoman blogs
about what it is what like being a tourist stuck in Cancun in a six part report. Tourists are
canceling future trips by the thousands to Cancun and Cozumel
which were heavily damaged by Wilma.
The World of Stuff displays their eight most poignant photographs.
The Real Key West blog has returned
with several posts about what conditions are like in the Keys.
Wilma was more severe than we expected her to be. The weather forecasters were pretty much dead on with the track, the category, and the effects. We didn?t so much doubt them as much as hope they were wrong. Many stayed. Some (such as us) suffered little. Others were reduced to tears by what they lost and what they would be faced with to restore to Key West normal.
Blame Jeb: "Blame Me" says Florida Governor Jeb Bush. Bloggers comment on Jeb's blame taking
here, here, here, here, here and here.
Anxious out-of-towners
turn to blogs for Wilma information.
Always helpful Dave Barry explains the levee risk in South Florida:
Q. How are the levees holding up?
A. We spoke to a spokesperson for the South Florida Levee Authority (SFLA),
who assured us that South Florida does not have any levees, but if we did,
they would definitely be in bad shape.
Matt Newsman has posted a radar loop of Hurricane Wilma as it crossed Florida.
Dr. Jeff Masters has a Wilma recap and says that the Bahamas were hit hard by Wilma as well -- especially the little island of Bimini: "The island of Bimini, which has a population of 1,717, also suffered significant damages to homes, trees and utility poles from heavy rains and storm surge."
