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Home | Hurricane Wilma | Wilma Links
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Wilma Update and Possible Gamma Florida Threat
Wilma was bad in Florida but it was devastating for Cancun. An excellent blog and website called Vacation Cancun has a written detailed account and photographs that tell the story of this disaster.
"I don't know what the news is telling you in the US or other countries, we
don’t have cable back on yet to see US TV. Mexico President Vincent Fox is
telling the people of Cancun that the hotel zone will be 85% occupied on
December 15th, but from what I see that's not even remotely possible. Many of the hotels are gutted with electrical services and air ducts hanging out. There are virtually no beaches left in Cancun, just rocks up to the foundations of hotels with the ocean washing against the foundation. What used to be beach structures and swimming pools are gone. Some are floating out in the ocean. Millions of tons of sand is missing. The bottom has changed and where there used to be deep water is now sandbars."
Another story from a Cozumel/Cancun tourist can be found here:
The Coral Ridge Towers East website chronicles the damage Wilma to did to the Fort Lauderdale apartment complex and to cars parked outside. (Via Sun-Sentinel blog)
Mover Mike blogs about an Orlando Sentinel article that says over 200,000 people are homeless from Wilma in South Florida.
Through Monday, 426,693 people in 13 counties have applied to the Federal Emergency Management Agency for individual help, nearly 40 percent of them from Broward. And the agency already has referred nearly half of the applicants, 207,352, for housing assistance because they have no place to stay or need help repairing their damaged homes.
In the weeks ahead, that number is expected to balloon, as more dwellings are declared unsafe by city and county building inspectors who are surveying damage to houses, apartments, condos and mobile homes.
Gamma: In Florida they are preparing for a new tropical system, Tropical
Storm Gamma, that might make landfall in South Florida on
Monday. It is not supposed to become a hurricane but even Tropical
Storm force winds could be a threat to homes covered with blue tarps
after Wilma. Bloggers are also covering the new threat and local Florida bloggers are wishing Gamma away. Hopefully they will get their wish and Gamma will dissipate or stay south of Florida.
Miamist blogs briefly about Gamma: "The storm is not expected to develop into a hurricane, but Channel 4's Bryan Norcross offered the reminder that much of the damage caused by Katrina was attributed to tropical storm force winds."
Floridians are learning the Greek alphabet.
Pink Purls writes a
clever Wilma and Gamma inspired twist on "'Twas the Night Before Christmas."
Ever Increasing Entropy notes that Gamma may follow Wilma's path.
Justin Sawyer says Not Again.
Girl from Miami says: "Finally, we have phone service/internet again!! Due to fallen telephone poles and trees in the area, we lost our phones for six days. I don't mind the phones not ringing all that much, but I missed e-mails, Google and blogging buddies. I am back...for now. Tropical Storm Gamma is out there and looking like it's on the same path Wilma was on. It's due to hit Monday afternoon...just like Wilma. What's up with all these storms? It's November!" She also posted an image of Don Johnson.
The Florida Masochist is on Gamma Watch.
More Gamma posts can be found here, here, here, here, here and here.
Posted on November 19, 2005
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Over 500,000 Still Without Power in South Florida
South Florida is still slowly returning to normal after Hurricane Wilma struck the region on October 24th. But heavy rains on Tuesday caused numerous weakened roofs to collapse according to a Miami Herald article. Thousands of people have been asked to leave their homes. A Sun-Sentinel article
said the number of unsafe buildings just in Broward county has climbed over 2,300. There are still over 500,000 customers without electricity according a page
on the Florida Power & Light website. Below is more coverage from the blogosphere.
All the animals in the Miami Zoo survived.
Boggles, Bungles, and Greed provides excerpts from a handwritten journal kept during Wilma and post-Wilma. Plus photos.
Narcissistic views on News/Politics lists 23 things learned from Wilma and ten days without power. It is an interesting list that includes battery tips, food suggestions and media criticisms.
Why was there a #2 in Wilma's radar image? Museum of Hoaxes is also reporting on this.
Assorted Babble provides some Wilma damage pictures and links to more. Assorted Babble has an account of Wilma as she came through.
Dave Barry
posted an "Oh Wilma" pumpkin in case you missed it from our Halloween coverage.
No Such Blog reports on returning to the Florida Keys and seeing the damage first hand: "This storm was the worst the Keys have seen in 70 years -- since the 'Storm of the Century' on Labor Day 1935. The story I am hearing is that the storm surge was delayed - the storm passed and the flooding wasn't bad, and everyone thought we had escaped with no major problems. Then... POW! The whole of the Keys got a 5-8 foot surge."
Blogs here, here,
here and here reported that Depeche Mode's opening night was canceled
thanks to Wilma. Miamity lists a bunch of other canceled Rock concerts.
Critical Miami says post-Wilma traffic is annoying: "Cable is still out at the
Critical Miami bunker, but we really don’t miss it. Everything else is coming
back; heck, even gas is pretty easy to get now. Shockingly annoying, though, is traffic on the ride home. Surface street intersections are a grab-bag of regular traffic lights, dark traffic lights, blinking yellow/red lights (which people insists on treating as 4-way stops, in violation of the law), blocked roads, and intersection with police signalers."
Coconut Grove says Halloween lacked its usual frivolity in downtown Grove.
A Raw Story article raises some alarming concerns about any elderly people that have been trapped in high-rise buildings for the past ten days with no electricity.
Karen, an event planner living in Miami-Dade, still feels the shock of the storm, nine days after it hit. With little relief from FEMA or the state, helping out with day to day survival needs has fallen to other residents, who themselves are struggling to get by.
"I tried to get around to help out, but I have to conserve gas," she told RAW STORY on Sunday, a week after Wilma, a previously category 5 hurricane that had weakened to a category 3 before it made landfall in Florida, caused severe damage to South Florida’s gold coast.
The people who appear to be the most affected in the aftermath of this disaster are
the elderly, the poor, and minorities.
"Wait until people start finding bodies rotting inside their homes," she said.
Wikipedia
lists the total death toll from Wilma at 47 with 22 deaths in Florida.
Prior Wilma coverage can be found here
Posted on November 2, 2005
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Hurricane Wilma Update 10-29-05
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.
Mother Nature can be a terrorist.
Wilma deaths in South Florida rise to 21. Total Wilma deaths are at 41 according to the
Wikipedia entry.
Divester has a post about damage to cruise ship piers and diving boats in Cozumel. (Via Seattleduck.com)
Willisms blogs about hurricanes and personal responsibility and uses quotations.
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.
Sewage is backing up into the streets in some areas of Palm Beach county.
The Herald blog says that 9 out of 12 Miami-Dade sites are out of water and are unsure when water will be available again.
The Sun-Sentinel blog says the elderly have been hit the hardest by Wilma.
Global Voices Online points out Ernesto's Disaster in Havana entry and
photos about the flooding caused by Wilma in the city.
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.
Here is an
Arial view of the devastation.
Nasa releases Wilma images.
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."
Our past Wilma coverage can be found here.
Posted on October 29, 2005
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Hurricane Wilma Update 10-25-05
Wilma blogging has faded a bit on Technorati -- the keyword "Wilma"
has fallen out of the top ten after climbing as high as 3rd -- but this is probably because 98% of South Florida has no power. We expect Wilma blog posts to increase during the week as hopefully more South Florida bloggers get back online. Currently there are about six million South Florida residents without power and the Sun-Sentinel
says it could take up to four weeks to get electricity running for everyone.
The Miamist has managed to make a few posts. Their
latest post is about Miami losing contact with the outside world.
This is our second day after the hurricane and we have all but lost
contact with civilized society. Every 8th phone call might go through
and we are still without even the most basic light source at night.
There are no street lights in many places and lots of broken street
lights that are strewn across the highways and medians. Grocery stores
have been open for limited hours selling only nonperishables. The one
we visited today had no lights and only took cash. Gas lines here are
reminiscent of houston a few weeks ago with lines in many places being
filled with 50 or more cars. Many gas stations are out of gas. FPL
says it may take as much as weeks before we have power.
They also have a
photo of a Scientology Disaster Response vehicle. Apparently a disaster
is not the time to stop recruiting new scientologists.
The Miami Herald's blog reports very long waits for water and ice. CNN said some people waited over 10 hours today for one bag of ice and three bottles of water.
The Sun-Sentinel's blog points out on serious problem created by the lack of power.
It is very difficult for the elderly stuck in high-rise apartment buildings and condos because the elevators are down due to the lack of electricity. Some can not manage the long flights of stairs and food has to be brought up to them.
Highland Beach Mayor Harold Hagelmann highlights a problem of living without power in high-rise condos: No elevators.
"We have elderly people," he said. "Once they leave their apartments, there’s
no getting up. They have to walk down if they’re on the 17th floor.
CNN says tens of thousands of tourists are still trapped in Cancun after spending
several days in dirty shelters.
Latino Issues blogs about
a BBC news report about how monstrous waves from Wilma breached
defenses in the city of Havana. Hundreds of people had to be rescued from homes in the city.
Rebecca Saylor blogs about what it was like to go through Hurricane Wilma and what the area looked like afterwards:
"There were tree branches everywhere and cars were getting stuck because of all the fallen limbs in the road. Light poles and electrical lines appeared as if they were picked up and mangled then thrown back to the ground. The sight was much like a war torn city, like something you’ve seen on tv."
Other bloggers posting a "we survived Wilma" post can be found here, here, here, here, here, here, here
and here.
The Sun-Sentinel's blog reports that the Citrus industry has been hit very hard. Expect to pay more for orange juice.
Dave Barry is not currently in Florida but people
tell him South Florida is a mess: "South Florida is a mess, according to everybody I've talked to down there -- no power, trees down everywhere, a fair amount of building damage, and a lot of water in the streets."
We updated the Wilma links post with new resources including
several sites with photos of storm damage including a
photo series from NBC6.net that shows windows blown out of high-rise buildings.
Wilma's Place has the Wilma image that has been going around. It shows Wilma from Flinstones sitting in the eye of an intense hurricane.
Wilma has helped to intensify a Nor'easter for New England residents.
Storm Tracking 2005
says the situation in Miami is starting to meltdown. The blog raises the question, "Are we looking at the next New Orleans?"
Spotteddogs.com has a still image of Al Roker being knocked over during Hurricane Wilma. Crooks and Liars has the video clip.
Wilma's Death Toll: Wikipedia reports 35 deaths from Hurricane Wilma.
The season that never ends. There may be more tropical activity soon.
Beta is that you?
Past Hurricane Wilma coverage can be found here.
Posted on October 25, 2005
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Wilma Batters South Florida
Wilma strengthened and entered South Florida as a strong Category 3
hurricane. The storm is so large that winds over 100mph have battered all of South Florida this morning including the major cities in Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach counties. Widespread damage has been reported. Many
windows have blown out of the high rise condos and skyscrapers in
the downtown areas. At least 3 million people are without power.
Serious flooding has been reported in the Florida Keys.
Miami Herald's blog and Sun-Sentinel's blog are providing continuous
damage reports from the storm. The Palm Beach Post has several blogs from reporters on the scence including this blog with Palm Beach scene reports.
In the Sun-Sentinel newsroom they had to temporarily stop blog
when windows started breaking:
The wind began battering the building hard around 11 a.m. The tower
rocked and groaned. I heard a noise behind me, like the crackling of
a large paper bag being crumpled. The wind had broken the outside pane
of glass to my editor's office. We were only a thin pane away from
having glass flying through the newsroom.
The Miami Herald's blog says four blocks of the Miami Metro Rail
has collapsed:
Four-blocks worth of track and railing from the elevated Metro Rail
has fallen down about 30 feet and onto the road at N.W. 12 Avenue
outside Jackson Memorial Hospital.
It will be a while before the full extent of the damage is known.
Technorati lists over 23,000 Wilma posts and there will probably be many more. A lot of potential Wilma bloggers are probably part of the over 3 million South Floridians without power. Links to more blogs and news sources covering the storm can be found in our Wilma links post.
Posted on October 24, 2005
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Wilma Accelerates Towards Florida
After pounding the Yucatan Peninsula with powerful winds and torrential rains Wilma is now accelerating towards South Florida. Wilma is a category two hurricane with sustained winds of 105 mph. According to ReliefWeb and media reports Cancun, Cozumel and Playa del Carmen were hit very hard by Wilma.
"Wilma caused widespread damage to energy and telecommunication distribution
systems, urban infrastructure, homes, roads, and to the agriculture, fishing,
and tourism sectors. Floods have been reported in Cancun and Playa del Carmen.
According to media sources, acts of pillage and looting have been
registered in Cancun."
Information about Cancun, Playa del Carmen and Cozumel:
Playa.info Forum | StormCarib.com | LizinCancun Blog
Blogueando.info shows the sad front pages of local newspapers in Mexico.
The Tension has posted some photographs of damage caused by Wilma.
The Sun Sentinel blog reports that there is an unusually high risk for tornadoes with Wilma. Tornado warnings as they happen can be found here.
Miamist says to watch for price gouging.
The Miami Herald Blog says there are fears that many Key West peeps did not evacuate. The Real Key West blog is reporting thunder and lightning already.
Jeff has found some cool NASA images from TRMM.
The Orlando Sentinel Blog points to some Naples webcams.
Dave Barry is missing out on Wilma.
A Cancun tourist explains how he ended up on television and the "image and interview became part of the Wilma system."
Common Sense Runs Wild says "The reporters are circling Florida like buzzards waiting to pick the bones of our state. If we experience a disaster we'll have to continue to endure the noxious creatures. If we survive and endure they'll move on to the next made for TV crisis."
Hyku reports some
additional Florida blog coverage of Wilma including Boudicca's Voice, Eric Norlin
and The Florida Masochist. The Laughing Wolf has map of
Florida Wilma bloggers.
Max Mayfield: "It's really going to take off like a rocket. It's going to start moving like 20 mph."
Note: We have updated our Hurricane Wilma links post
Posted on October 23, 2005
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Wilma Blogging Increases. Evacuations Begin.
Earlier today Wilma became the most intense hurricane ever recorded in the Atlantic basin. Since then the pressure has risen slightly and the winds have
diminished from 175 mph to 160 mph. However, Wilma remains an extremely dangerous Category 5 hurricane. Wilma is still forecast to cross Florida but it might possibly clip the Yucatan Peninsula first. Some evacuations have already begun in the Florida Keys. After Florida the storm is also a possible New England threat. Here are some more Wilma highlights from the blogosphere.
Wilma cruising rapidly up the east coast would be very bad news because
New England doesn't ever want to see a storm like the 1938
Long Island Express. 2 billion trees and 8,900 home were destroyed during the 1938 storm.
Wilma is now the 3rd most popular search term on Technorati.
There are over 6,000 posts for Wilma.
Michelle Malkin has a
roundup of Wilma blog coverage including this quote:
"Looks like we're not even going to get the chance to be wiped out by the bird flu." posted by Florida Cracker.
Orlando Metblogging tells Wilma to stay away.
Dr. Jeff Master's says a landfall on the Yucatan Peninsula could be good news for Florida because it would weaken Wilma. But obviously this would be very bad news for Cozumel, Cancun and elsewhere on the Yucatan Peninsula.
The blogger at Yucatan Living isn't worried that incredibly powerful Hurricane Wilma is headed towards the Yucatan because "For one thing, the majority of houses here are built of stone and concrete block. It would take more than a hurricane to blow these walls down. Our house is probably almost 100 years old. Many of the houses here are even older than that. So houses don't blow away like they do in Florida."
Noah's Wish warns Florida residents to include pets in their evacuation plans.
One blogger
has an Invasion theory: "You have to start to wonder if there is any truth to this show on TV called Invasion. A hurricane hits Florida and it's used as a cover up for Alien visitors. Here comes Wilma, a major hurricane aimed right at the everglades just like in the show."
This is the third Cat 5 of the season and this season has also
seen three of the top six most intense storms ever recorded in the Atlantic
basin. So it is no surprise that some bloggers like the College Life of a Future Meteorologist blogger are starting to wonder is something happening to the Earth?. Another bloggers asks is this the Day After Tomorrow?
The Orlando Sentinel has started a hurricane blog with Wilma coverage.
Vic Bhatia offers a practical list of
IT Preparations for Hurricane Wilma.
A Most Peculiar Gray hopes that wind shear will weaken Wilma.
Yabba Dabba Do: There are some expected Flinstones jokes and references in the blogosphere as well: here, here,
here,
here,
here and here.
"We really need to pay attention to this," said Max Mayfield, director
of the National Hurricane Center in Florida. "We likely will have a major
hurricane in the southeastern Gulf of Mexico and we're going to have to
deal with it, like it or not." Source: CNN
Note: We have updated the post with links to blogs and news resources covering Wilma.
Posted on October 19, 2005
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Hurricane Wilma Rapidly Becomes Major U.S. Threat
Hurricane Wilma has rapidly intensified in the Caribbean and is now a Strong Cat 4 Hurricane. The National Hurricane Center is still forecasting Wilma to move north into the Gulf of Mexico and then move rapidly to the east and cross the Florida Peninsula this weekend. Wilma has suddenly become yet another extremely dangerous hurricane threatening the U.S. By comparison Wilma's current lowest minimum pressure is 901 mb which is lower than Katrina's lowest minimum press reading of 902 mb. Rita bottomed out at 897 mb during her strongest period. After crossing Florida some of the computer models show Wilma also creating major problems for the Northeast and New England. We updated the Hurricane Wilma Links Post with some new resources including some that are providing coverage of a possible impact in the Northeast U.S. Here are some highlights of what the blogosphere is saying about Hurricane Wilma:
Cyrus' Crypt wants to know why so many hurricanes are hitting the U.S.
This map provides a good breakdown of county by county populations in Florida. If the crowded counties of Palm Beach, Broward and Miami-Dade need to evacuate we hope they avoid the mistakes made during Rita's killer evacuation.
Wilma is blogging about Wilma at Wilma's Place.
Synthstuff blogs about deaths from Wilma in Haiti.
Color is relative in a post titled, "Something Wilma This Way Comes," hopes Wilma weakens to a tropical storm before hitting Florida.
"Not Again!" blogs Songs to a Midnight Sky in South Florida. "Not again" seems to be the sentiment of many bloggers.
Bloggers report Wilma's rapid attainment of Cat 4 status here, here, here, here, here and here.
Steve Gregory reports on Wilma's incredible 50 mb drop in pressure in only 4 hours.
Miamist offers some hurricane prep suggestions.
Florida Governor Jeb Bush: "Why us? How could it be a storm would take a sharp, 90-degree turn to the east? It's something that we're going to have to live with and prepare for." (Via Sun-Sentinel)
Update: Wilma is now a Cat 5 with 175mph sustained winds.
Posted on October 19, 2005
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