Hurricane Wilma Pictures...

Hi all,

I had hoped to take cruise and get some pics for you guys, but the batteries on the runabout are dead. Just as well, because there is so much debris in the water, it's not only hard to navigate, it would surely plug an intake.

These pics range from Palm Beach down to Boca Raton. My camera went dead in Lauderdale, but the damage is the same everywhere you go. It's not catastrophic in most cases, it's just so widespread. I understand the damage is the essentially the same ranging from Miami to north of Palm Beach, about a 60-80 mile stretch of coastline. Normally, the coast recieves the bulk of the blow, but in this case, Wilma came from behind. Many cities are 20 miles inland and they recieved even more damage.

2.8 million people are still w/o power. Only a few gas stations are open and the line of cars stretches a mile or more at each one. Intersections are an accident waiting to happen, because most of the traffic signals are completely gone, or they are not functioning. It's very chaotic. According to the news, it will be a minimum of 2 weeks for power to be restored to 45% of users and over 4 weeks to reach 95% of users. Hard to say how long it will take to repair infrastructure like stop lights.

Thanks to everyone who kept me in the loop while Wilma passed over. You were my eyes and ears. Now, it is time for me to be your eyes...

This was the eye of Wilma as she passed overhead. The sun was trying to break through the clouds. It was calm in the eye, a light breeze from random directions. Then, moments later and without notice, the breeze quickly picked up to 100 mph in less than 5 minutes and the back side of the storm slammed us. The backside was more intense than the front, which is unusual. Actually, everything about Wilma was unusual... the fact that the eye never fell apart coming across the state and it never lost intensity. Weird!

This tree in the backyard normally stands a little more upright. I took several pics of this tree, trying to time the shutter for gusts. I was standing on the back patio, while the backside of Wilma came through (the highest winds were in front of the house at this time). Not bad for an amature that was scared silly...

The trees behind the house were well manicured by Wilma...

These are the neighbors houses...

After the windows on the opposite side of the house blew-in... the garage door blew-out.

This is the main intersection near my house. Notice there are 2 traffic lights and 4 missing. What is not shown is... the traffic lights from the other 3 corners of the intersection. There's nothing to show... gone! This is the case with most of the intersections I've seen from Palm Beach to Ft. Lauderdale. Must be over 10,000 intersections? Don't know...

This pic was in the grocery store parking lot across the street from the house. Between all of us, this fella got what he deserved. Leaving a cube van in an open parking lot during a hurricane is not real high on the Einstein scale. He should have placed it next to a concrete building and took wind direction into consideration.

There is a private airpark next door to us. The roof on this house was BRAND NEW. It was torn apart by the last hurricane and they just finished the new roof about a month ago. A roof line with this elevation has no place being in South Florida!

On the subject of airports, this is one of three hangars at Boca Executive that collapsed. There were a number of airplanes parked in the inverted position as well.

Another hangar collapsed...

Speaking of collapsed buildings...

This is Marina One, located on US-1 in Deerfield Beach (between Ft. Laud & Boca Raton). It was an enclosed high & dry boat storage facility that was about 5-6 racks tall.

From the opposite side...

In monitoring marine bands, skippers on the water are saying 100's of boats are sunk up & down the coastline. Here’s a few that didn’t get a chance to sink...

And this is why we have no power. Twisted sticks... everywhere.

When I get gas, you guys will have more pics. Will try to get out on the water, but need power to charge the batteries. In the meantime, thanks again to everyone that kept me in the loop during the storm.

Anyone want to wait in line for gas with me?

Also, thanks to Verizon Wireless for a cellular system that did not go down. I was accessing the site through my PDA-Cell phone.

YachtForums... at the speed of dial-up... on a 2.5 x 3.5 inch screen! Small wonder...