Hurricanes: Wilma

This page last edited on

01 August, 2008

Hurricanes

Wilma

On October 24, 2005 we finally got our taste of how awful a hurricane can be when you are sitting right in it! Hurricane Wilma was one mean, evil woman when she came blowing into my neighborhood. The hurricane had literally stalled over the Yucatan Peninsula in Mexico for days before heading to the west coast of Florida as a Category 3. As GREAT as the National Hurricane Center is, and THEY ARE, they told us it would be a Category 1 when it reached our side but she didn't feel like a Category 1 to me or anyone else I know. She did Category 3 damage, not Category 1! They have officially classified her as a Category 1 hurricane, much to everyone's complete disbelief and irritation. The hurricane came in as a Category 3 on the west coast of Florida and it did not slow down over the 90 miles across swamp and land! In fact, there was more damage reported on the east coast than the west coast. I can honestly say that it was the MOST frightening thing I have ever lived through!!! I sat in a closet during the ordeal and saw and felt the walls shake!! The sounds from outside were absolutely horrific and they lasted for six hours!!!!

Hurricane Wilma did considerable damage to my neighborhood and all of south Florida. The majority of my roof shingles came off and made a mess everywhere. It took days to clean them up. Both ponds were full of shingles and vegetation. It took a long time to get them cleaned up and back and running. I was shocked that no fish died, especially without power for two full weeks. I had a lot of fence damage as well and over a year later it has not been replaced. I put the sections back in place although the next storm will probably knock them down again. I had to get all new shingles on the roof so they probably won't come off in the next storm which is good. I lost a considerable amount of plants and trees. I had a lot of hibiscus trees but between the wind and the fence laying on top of them they died. My beautiful mango tree also didn't make it because I had to cut it down to a stump from the damage. It tired to come back a few times but the new growth didn't stay long. Unfortunately its as dead as dead can be. Happily the avocado tree has come back nice and strong. I had to cut my totally awesome coconut palm tree down in the front. It was on the side of the driveway and after three hurricanes in 14 months it was leaning far too much to be considered safe. My next door neighbors often parked their cars underneath it and walked underneath it so I felt it was too much a risk to keep. As much as I hated to cut it down I didn't have a choice. I really miss the coconuts it produced.

I was pretty disappointed that the storm didn't get much national coverage. I think the media was still focused on the tragedy of New Orleans and the gulf coast after Hurricane Katrina. Since Hurricane Andrew hit the Miami area in 1992, this was the worst storm to hit south Florida. It was so large that it had widespread damage and power outages. Millions of people were without power for quite some time. I hope that I never go through another storm like Wilma!

Click on Playlist to view the eight movies of Hurricane Wilma.

Collapsed roof

The scary part about my next door neighbor's patio roof is that it fell 1 week after the hurricane. Thank God no one was hurt!

I hope that you enjoyed the pictures and video on this page!

Hurricane Page | Hurricanes Frances & Jeanne | Hurricane Katrina | Hurricane Wilma

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