Hurricane Wilma!!! AHHHH!!!

Gabe · Senior Member

Holy cow! I cant believe it. This never ends!!

I dont think I recall a hurricane to form this late in the season, but this one somehow did.

The stupid hurricane is forcast to run over my Weston house in Florida, so tomorrow Im going to put shutters up, and do all the hurricane prep.

Since 2004, I think 6 hurricanes have affected my area, and it is getting exhausting. Im going to try to go to the gym, but dont know if I can keep my mind off the hurricane...

GarryN · Expert Member

Does the season end during November or at the end of October? We must be in a cycle with a large number of hurricanes. Maybe in a few years it will taper off again. We are thinking about all you guys in the Gulf. Very Happy

Bob P · Site Admin

Hi Garry...
I sure feel for those guys down there. After going through 4 of them in this part of Florida in the past year, I don't wish that on anyone. She sure turned out to be a nasty one. The strongest ever in the Atlantic Basin. Seems like right now, she is beginning to weaken a little bit. Hopefully, she will weaken more before landfall, and maybe turn a lot more southerly. We will see.
Folks like Gabe and BJ need to take care of yourselves!
BTW...Hurricane season goes to 30 November. There have been many storms that have formed around this time of year, so there certainly is precident. Be careful!!

Gabe · Senior Member

Man, what a nightmare. We are seriously considering to evacuate but it looks like it is going to enter as a category 3, so I dont think we will have to. I still want to have a plan ready just in case it doesnt turn out like that.

JRocco · Veteran Member

Stay safe down there Gabe. Back in 85, Gloria hit me on Long Island as a little Cat 2 storm yet still KO'd my house with over 50K damage and no power for over 20 days. Play it safe and leave if you there is even a question. Two hours in a hurricane will take 2 inches more off the old hairline.

Gabe · Senior Member

Ok, tomorrow it seems that it will get bad, and it will apparently make landfall either tomorrow at night or Monday morning. Winds in Weston, Fl, were my home is at, are expected at excess of 100 mph sustained, and tornadoes are a big probabilty.

I have also learned that since the center of the storm will be slightly north of us, we will receive the worst of the winds. It is possible for us to receive sustained winds at 110mph for some small periods of time.

Im sure that we will be without power for some time, so I will not be able to report to the board until everything gets sort out and things start getting back to normal.

Preparations, I have to admit, are less than what I wish them to be. I have still not put up shutters, but hopefully will do that tomorrow in the morning before the storm comes...

Will try to leave another message on this board tomorrow before we lose power.

Gabe · Senior Member

Hey, I survived!!

I just got power, and Im not able to use the computer, so I will leave this message and continue on the clean-up.

The hurricane was pretty bad. We at home didnt shutter one of the slidding doors, and I now regret that we didnt. The wind was blowing so hard, that the slidding door almost blew in, and he all had to pass the hurricane barricated in the master bedroom, because everything around us seemed to be comming apart. During this time, we had the radio on, and it told us that the eye was passing right over us, the city of Weston, so I looked out, and saw sunlight, but the winds didnt stop. We did get inside the eye, but we only got the edge of it, so the sun came out, and their was blue sky, but the wind didnt stop. After the eye, everything started to get better, until the final band, which had winds at excess of 120 mph...

After all of the thing was done, I went outside to survey the damage. Our fence, along with mos the my neighboors fence fell, many of our roof shingles blew away, and fell on my mom's and neighboor's cars, and an outside closet that we had in the backyard was completely totaled.

All of the trees in the neighborhood snapped, a lot of people lost their roofs, and many trees fell to the cars, and homes of people...

We took a drive around the city, and everywere one looks, there is complete disaster. I couldnt recognize the city I had lived in for over 5 years.

There are national guard troops all around, and there is a massice relief effort going on. I have taken many pics, and will try to post them when time permits.

Bob P · Site Admin

Glad to see that you made it through Gabe, and I am glad you were able to let us know how it went. I wish you well with the clean-up efforts. There are tons of folks from up here headed down your way to help out the best they can. Continue to stay safe, and keep us informed on how it is going.

smed · Senior Member

Glad to hear you're ok. What you describe sounds almost identical to what happened after Ivan last year in Pensacola.

coop · Expert Member

I meed to get out a map and see where you all live as I only know that some of you live in Florida and don't know what areas. Going to do that ..... someday. Oh I just remembered this is my 300th. post... WHOO HOO (_8^(|)=

murphy · Senior Member

Glad you're alright Gabe, but sorry for the destruction and grief from it that you have to endure. Hope you don't have to go through anything like that again.

Gabe · Senior Member

Well... it has been over 1 year, but I finally got my roof fixed. To celebrate this great moment in history (lol), I bought a fire wire, and I uploaded all the footage of the hurricane I took.

I have few footage of the actual hurricane winds blowing, because most of the my house was shuttered. Also, most of the really bad winds were during the early morning (no sun-light) and later during the day (I fell alseep). I included only a couple of seconds of that in this small vid.

Enjoy!

http://s32.photobucket.com/player.swf?refURL=/&file=http://vid32.photobucket.com/albums/d18/loro-rojo/Wilma.flv

murphy · Senior Member

Wow, that's a scarey looking neighborhood after the hurricane did its thing. The damage to your home the trees and the neighborhood in general must have been depressing. But i'm glad for you that all is well now and the damage is fixed. You have a very nice looking home by the way. Good luck.

smed · Senior Member

Neat video. I took some pics after Ivan in Pensacola in 2004, video would have been better.

http://www.coingalaxy.com/~smedscoins/Hurricane%20Ivan%20Pics/

Gabe · Senior Member

Here is a second video I made with some left over footage. Most of the beginning of the video has no audio, but around the end, the audio kicks in.

http://s32.photobucket.com/player.swf?refURL=/&file=http://vid32.photobucket.com/albums/d18/loro-rojo/wilma1.flv