Florida Keys residents rethink decisions to ride out Wilma

[highplainsdem]

http://www.bradenton.com/mld/bradenton/12984965.htm


Posted on Mon, Oct. 24, 2005

Florida Keys residents rethink decisions to ride out Wilma

DAVID ROYSE

Associated Press


KEY WEST, Fla. - Some residents of the Florida Keys were rethinking their refusal to evacuate for Hurricane Wilma on Monday after the storm isolated them, submerged streets under water up to 5 feet deep and turned out their lights.

No travel was possible in or out of Key West. Jay Gewin, assistant to the mayor, said 35 percent of the city was flooded, including the airport, and U.S. 1, the lone highway connecting the islands to each other and the mainland, was flooded near Islamorada.

<snip>

Key West streets were flooded four blocks inland from the shore.

"Within 45 minutes, it went from 6 inches to 4 or 5 feet deep," said Chris Elwell, whose new Porsche Boxster was submerged to its roof.

<snip>

[xultar]

1. You mean White people make stoopid decisions to ride out storms too?

Whodda thunk? :shrug:

[zbdent]

5. Do you mean the finders?

There aren't any "looters" in the Keys?

[LostinVA]

8. Key West has many, many Hispanic residents

Most who live in horrible conditions and work service jobs.

[jobycom]

10. Thanks for the reality update. nt

[xultar]

14. I wasn't talking about them. I was talking about White People...

Unless Hispanics think they are white....they weren't who I was talking about.

There are poor people in every community. I wasn't talking about the poor.

[JoFerret]

29. Erm....what?

...whites, hispanics, poor etc etc. Too many foolish generalizations flying about.

[GrumpyGreg]

30. Huh? Where does it say that they're white?

[400Years]

2. they'll be fine as long as blackwater mercs don't kill them

[yellowcanine]

3. Chris Elwell, whose new Porsche Boxster was submerged to its roof.

Of course he won't file a claim with his auto insurance company, thus helping to drive up the rates for the rest of us.:sarcasm:

Dumb shit.

[jobycom]

6. It will be replaced before anyone moves back into the Ninth Ward, I'll bet

[KyndCulture]

4. One of my best friends made this decision...

she's on Duval St. in an upstairs apartment. I lost contact with her at about 2 am.... nothing since.

Key West residents don't evacuate, hardly ever. They've been through too many storms. They weren't even making a big deal out of Wilma til late yesterday afternoon. By then it was too late to do anything about it.


I'm worried SICK.

[William769]

7. I wish the best for your friend

As you can see some assholes just don't care.

[KyndCulture]

11. Thank you...

She's a storm veteran I'm sure things are fine....

There's no cell service right now down there, that's troublesome and doesn't happen often with these storms.

[northzax]

16. it's not that we don't care

it's that we know that anyone who made a concious decision to ride out a cat 3 hurricane on an island made, frankly, a stupid decision. It's not a smart idea, and further, it puts other people, potential rescuers, at risk, at communal expense. Anyone who could have evacuated and didn't is a fool. sorry for the reality check.

very few people who have survived a hurricane have stayed around for the next one, there's a reason for that.

[jobycom]

9. Don't panic, it may be a few days before you get to hear from her

No news is probably good news this early on. It took several days before I heard from my parents in Mississippi. A lot of needless worrying.

[LostinVA]

12. I'd rather stay in KW than face that horrific gridlock on Rte. 1

And I've lived through some terrible hurricanes in NC, so I know what I'm saying 9and, I've been to the Keys many times, so I understand the geography and isolation). Key West is usually pretty safe.... even during the Big One in 1935.

[CottonBear]

13. If I had a Porsche Boxter, I would not have stayed int he Keys.

I grew up driving Porsches (912E and 928. I also had relatives who lived in hurricane zones (FL and AL), so I know something about evacuating from a hurricane area. Believe you me, there is no way that I would leave a Porsche in an area that could be flooded. :eyes: I would have at least driven to Miami and parked it in a covered concrete parking de k.

[aquart]

15. He didn't ride that Porsche out of harm's way?

He doesn't deserve to have one.

[highplainsdem]

17. More on damage in the Keys here, from an article on damage across Fla:

http://www.bradenton.com/mld/bradenton/12980176.htm

<snip>

The Florida Keys came under particularly intense attack. Instruments measured wind gusts of 120 mph at Cudjoe Key, 101 mph at Sombrero Key and 74 mph at Long Key.

Key West International Airport, the city's only airport, suffered severe damage, with at least five feet of storm surge near the entrance and as many as three feet of water on the runway.

A building that housed Cape Air was destroyed, according to airport director Peter Horton. The airport's tower was damaged, as were 100 cars in the airport's parking lot.

A spokeswoman for the U.S. Navy said the runway at Naval Air Station Key West's Boca Chica facility is under water and workers are assessing the damage.

<snip>

The section on the Keys goes on to say that the Key West police chief told a city commissioner that they have "a real disaster" and they're "in sad shape right now."

The article says that sea water had "severed" U.S.1 at three different mile markers. I assume they mean it's flooded there, not destroyed -- though some talk between CNN's Miles O'Brien and someone else on CNN this morning suggested they're concerned about the highway structure itself.

[HR_Pufnstuf]

18. What happened in Miami?

Did the governor and mayor decide not to evacuate the major city? It got hit harder than Houston.

[highplainsdem]

22. They didn't have time, they underestimated the strength of the storm

when it made landfall, and they overestimated how much crossing the state would weaken it (the Everglades had little effect).

I haven't had the TV on for a couple of hours to check the reports, but I'm checking Google News for the latest stories on Miami. Here's one:

http://abcnews.go.com/US/Weather/wireStory?id=1245402&CMP=OTC-RSSFeeds0312

Wilma Continues to Slam Florida

By MIKE SCHNEIDER Associated Press Writer
The Associated Press

NAPLES, Fla. Oct 24, 2005 — Hurricane Wilma crashed ashore early Monday as a strong Category 3 storm, battering southern Florida with tornadoes, 125 mph winds that blew glass from numerous skyscrapers and pounding waves that flooded parts of this area and Key West. At least one death was blamed on the storm and up to 2.5 million homes and businesses lost power.

Wilma hit the southwest coast and its devastating winds weakened only slightly while crossing to the heavily populated east coast by midmorning. But they were still deadly: A man in the Fort Lauderdale suburb of Coral Springs died when a tree fell on him, Broward County spokesman Carl Fowler said. He had no other details.

In Fort Lauderdale, numerous skyscrapers saw their windows shattered. In downtown Miami, broken glass from skyscrapers littered some streets and sidewalks in the Brickell Avenue financial district. About four or five blocks of the avenue had up to six inches of water from a broken water main that was spraying about 15 feet in the air.

Significant damage was everywhere in the southern half of the state roofs were ripped off, windows broke and signs, trees and power lines also cluttered the streets. They were knocked down by strong winds a gust of 104 mph was reported at the National Hurricane Center in Miami.

<snip>

A CNN reporter who lives west of Fort Lauderdale said earlier this morning that he'd found out a tree had fallen on his house.

[HR_Pufnstuf]

24. Huh?

This was a Cat 5 on Thursday predicted to hit just north of Miami.

[highplainsdem]

26. They were expecting it to be a weak Cat 2 or a Cat 1 when it hit Florida,

according to the forecasts just a couple of days ago. See Jeff Masters' blog from the 22nd, at

http://www.wunderground.com/blog/JeffMasters/comment.html?entrynum=204&tstamp=200510

for an example of what they expected then. He expected Wilma to hit the west coast of Florida with 100 mph winds, and further weaken as it moved across the state. Wind shear was supposed to offset the effect of the warm water the hurricane was crossing toward Florida, preventing intensification. As one meteorologist I heard on one of the cable news channels or the Weather Channel said this morning, obviously it didn't.

Anyway, they didn't have enough warning that this was going to be as strong as it still was when it hit Miami.

[HR_Pufnstuf]

27. oops.

nt.

[HR_Pufnstuf]

23. Local Miami News showing lots of damage.

http://www.local10.com/video/5154602/detail.html

[HR_Pufnstuf]

28. 3.2 of 4.3 million Fla customers total without power.

New record according to Local10.com

National TV news not covering East Coast much. FEMA only offering aid to individuals in 3 counties on Gulf side. Local10.com said that will definitely change.

[highplainsdem]

19. Link to keynews.com Hurricane Edition:

http://www.keysnews.com/hurricaneedition/


Currently the latest stories there are

"Sun rises on storm-drenched Keys" (8:30 am)
http://www.keysnews.com/hurricaneedition/1024_MorningUpdate.htm

"Surge causes more damage than wind in Key West" (12:30 pm)
http://www.keysnews.com/hurricaneedition/1024_KWflooding.htm

"Residents asked to stay put while damage is assessed" (2 pm update)
http://www.keysnews.com/hurricaneedition/1024_NewmanUpdate.htm

[Ezlivin]

20. Turn your Keys in at the desk...

I grew up in Florida and we didn't take any hurricane seriously, but we were living in Tampa and they seemed to squeak by every time.

If I were living in the Keys, I would have been long gone. That's too damned close to the rising water.

[BiggJawn]

21. So, wasn't worth possibly getting your drunken mug on CNN...

...for 15 seconds, WAS it?

Stupid gits. One COULD hope that they would have been washed out to sea, thus giiving the gene pool a much-needed dose of chlorine...

[Mojorabbit]

25. webcam on duval street

by sloppy joes. Looks to be about six inches of water on the street.
http://www.liveduvalstreet.com/