Hurricane-weary Florida mops up
By Jim Loney
MIAMI (Reuters) – Residents armed with chain saws and
brooms and an army of electrical repair crews on Tuesday
attacked the shambles left behind by Hurricane Wilma’s rampage
through Florida, where 6 million people were without power.
Wilma, at one time the most intense hurricane on record in
the Atlantic basin, killed at least four people in Florida on
Monday after a devastating trek through the Caribbean that
killed at least ten in Haiti and seven in Mexico.
A powerful Category 3 storm with 125 mph (200 kph) winds
when it struck southwest Florida early on Monday, Wilma was the
eighth hurricane to hit the state in 15 months, an
unprecedented assault by nature that left Floridians reeling.
“Really, really tired of this. This is the third time I’ve
been without power (this year), first Katrina, then Rita, now
this,” said Miamian Joe Fraghatti, 30, who spent an hour on
Tuesday morning in a fruitless search for gasoline. “I’m
definitely thinking of moving west.”
By 5 a.m. (0900 GMT) on Tuesday, Wilma’s top winds had
fallen to 115 mph (185 kph) as the storm sped northeast over
the Atlantic at 53 mph (85 kph), the U.S. National Hurricane
Center said. It was 310 miles east of Cape Hatteras, North
Carolina was expected to be off the Canadian Maritimes by early
Wednesday, bringing wind and rain to the Northeast.
The 2005 hurricane season, fueled by warmer-than-usual sea
temperatures in the Atlantic Ocean and Caribbean, has been a
record-breaker, with 22 tropical storms or hurricanes, besting
the mark of 21 set in 1933.
Hurricane Katrina, which burst the levees protecting New
Orleans in late August and flooded the city, causing more than
$30 billion in damage and likely becoming the costliest natural
disaster in U.S. history.
Risk analysts have estimated Wilma’s damage in Florida at
up to $10 billion.
NO LIGHTS, AIR CONDITIONING
The roar of chain saws ripped through the streets as
Floridians cleaned up, stretching blue tarps over damaged
roofs, dicing fallen trees and sweeping debris into piles at
roadsides. They were heartened by a cold front that descended
overnight, making it easier to cope without air conditioning
after a steamy Florida summer.
“We’re so lucky it’s cool,” said Fraghatti.
The storm left most of the 5 million people in Florida’s
most populous region, the metropolitan area of Miami-Fort
Lauderdale-West Palm Beach, without lights, air conditioning
and refrigeration.
Florida Power & Light, the state’s major utility, said it
had a work force of 5,100 replacing blown-out transformers and
restringing miles of power lines brought down by the hurricane,
which cut a swath across Florida from Naples on the southwest
coast to West Palm Beach on the east.
By early Tuesday, power to 251,000 customers had been
restored and 2.98 million customers were without electricity,
the utility said. It could be four weeks before power is
restored. One customer is said to represent two people.
South Florida’s major airports in Miami, Fort Lauderdale
and West Palm Beach were closed, a blow to the state’s
$57-billion-a-year tourism industry.
SCRAMBLING TO FIND FOOD
Emergency officials said they were scrambling to find food
and tarps as the state emptied its warehouses to provide for
victims. Search, rescue and recovery teams streamed into
storm-ravaged areas from Naples to West Palm Beach.
“Meals continue to be a problem,” state logistics chief
Chuck Hagan said at a briefing on Tuesday. “All the food we had
in the state … will be pushed out today and we presently do
not have any meals in reserve.”
Wilma swamped the low-lying Florida Keys, surprising the
estimated 90 percent of residents who ignored evacuation orders
and decided to stay. The tourist island Key West was inundated
with hip-high water, forcing officials to postpone this week’s
annual Fantasy Fest, a Halloween costume celebration that
normally draws thousands of tourists.
The storm went on to flood largely uninhabited areas of the
southwest coast and raced across the state to greater Miami,
where it shattered windows in office towers, littered streets
with debris and sunk boats in Biscayne Bay.
NASA said its Kennedy Space Center on Florida’s east coast
would remain closed until inspections were completed. Some
buildings were damaged. The center is the launch and landing
port for the U.S. space agency’s space shuttle fleet, which is
grounded for repairs.
Before hitting Florida, Wilma devastated the tourist resort
of Cancun, Mexico, over the weekend. It killed seven people in
Mexico and triggered mudslides that killed 10 people last week
in Haiti.
The storm also pounded Cuba, paralyzing Havana and flooding
coastal neighborhoods with 86-mph (138-kph) winds.
Forecasters said Wilma was the strongest storm to hit the
Miami area since August 1992, when Hurricane Andrew caused more
than $25 billion in damage.
The 2005 Atlantic hurricane season, which does not end
until November 30, has spawned three of the most intense
Atlantic storms on record: Katrina devastated New Orleans in
August and killed 1,200, Rita hit the Texas-Louisiana border a
few weeks later, and Wilma at one point boasted the lowest
barometric pressure reading ever observed in the Atlantic
basin.
(Additional reporting by Anthony Boadle in Havana, Michael
Peltier in Tallahassee, Laura Myers in Key West, Jane Sutton
and Michael Christie in Miami)