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last updated
03/11/2007 08:12 |
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Monday
17:15 EST
Nov 7, 2005 |
Wilma +14
days. It's been 2 weeks now. We got power back to the
house a week ago late in the afternoon and the cable TV
and internet access came back sometime yesterday while
we were out. However there are still a lot of people who
don't have power or cable. So I guess we should consider
ourselves lucky. Someone was supposed to be here this
afternoon to give us a quote to replace our missing
screen patio but he never showed. We have had a couple
of calls from our insurance people who assure us that
someone will be calling us to set up a meeting at the
house but so far the actual person who is going to do
the assessment hasn't called.
The
archived radar image shows the eye passing over Palm
Beach County. We are far enough south to be just inside
the south side of the eye as it went over Pompano Beach.
This is the worst place to be for wind speed. We were in
the relative calm of the eye for only about 10 minutes
before the wind changed from the south resumed from the
west with a vengence. Fortunately we were in the lee of
the houses in our street so our shed didn't explode like
all of the others in our street. |
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Friday
14:56 EST
10/28/05 |
Wilma +4
days. Still no power, TV nor internet access at the
house and the temperatures are rising. In a day or so it
will be back to normal so those of us who are heat
sensitive will be getting cranky. :)
Gene went
to his office today. With a generator hard wired into
the power board they are able to run the computers and
phones. They have internet access and email. |
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Thursday
Oct. 27, 2005
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From
web-co-pilot Cuzn Steve: Obviously, Gene
didn't have a chance to finish the hurricane update - we
received a fax this morning from Cindy saying everyone
is OK, but there's many problems.
- - > Read the fax here.See
new satellite photo of Wilma
here
! |
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Thursday
10/27/2005 06:56:22 |
Wilma + 3
days. Rumor has it that the power will not be restored
for 3 or 4 weeks. This comes from a neighbors son who
lives next to an FPL honcho. It sounded suspect until
the TV news reported that Broward would be all
reconnected by November 28. This does not bode well. We
are half way through out supply of gas for the
generator. Hopefuilly by the time we have to get more
there will be more gas stations open and we won't have
to spend half a day in line.
Cuzncindy is working. He office has a generator running
the phones and a few computers. Gene's office is still
dark but there are plans to import gas and generators
and could be lit up by early next week. The requirement
to boil our drinking water was lifted yesterday. Cable
is still out ... we think. When the screen patio went it
took the cable for the TV with it. We have jerry rigged
it now but we have some doubts whether it will work when
the TV service is resumed.
The storm was noisy
and stressfull wondering what would be left when the
wind stopped blowing. But day to day living afterwards
is uncomfortable and tiring. We are lucky because we had
water throughout the storm and power from the generator
so the food in the refrigerator is ok. But for most of
the people without water, power and with refrigerator of
rotting food the recovery is very very uncomfortable.
However, the weather has been beautiful, clear skies,
cool nights and warm days. But this can't last. It will
start warming up and then we will have to deal with the
majority of people who get very cranky without air
conditioning. |
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Wednesday
10/26/2005 06:50:15 |
Wilma + 2
days. The power is still out but we do have water. There
are people in Broward who don't. Fortunately for us we
have both a gas water heater and a gas stove and most
importantly an uninterrupted gas supply. And with the
generator we can have lights and coffee and charge the
cell phones. Yesterday we used less than 5 gallons of
gas even though we have both refrigerators running and
cuzncindy did several loads of laundry. At this rate we
have gas for another 3 days before we have to go out and
wait in the gas lines. Hopefully by then there will be
more gas stations with power and gas won't be such an
ordeal.
Cuzncindy's office now has a new diesel generator so the
phones and the some of the computers are working. She is
working shifts with the others to answer the phones.
Gene's office is undamaged but with no power and no
water nothing is happening. So he is having an enforced
extention to our vacation last week.
The weather after the storm has been as good as it gets;
clear blue skies and cool. It sounds like others on our
street have decided it is prudent to conserve gas so the
generators get turned off at night so it is quiet and
very dark. For the first time ever we can see lots of
stars in the night sky.
The new day is beginning. we can hear the generators
starting.
More later.
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Tuesday
10/25/2005 13:20:38 |
Wilma + 1
day. Gene drove over to his office. The extent of the
damage to trees and power lines is comparable to Andrew
although the damage to buildings is less. Maybe the new
building code is doing some good. There was not one
operating traffic signal in the 22 mile journey there
and back. It is going to be several days if not weeks
before the power is restored. Suddenly rationing gas for
the generator became important. The cell phones work but
only intermittently for both incoming and outgoing calls
and the voice messaging system seems to be down. |
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Tuesday
10/25/2005 07:00:18 |
Wilma + 1
day. The wind event was done about an hour later and
even though it was still windy the sun was shining
between the clouds. Last night was clear skies and cold.
This morning the temperature was in the 50s. |
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10/24/2005
12:07:41 |
Hurricane
Wilma. The south eye wall has passed and the wind is
dying down and the rain is letting up. While the wind
was coming from the west we discovered a significant
leak into the A/C closet that wasn't there when the wind
was blowing from the south. the water was from the roof
vent that the screen porch displaced on its aerial
excursion over the house.
The cold air behind the storm has reduced the back of
the hurricane to a non event. We expect the weather to
improve dramatically in the next half hour or so. then
we can get outside to survey the damage. But first ... a
quick nap until the rain quits. :) |
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10/24/2005
11:17:26 |
Hurricane
Wilma. The location at 11:00 was 26.9N 80.0W 105mph.
Radar shows one more major band on the south side of the
eye moving towards us. This will bring us wind from the
west so we should be shielded by the houses on our side
of the street.
The forecast low for tonight is in the low 50s and with
the wind chill lower than that. |
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10/24/2005
10:44:28 |
Hurricane
Wilma. We just saw a house boat being blown slowly north
along the intra-coastal. We now have a much clearer view
of the intra-coastal because the trees between our
neighbors houses have been blown down. The wind is from
the southwest now which means the eye has passed us to
the north. |
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10/24/2005
10:23:56 |
Hurricane
Wilma. The wood trellis on the back patio collapsed. It
looks like we were right on the south side of the eye
and now we are seeing the south eye wall. So far the
winds aren't as strong as they were before. The TV
talking heads are telling us that we have another couple
hours of wind and rain. |
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10/24/2005
09:38:22 |
Hurricane
Wilma. The wood trellis over the back patio has broken
away from the house and is swaying. The TV is reporting
100mph gusts in our area. So far there is no indication
of the eye passing over us. The radar shows that the eye
may be passing to the north of us. However the wind is
still coming from the south. All of the tall palms in
the neighbors front yard have been broken off about 10
to 15 feet above the ground and the peach tree next door
has been blown over. The pitch apple tree in our front
yard which we pruned after Katrina has had a lot of the
leaves blown off. But only a couple branches have
broken. |
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10/24/2005
07:56 |
Hurricane
Wilma. The power went out shortly after the porch blew
away. At 8:00 the position was 26.1N 81.0W. |
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10/24/2005
07:33 |
Hurricane
Wilma. The screen porch just let go and blew over the
house onto the front yard of the house on the other side
of the street narrowly missing cuzncindy's new car.
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Hurricane
Wilma. The cable TV just went out. The last wind speed
at the airport a mile inland was 48 mph. |
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Hurricane
Wilma. The wind is picking up now. Sustained 50mph at
the airport a mile inland from us. It is now looking as
if we might see the eye pass over us in a couple hours.
We still have power but we can see transformers blowing
in Lighthouse Point to the north of us. |
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Monday
05:15EDT
0915Z
0ct24,2005 |
Hurricane
Wilma. Last night the wind strengthened to category 3 so
we decided to put the shutters up on the big sliding
glass doors on the south side of the house. So far we
haven't gotten much rain and the wind is blowing at
24mph. It looks like we are in for some hurricane force
winds later this morning. Looking at the current radar
we might even get to see the eye pass over us. But so
far so good. We still have power and tv. |
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Sunday
20:30EDT
0030Z
Oct 23, 2005 |
Hurricane
Wilma is starting to pick up here now with 18 mph wind
from the south east. There has been no rain here since
the outter band that passed through here about 2 am on
Saturday and flooded our back yard. |
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Sunday
08:30EDT
1230Z
Oct 23, 2005 |
Hurricane
Wilma is over water again and taking aim at south
Florida. The storm is expected to start moving faster
now so that it will be making landfall early tomorrow
morning. It looks like we will be bringing the patio
furniture inside this afternoon so we don't have to go
looking for it after the storm.
Wilma
dropped 5ft (1.5m) of rain on Mexico! We won't get that
much because the storm will be moving much faster when
it crosses Florida. But it will be a test of the roof
repairs we had done recently. |
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Saturday
11:30EDT
1530Z
Oct 22, 2005 |
Hurricane
Wilma brought us a LOT of rain last night just after
midnight along with a tornado watch! The water was still
several inches deep in our back yard this morning. We're
hoping the wind speed diminishes dramatically before it
gets to us on the east coast of Florida. But based on
our experience with several of the hurricanes this year
we're preparing to be without power for a couple days.
So now we have stockpiled enough gas for the generator
to last a couple days and a couple full tanks of
propane. And we now have the mobile air conditioner for
those of us who just can't sleep in the heat. :) With
all of these preparations the law resistentialism would
suggest the storm will go somewhere else. |
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Friday
08:00EDT
1200Z
Oct 21, 2005 |
Hurricane
Wilma reprieve. The weather guessers now think the storm
will stay on the Yucatan peninsula for a while and delay
its arrival in south Florida until Tuesday. The longer
it stays over land in Mexico the better it will be for
us. We're hoping the storm strength dissipates over the
Yucatan and then gets blown quickly across the Gulf of
Mexico before it can re-strengthen. |
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Thursday
12:52EDT
1652Z
Oct 20, 2005 |
Hurricane
Wilma continues to be a dilemma. Yesterday the computer
models were in agreement. All of them predicted a path
that took it through South Florida sometime on Saturday.
Then a couple of the models deviated significantly from
the previous consensus and showed the storm staying in
the Caribbean south of Cuba. This morning the models
were again in agreement showing the storm coming through
south Florida but some of them predicting landfall as
late as Sunday night.
During the brief period of confusion yesterday afternoon
we thought this is a good thing because it reduced the
probability that south Florida would be hit. Now with
the consensus that hope is dashed. But now we're hoping
the jet stream will tear the tops of the storm and
weaken it before landfall. Hopefully enough that it will
be only a windy rain event for us on the east coast.
right now we're hoping the storm gets beat up on the
Yucatan peninsula and then gets swept quickly across the
gulf by the jet stream not giving it enough time to grow
back to its former awesome strength. |
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Wednesday
10:50EDT
14:50Z
Oct 19, 2005 |
Hurricane
Wilma is the fastest developing and biggest Atlantic
storm on record. Yesterday it was a tropical storm with
winds of 70 mph ... today it is it a cat 5 hurricane
with sustained winds of 175 mph and the computer models
are predicting Wilma is taking aim at south Florida. The
weather guessers are predicting the storm will be moving
very fast when it makes landfall on the west coast which
means the wind speeds will not dissipate much before it
reaches us on the east coast. All we can hope for is
that it goes far to the north of us. Of course this
isn't what the people who were hit by Charlie last year
are hoping for. |
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