October 25, 2005
BIG BAD BILL IS SWEET WILMA NOW
On the whole, Wilma was pretty much a non-factor in the Tampa Bay area. I've had car washes that were more vigorous than the rainstorms we had on Monday.
The weird part was the cold air that followed the storm through the area. It's 53 this morning in Valrico. Given that it's late October, cold weather shouldn't be a surprise. But so close after a hurricane? That just feels weird.
Anyway, we're seeing the conga line of rescue and repair vehicles on the highways again. Early Monday, even while the storm was rumbling through the state's nether regions, vehicles like these were heading south on I-75:
The worst part of the storm: the lost workforce:
The schools were announced as being closed on Monday due to the hurricane, so that meant parents had to scramble to find care for them. Then some businesses had to juggle whether to bring their workers in that morning or keep them off the highways.
By the time 11 a.m. rolled around, there was no more rain to speak of in the Bay area. By about noon, skies were sunny and temps were in the high 50s. By sunset, above, it looked like an ordinary fall day.
Some 6 million people are reportedly without power. But this is no Katrina.
As one news story put it:
Unseasonably cool temperatures hovered over much of Florida early Tuesday, meaning the lack of air conditioning wasn't making a tough situation even more unbearable for those in Wilma's path.Officials warned residents to boil water in parts of Palm Beach, Broward and Miami-Dade counties. A water main breach in downtown Miami sprayed water 15 feet in the air.
"We've lived here 37 years and we've never had a hurricane like this," said Paul Kramer, 71, of Tamarac, in Broward County. "We didn't expect this. This one got our attention."
Uh, Paul, you never expect this?
Where do you think you've lived for 37 years?
Glad to see that after Hurricane Andrew, last year's hurricane season and this year's onslaught, you've been lulled into a sense of complacency while living only 10 miles from the Atlantic Ocean.
37 years????!!
I was watching an interview by a CNN reporter in Key Largo who was talking to a woman that rode out the storm in her house. She said she had been there for six years and she'd never seen anything like it. SIX years.
All I could do was shake my head. Do these people ever watch the news at all?????
Posted by: Laura at October 25, 2005 08:26 AM