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Hurricane Wilma set a lot of records during her life. She was the first "W" hurricane. She set a record growing from a tropical storm to a Category 5 hurricane is some 15 hours! She was for a time, the largest hurricane ever. She had the lowest central pressure ever recorded. She was one of the slowest moving ever. She was one of the fastest moving ever.
Wilma set a record in Florida, as well. It was the record for anxious anticipation. She drove us all nuts with waiting. Original forecasts were for her to arrive somewhere in Florida on Friday. But, as we all now know, she stalled over the Yucatan Peninsula, and pounded those poor folks for almost three days before she was out of there and on her way here. It wasn't until she was on her way and picking up speed, that the people of west coast Florida knew exactly where she was going to land. And, over all that time the NWS did a great job of predicting where she would ultimately go. We were ready.
She was a huge storm, and her cloud plume and hurricane force winds covered much of the state. Probably the only folks in Florida that didn't feel some effects from her were the folks in the panhandle. She had a 70 mile wide eye when she made landfall, with an eye-wall some 15 miles wide. It covered both Naples, Marco Island, and Chokoloskee and Everglades City with a large swath of destruction. The eye-wall came within about 15 miles of the fishcamp in Iona.
I-75 was jammed with traffic fleeing the Naples area as early as Thursday. I spent several days waiting and packing my big van, preparing for the worst, and hoping for the best. I left Ft. Myers for Sarasota at around 3:30 AM on Saturday morning to avoid what was sure to be a Texas style rush of cars leaving the area. I took my time, cruising at only 55 MPH and sipping on a Bubba Mug full of coffee. There was hardly a car on the road. But, as I neared Venice, I could see traffic coming up behind me like a swarm of bees. I knew the rush to leave was on. Suddenly there were cars, trucks, and semis passing me like I was standing still. Many of the cars and pickup trucks were pulling small U-Haul trailers.
I arrived safely Saturday morning just after daybreak. although I was safely away from the worst of hurricane Wilma, Sarasota was still expecting tropical storm force sustained winds with hurricane force wind gusts. I was concerned about the safety of my boat and van because the Sarasota yard is full of trees. We lost a huge indian rosewood tree in a tropical storm back in 2001. I was worried that if another one went down it would take out the house, or the vehicles, depending upon which way it fell.
I got in touch with a very dear friend of some 33 years, Wayne Kinney, with whom I'd spent Charley. After expressing concerns about the trees, he offered to hide the Talon safely away on his 12 acre property out ten miles or so east of I-75. When we took it out on Sunday, the weather was calm.
There was nothing to do now but wait. Wilma was accelerating toward us out in the Gulf. I made it until about 11 o'clock that night before tossing in the towel. I slept until around 5 AM. It was howling outside when I awoke. We were getting some pretty serious winds. Occasionally, we could hear limbs cracking and landing with a dull thud on the yard outside. We kept a close eye on the remaining huge redwood tree, but she stood fast. The ground was dry, which was probably a good thing.
I followed the storms progress on the television and on the computer. I watched her every move as she came dangerously close to Sanibel and Ft. Myers Beach. Later in the morning, after the eye had cleared the west coast, I tried calling some of my friends to get reports. But, the Nextel that had worked so well after Charley wasn't working this time. I tried to call Bubba Baker, a good friend of mine in Ft. Lauderdale, just as the eye was approaching his area. To my surprise he answered! He said it was really raising hell there, and the worst was yet to come. Bubba had his home boarded up, and couldn't see anything outside. They could only hear the roar of the constant wind, and the sound of unidentified flying objects crashing against the house. He said that curiosity had gotten the best of him, and he cracked a door to peek outside. The wind and pressure difference literally snatched him out of the house in one violent instant. He said it took everything he had to get back in the house and get the door pulled closed behind him! And, he's a big, strong guy!
Once it was finally over in Sarasota, and we were able to safely go out, we could see that our main effect was tree and sign damage. No problem. But, I didn't know what to expect down in Ft. Myers with the eye of the storm having come so close. I wanted to reach someone down there and try to get a status report on the fishcamp before driving down there. I did manage to reach one long-time friend, Don McDaniel, who lives a couple of miles from me on a canal. He had just gotten home to find much of the roof missing from his house! He said that it had been hard to make his way back home from east of town because of fallen trees, signs, and traffic signals.
I wasn't able to reach anyone else, so Tuesday morning I packed up the generator and headed back south to see what I would find. There was hardly any evidence we'd just been through a hurricane along the interstate until I actually reached Ft. Myers. The FEMA trailer parks in Port Charlotte and Punta Gorda, which are still home to over a thousand families who were victims of Charley, appeared to still be in tact. I finally saw a large tree down just as I crossed the Caloosahatchee River. The farther south I traveled, the more damage I saw, but it was clear that it was nothing like Charley had left in August of 2004.
As I got closer to my neighborhood in Iona I saw power poles leaned over, many trees and signs down, and traffic signals down or all twisted up. Every intersection that had been traffic signal controlled had Lee County Sheriffs directing traffic. Word on the only local radio station up and running was that power was out to over 200,000 people, which is approximately half the population of Lee County. It was obvious along the way that most of the damage was to trees, power and telephone lines, and traffic signals, but once in a while I'd notice a building with structural damage, as well.
Finally, I arrived at my neighborhood, which had sustained heavy damage during Charley. I was relieved to find that there weren't but a few homes that had actually sustained damage. Oh, yes! There were tree limbs and leaves everywhere, but nothing we couldn't live with. I checked out my place and picked up all the debris strewn about the yard. I went down to check on the Maverick, and was surprised to find is didn't have so much as a leaf in it. After Charley both boats were full of debris. The Maverick looked as if I'd just cleaned her up. Well, I suppose she did get a pressure wash of sorts!
Once I was done at my place I went to check on my good friend Capt. Rey Rodriguez, whom I still hadn't been able to raise on the radio or land line. Unfortunately, he had lost a lot of shingles from his roof, had some of the screens under the soffits blown out, and had a tree or two down, but was spared any structural damage. Since I was heading back to Sarasota at least until the power was restored, I left my generator with Rey to help him keep his house running.
As I got back to I-75 and headed north early in the afternoon, I couldn't believe my eyes. The southbound lane was backed up as far as you could see, and moving very slowly with people trying to return home. I couldn't help but think they were very premature, as Collier County had been hit hard and was without utilities. Well, at least Wilma had brought with her a large cold front and record cool temperatures, so people wouldn't be boiling in their own sweat like we did with Charley!
The bottom line is, Lee County dodged a major bullet. By this weekend power should be fully restored, and within two weeks most of the evidence of the storm will have been cleaned up and repaired. We WILL BE OPEN FOR BUSINESS and READY TO FISH! So, if you have plans to come vacation in the near future, don't change them. If you've been thinking about coming to visit, make your plans. The worst thing that could happen to us here as an after effect of Wilma, would be for people to stay away out of fear of what they will find.
Our friends in Collier County weren't as lucky. My heart goes out to them. My heart was also warmed as I came down the interstate Tuesday morning and passed a convoy of big trucks and trailers all with SEC on the doors. I was finally able to read the fine print without causing an accident. It read Southern Electric Company of Mississippi! Just a short time ago their whole coastline was destroyed nearly 150 miles inland by Katrina, yet these folks were able and willing to find resources to send to help us get our power restored. That's amazing, and I know the people of Florida are thankful.
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