Floridians in Wilma's Path - Check In!

[GailT]

Stay safe everyone

 

[C.Ann]

Anyone know if West Palm Beach airport is accepting in-bound flights? My friends DD and grandbaby are supposed to be flying in today from California..

Thanks!

 

[goofy4tink]

Could I ask you guys a favor? Is there someone in the Pompano Beach area that could give me a link to their newspaper? My dad, although he is in Quincy Ma at the moment, has their winter place in Pompano Beach, right on the Atlantic. They are flying down on Sat (had these plans for several months now) and staying until May. They have a phenominal amount of damage from what they said last night....all the windows in their condo unit are now on the floor of the condo..even though they had storm shutters up!!! The condos on the west facing side of the bldg have lost some walls, the water damage on the ground has been terrible. I guess cars have been moved by the water, and their windows are gone also.
I would love to be able to see what is going on down there without bugging them all the time. My dad is having a cochlear implant done in Miami in the next month and really doesn't need this addtl stress. I feel so badly for you all down there. What a mess. I hope you all are managing all right. Here in Mass...Wilma has connected with Alpha and it's a bit blustery and rainy here now..but nothing like you have been through!!!

 

[2angelsinheaven]

My dad is having a cochlear implant done in Miami in the next month

I use to nanny for a set of twins who had cochlear implants done in Miami as well, they've had great success. Just wanted to say good luck to your parents and hope your dad's procedure goes as well as the boys' did.

 

[C.Ann]

Could I ask you guys a favor? Is there someone in the Pompano Beach area that could give me a link to their newspaper?

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Try this link - 3 newspapers cover that area..

http://www.epodunk.com/cgi-bin/loca...any&dist=30&distLbl=miles&sec=0&Submit=Search

 

[Miss Jasmine]

Another one checking in from Brevard County. HOLY MOLY that was one bad storm, at least in my area. We lost power only for a couple of hours, but my backyard is now pretty destroyed, and I thought for sure my screening was going, but all survived.

Work decided not to call in all essential personnel so I spent some quality time with my MIL. I wish I had to have gone to work. LOL

I have some work friends I am worried about in Ft. Lauderdale.

 

[goofy4tink]

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Try this link - 3 newspapers cover that area..

http://www.epodunk.com/cgi-bin/loca...any&dist=30&distLbl=miles&sec=0&Submit=Search

Thanks...exactly what I needed. The Sun-Sentinal was the one I wanted but couldn't remember the name!

 

[ufgator]

Checking in from Boca Raton...

No power. we luckily have water and a landline phone. the backside of the storm was much worse than the frontside. power pole fell on our building. tree fell on my car. some water came in the window. most of my family, who lives on the barrier island in ft. laud, has no power, water or phones. know some people that have major roof damage. trees down all over. many windows on high rise buildings have windows blown out. saw many power poles down - one area had 9 big ones down in a row on the street. all stoplights are out and many are gone. everyone we know in broward and palm beach has damage to their house.

 

[Zandy595]

I'm in Martin Co. We only lost power for 6 hours. I was shocked when it came back on Monday at 5pm. We had the house phone all through the storm and then lost it yesterday. It finally came on again a few minutes ago. Cell phones have been wonky since Monday. As for damage - I forgot to bring in my birdfeeder so that's in pieces all over the neighborhood, and 3 of our trees fell over. We made it through very well. As soon as the schools open again, the traffic lights come back on and the stores get food we'll be back to normal.

My mom (also in Martin Co.) lost her pool enclosure. They don't have power or phone still.

 

[Talking Hands]

Power and phone service finally back up. Lost everything in freezer and fridge. I do have the cleanest fridge and freezer now. Grocery stores only have staples and everyone around here needs to restock meats, etc.
Things are starting to get back to normal.
HAs anyone heard from Lewydan and how she fared. She is south of me.

 

[lewdyan1]

Just got my electricity! I hope everyone fared well! Talking Hands, did you hear no school Monday or Tuesday. I am ready to get back to work!

 

[Talking Hands]

So am I and I hadn't heard that there is no school Monday or Tuesday. Are you sure. I need to let one of my deaf friends know for sure. She still doesn't have power and radios don't do any good for her obviously.

 

[lewdyan1]

Yes, I am sure...I heard Rudy Crew on his 6:00pm press conference last night.

 

[Zandy595]

Martin Co.'s first day back to school is Monday. I wonder when our make up days will be.

They announced yesterday that 90% of our traffic lights are up and running so I think I'll venture out to Walmart and the library today. We still have to get our Halloween candy and pumpkins.

Our Sheriff is encouraging people to skip trick or treating this year, but our neighborhood doesn't really have a lot of debris so I think it'l be OK here. The kids just made it through a scary hurricane, they'd be pretty upset if they weren't allowed to go out on Halloween.

 

[Talking Hands]

Thanks Lewdyan I'll let my friends know. Went to Shivers for lunch today. Boy there were so many lights out. What a mess down there. At least they were open. Some normalcy as we eat there every Saturday we aren't at Disney.

 

[anewvance]

We have power! The rest of my family still does not. Finally got gas today too, whoo hooo. Halloween has pretty much been cancelled but tomorrow at a local mall there will be trick or treating so we'll go to that. Good thing we got gas or we wouldn't be able to go. Schools are still closed in Palm Beach County on Monday.... will let us know tomorrow about Tuesday. Something like 73% of PBC is still powerless. 50% of schools still no power. Resturants are starting to open, got Boston Market for dinner tonight, very limited menu though, no chicken... lol.

 

[PigletsPal]

I'm going on my 7th day with no elec. We have some roof and side damage. My DH thinks our damage was due to a Tornado coming thur. It looks like a WAR ZONE in my neighborhood.
The hospital I work at had some windows blow out plus the roof on one floor blew off.
But all in all we did alot better than New Orleans did that is for sure.

 

[RitaZ.]

Wow!!! Wilma was one heck of a storm.

What can I say? We are ok, this was the worst hurricane that I have experienced. We lost power around 6:30 am Monday morning, things rapidly deteriorated from that point. The last phone call that I received from my brother was around that time to tell me that the first fatality occurred in my city. It was one rough morning until around 1:00 pm that Monday afternoon. I was beginning to panic toward the end of the storm. I really don't want to go through that again.

As for damage that we sustained: our trees are destroyed, our landscaping is destroyed, roof tile damaged, floor damage from the water that was forced in through the front door, my husband's car is buried under huge tree limbs and is probably a total loss. Our cell phones didn't work after the storm, we were able to receive and make calls yesterday. Our house phone line was also out.

Our power was restored yesterday morning and our cable came on this afternoon. It has been a rough week, but we managed. Our public schools are still closed. DH will return to work tomorrow and will have to get a rental car. Our neighborhood looks like a war zone with varying degrees of damage. There is debris everywhere and is quite dangerous to drive around town without street lights. Halloween is probably off because it really isn't safe for the kids with all the debris around us.

In many ways, we have been very fortunate. We are together and safe. Our home is intact (except for the roof tile damage) and safe to live in. Our friends and most neighbors have been great. Our Publix now has power and they had milk today. It will take years for our city to look like it did before the storm.

Now, we just wait for the tree company to come out to cut down what's left of the trees and our insurance company to look at DH's car. There is no point in filing a claim with our homeowner's insurance since the repairs will probably cost less than our hurricane deductible. We still have a lot of cleaning up to do on our property, it's going to take time.

 

[Buzzlvr31]

Hello, everyone!!! I'm back!!!!! I just returned from a trip to Borders in Boynton Beach, and found out that my neighborhood FINALLY got power restored!!!!!!

After almost a week without electricity, I'm REALLY glad that it's back!!!!

Hurricane Wilma REALLY hit South Palm Beach County and Broward County hard!!!! In fact, I would go as far as to say that Wilma was MUCH, MUCH, worse that Frances and Jeanne from last year!!!! The eye was 75 miles wide when it was crossing the state, and I think that Palm Beach County was hit by winds of up to Cat 2 Hurricane strength!!!!!

The second eyewall was MUCH worse than the first eyewall!!! In fact, it seemed like a lot of the trees were warped first one direction in the first eyewall, then when the second half hit, it just totally snapped and broke a lot of power lines and trees!!!!

In fact, the local newspapers were saying that Wilma had caused the worst electricity loss in the state of Florida in a long time!!! 3 major counties were imapacted by no electricity the day after Wilma- Dade, Broward, and Palm Beach!!!

This has been one heck of a Hurricane Season, and it's not over yet!!! Hopefully Tropical Storm Beta is the last for this year, but there is a trouble spot by where Alpha was before, that could possibly become Tropical Storm Gamma!!!! Let's all hope not!!!!

 

[wdw4us2]

Power restored Sunday at 9:55 am. HOORAY!

We didn't have as much damage as we did last year from Frances & Jeanne - as my daughter said, "Everything that could have been wrecked happened last year!" The only thing we lost was the fence around the pool which I attribute to age (14 yrs.) as much as Wilma.

The kids are back in school today for the first time in a week and I am loving the blessed silence in my house.

A note of advice for those of you who are still without power or have friends who are without - Make sure you call the FPL outage line at least every other day. We checked on Saturday morning and it showed that our power had been restored when, in fact, it wasn't. It seems that when a grid is restored, the initial ticket is cleared and then a lineman has to submit another ticket when doing the street by street restorations as well as the house to house restorations.