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Hurricane Wilma ploughs into FloridaHurricane Wilma crashed ashore early today as a strong Category 3 storm, battering south-west Florida with 125 mph winds and pounding waves as it began a dash across the state. GDO Report
The same storm that brought ruin over the weekend to resort towns along Mexico’s Yucatan Coast flooded large sections of Key West and other areas and knocked out power to more than 300,000 homes and businesses in the Keys and in such places as Miami and Fort Lauderdale. Wilma, Florida’s eighth hurricane in 15 months, made landfall in Florida at 6.30am (11.30am Irish time) near Cape Romano, bringing with it a potential 18-foot storm surge, the National Hurricane Centre said. Up to 10 inches of rain and tornadoes were forecast for parts of central and southern Florida. “I looked out our place and I saw a bunch of stuff flying by,” said Paul Tucchinio, who was riding out the storm in a condo three blocks from the beach in Naples. “It sounds like someone threw a bunch of rocks against the boards. It’s wicked.” Within two-and-a-half hours after Wilma came ashore, it had weakened to a Category 2 storm with 110 mph winds as it raced across the state toward heavily populated Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach counties on the Atlantic coast. A man in the Fort Lauderdale suburb of Coral Springs died when a tree fell on him, Broward County spokesman Carl Fowler said. Wilma killed at least three people in Mexico and 13 others in Jamaica and Haiti as it made is way across the Caribbean last week. More than 33,000 people were in shelters across the state. But in the low-lying Florida Keys, not even 10 per cent of the Keys’ 78,000 residents evacuated, Sheriff Richard Roth said. Key West was getting sustained winds of 60 mph, with gusts of 76 mph. About 35 per cent of Key West was flooded, including the airport, said Jay Gewin, an assistant to the island city’s mayor. No travel was possible in or out of the city, he said. By 9am (2pm Irish time), the storm was centred in the middle of the state about 45 miles south-west of West Palm Beach. It was moving north-east at about 25 mph. By mid afternoon, a weaker Wilma was expected to skirt the southern end of Lake Okeechobee and head into the Atlantic off Palm Beach County. By early tomorrow, it was expected to be off the coast of Canada, but forecasters said it might not bring heavy rain because its projected track was far offshore. David Paulison, acting director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, said FEMA personnel were in shelters waiting for the hurricane winds to die down before they could assess the damage and begin relief efforts. He said he was “very concerned” that so many people in the Keys did not evacuate. While FEMA was bitterly criticised for its sluggish response to Hurricane Katrina, this time the agency had people working side by side with state emergency officials, Paulison said. “We are going to make sure that we have good visibility on anything that’s going on the ground to make sure we ... understand exactly what’s happening,” he said on CBS. Weary forecasters also monitored Tropical Depression Alpha, which became the record-breaking 22nd named storm of the 2005 Atlantic season and drenched Haiti and the Dominican Republic yesterday. Governor Jeb Bush asked that Florida be granted a major disaster declaration for 14 counties. Many of the areas bracing for Wilma were hit by hurricanes in the past two years. The National Guard was on alert, and state and federal officials had trucks of ice and food ready to deploy. FEMA was poised to send in dozens of military helicopters and 13.2 million ready-to-eat meals if needed. |
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