Resident: 'We Just Didn't Think This Storm Was Going to Be That Bad'

Resident: 'We Just Didn't Think This Storm Was Going to Be That Bad'

"Miami Resident: 'We Just Didn't Think This Storm Was Going to Be That Bad'

By Cristina Del Sesto
Special to The Washington Post
Tuesday, October 25, 2005; Page A06

MIAMI, Oct. 24 --

Hurricane Wilma slammed into Florida's east coast on Monday with a sucker punch -- not hard from the Atlantic but from the Gulf of Mexico, roaring across the width of the state, barely losing force.
Most people here had gone to bed the night before believing the storm would lose steam by the time it made landfall or would at least hit the Everglades and stall; only mobile home residents were told to evacuate.

Wilma Crosses Florida
Hurricane Wilma smacked into southwest Florida at daybreak yesterday as a Category 3 storm and sped across the state, exiting into the Atlantic in the afternoon. Wilma left millions of people without power and caused an estimated billions of dollars of damage in the state.

Instead, Wilma arrived here a Category 3 storm, smashing windows and ripping roofs from Miami to Palm Beach. Palm fronds flew, trees toppled, water mains burst and cars flipped like so many Matchbox toys. The downtown Brickell Avenue corridor, home to the city's major skyscrapers, was littered with broken glass. At least five boats, including a 48-foot yacht, sank at their moorings at just one of the many harbors here.

"It was like a grenade went off. All the windows and doors blew off," said Richard Olsen, who lives with his wife, Barbara Gehring, 48, in the penthouse apartment of a historic landmark building on Miami Beach.


73 fer nw,
Bob N5IET

10X# 37210, FP#-1141, SMIRK#-5177
http://www.n5iet.com/
Code may be taking a back seat for now,
but the pioneering spirit that put the code
there in the first place is out front of it all.