Wilma Barrels Across South Florida
The same storm that brought ruin over the weekend to resort towns along Mexico's Yucatan Coast came ashore in Florida as a strong Category 3 hurricane, but within 2 1/2 hours it had weakened into a Category 2 with winds of 110 mph. It flattened trees, tore off roof tiles and screens, and turned debris into missiles.
"We have been huddled in the living room trying to stay away from the windows. It got pretty violent there for a while," said Eddie Kenny, 25, who was at his parents' home in Plantation near Fort Lauderdale with his wife. "We have trees down all over the place and two fences have been totally demolished, crushed, gone."
In Cuba, rescuers used scuba gear, inflatable rafts and amphibious vehicles to pull nearly 250 people from their flooded homes in Havana after Wilma sent huge waves crashing into the capital city and swamped neighborhoods up to four blocks inland with 3 feet of water. In Cancun, Mexico, troops and federal police moved in to control looting at stores and shopping centers ripped open by the hurricane, and hunger and frustration mounted among Mexicans and stranded tourists.
Wilma, Florida's eighth hurricane in 15 months, came ashore in Florida at 6:30 a.m. EDT near Cape Romano, 22 miles south of Naples, spinning off tornadoes and bringing a potential 18-foot storm surge, the National Hurricane Center said. Up to 10 inches of rain were forecast in 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."
The storm flooded large sections of Key West and other areas and knocked out power to up to 2.5 million homes and businesses as it raced across the state and began buffeting heavily populated Miami- Dade, Broward and Palm Beach counties on the Atlantic coast with gusts over 100 mph.
A gust was clocked at 104 mph at the National Hurricane Center in Miami, causing howling even in the bunker-like building.
In Weston, near Fort Lauderdale, Kim DuBois sat in her darkened house with her two children and husband, with the power out and the storm shutters up. For light they used a battery-powered pumpkin lantern they bought for Halloween.
"I could hear tiles coming off the roof," she said. "There are trees on cars and flooding at the end of our street." She added: "Really what I'm afraid of is tornadoes."
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.
Gov. Jeb Bush said more than 3,000 National Guardsmen had been mobilized, and another 3,000 were on alert. "Don't be fooled by the lull" as the eye passes, he warned.
More than 33,000 people were in shelters across the state. But in the low-lying Florida Keys, not even 10 percent of the Keys' 78,000 residents evacuated, Sheriff Richard Roth said.
About 35 percent 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. U.S. 1, the only highway connecting the Keys to the mainland, was flooded.
Key West Police Chief Bill Mauldin said the flooding was severe— "more extensive than we've seen in the past." But he said he would not know until the full extent of any damage until the winds died down.
By 9 a.m., the storm was centered in the middle of the state about 45 miles southwest of West Palm Beach. It was moving northeast at about 25 mph.
Flooding was reported a few islands to the north on the snowbird enclave of Marco Island, and in downtown Naples.
By midafternoon, Wilma was expected to head into the Atlantic off Palm Beach County. By early Wednesday, it was expected to be off the coast of Canada, but forecasters said it may not bring heavy rain because its projected track was far off shore.
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 worried that so many people in the Keys did not evacuate.
While FEMA was bitterly criticized 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.
FEMA personnel are "ready to go," Paulison said on CNN. "They're motivated, they're going to get on top of this and move very quickly."
Weary forecasters also monitored Tropical Depression Alpha, which became the record-breaking 22nd named storm of the 2005 Atlantic season. Alpha, which drenched Haiti and the Dominican Republic on Sunday, was not considered a threat to the United States.
Florida's governor asked for a major disaster declaration for 14 counties. Many of the areas bracing for Wilma were hit by hurricanes in the past two years.
State and federal officials had trucks of ice and food ready. FEMA was prepared to send in dozens of military helicopters and 13.2 million ready-to-eat meals. Wilma prompted the fourth hurricane evacuation of the Keys this year.
After battering the Mexican coastline with howling winds and torrential rain, Wilma pulled away from the Yucatan Peninsula on Sunday as a Category 2 storm and strengthened in the warm waters of the Gulf of Mexico. Wind shear that was expected to rob Wilma of some strength did not materialize.
A tornado touched down Monday in Brevard County, damaging an apartment complex. No one was injured. Wilma's arrival also was announced by at least four tornadoes Sunday night—including one near Kennedy Space Center at Cape Canaveral—that damaged some businesses but caused no injuries.
One serious injury was reported in Florida on Sunday: a 12-year-old girl suffered a fractured skull in Wellington when falling hurricane shutters struck her head, said Palm Beach County Sheriff's spokesman Paul Miller. She was hospitalized in critical condition.
In Europe, crude oil slipped below $60 as traders expected Wilma to avoid already battered Gulf of Mexico oil producing and refining facilities. At least four companies operating in the gulf shut down production platforms.
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Associated Press writers Allen Breed in Naples, Erik Schelzig in Marathon, David Royse in Key West, Fla., Melissa Trujillo in Oakland Park, and Ron Word and Brent Kallestad in Miami contributed to this story.
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On the Net:
National Hurricane Center: http://www.nhc.noaa.gov
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