Wilma Damage Before After Pictures

Below are a few pictures I snapped the day before and the day after Hurricane Wilma so I could get a good idea about specific wind field damage range.During the storm the eye wich was 60 miles in diameter was about 20 miles to our North. We were on the dirty side of the storm and did not get a break. The storm cruised thru at about 24 mph and we measurred pressure in the 940's when it passed lower then the 950 + that was reported at landfall from the NHC and we had sustained wind gust above 130 mph at the wind guage when breakage occured .Looking at surrounding damage in the area we have little doubt there was a number of F1 & F2 tornados in the area.Most roof tiles on the East side of the house were completley removed..There was tremendous loss of vegitation and fruit tress. I would estimate it will take 4 to 8 years for the South Florida Avacado Mango Orange and Grapefruit crop to rebound.The early winter crop is all but shot too.
We scrapped the original plan to get reads from the eye because the speed the storm was moving and opted instead to take stationary measurments from a high impact area..
The house we were in was the hardest hit on the block but was not the worse off in the neighborhood.
Much of the repairs that were made from Katrina we made before Wilma held up and we were glad we fixed things and spent our time getting debris out of the way and fixing tiles and fences and shuttering.I tend to think Wilma was on a strengthing period when she crossed Florida and it could have been much worse.What this storm showed was how many people on the East coast Broward , Palm , Miami Dade and Monroe Counties in the Keys were
not really ready for a major Hurricane and did not have supplies for one day let alone 3 or 4 or more days... I hope this is a lesson they will learn and not forget.While many of the population was ready a great number was not these may be people whom have never experianced a strom , I do not know .. Being a Vetern of Hurricanes myself I knew exactly what I needed to do the minute I got there and we were ready as one can be.
.. The day I left Thursday night they had just got the power back on. But there was still some 2.5 million without power.

great pics Christodd.

I'm in Sunrise and definitely felt wind gusts stronger than that of the Category 1 that I believe is the "official" strength of Wilma as she passed over us. I think we had gusts over the 120mph range and I certainly don't rule out the possibility of tornadoes being the cause for much of the damage.

We went 10 days 14 hours without electricity and 25 days without cable and internet.

I also have a Wilma pic thread around here somewhere.

Great pictures -- it is interesting to see the before and after pictures together like that. It makes so much impact that way. Living in hurricane prone area also I know what you mean about people not being prepared - I have most things I need on hand all the time but if a hurricane is predicted to come anywhere near us I stock up on other things -- I figure I can always use it another time. Much better to be safe than sorry - right