Wednesday, October 26, 2005
The storm moved fast, but it did an estimated $10 billion worth of damage.
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP) -- Repair crews across Florida struggled Tuesday to restore electricity to up to 6 million people, reopen the region's airports and replace countless windows blown out of downtown high-rises during Hurricane Wilma's ruinous dash across the state.
Officials said it could take weeks for Florida's most heavily populated region -- the Miami, Fort Lauderdale and West Palm Beach area -- to return to normal.
Water and gas became precious commodities, and people waited for hours for free water, ice and food. Lines stretched for blocks at the few gas stations with the electricity needed to pump fuel, and arguments broke out when motorists tried to cut in line. More than 500 people waited outside one store for cleanup supplies.
But barely 24 hours after the Category 3 storm struck, there were signs of recovery.
"We have power! We have power!" several residents of Miami Lakes chanted as they ran out their back doors when the lights came on.
The quantity of debris was daunting: Pieces of roofs, trees, signs, awnings, fences, billboards and pool screens were scattered across several counties. Damage estimates ranged up to $10 billion.
"Tomorrow's going to be better than today," Gov. Jeb Bush said.
Hardest-hit areas
Some of the worst damage was in downtown Fort Lauderdale, where Wilma was the strongest hurricane to strike since 1950. Winds of more than 100 mph blew out windows in high-rises, many built before Florida enacted tougher construction codes following Hurricane Andrew in 1992.
The school district's 14-story headquarters -- known as the "Crystal Palace" -- was stripped of nearly its entire glass facade on one side.
"We're going to have to fix it in a way that is stronger," Superintendent Frank Till said.
Government officials and business executives scrambled to repair buildings and find other places to work. Broward County court officials were trying to determine whether sessions could be held at the damaged courthouse in coming days.
Some schools and courts closed for the week. Orders to boil water were issued in many locations. Miami-Dade, Broward and Monroe counties imposed overnight curfews.
At Miami International, the busiest U.S. hub for Latin American travel, the first plane to land since the hurricane arrived Tuesday from Brazil, and domestic flights were to resume this morning. Airports at Fort Lauderdale and West Palm Beach remained closed to commercial traffic, but emergency aircraft were coming into both facilities.
At least 2,000 domestic and international flights were disrupted by the storm, affecting hundreds of thousands of passengers, when Wilma knocked out electricity and damaged roofs, towers, fences and other equipment.
Crop damage estimates
Agriculture officials said damage to their industry would be in the hundreds of millions of dollars. The greatest losses was believed to be to the winter vegetable crop, which provides more than half of the nation's supply from November to February. Also hurt were sugar cane fields and ornamental-plant nurseries.
The 21st storm in the worst Atlantic hurricane season on record, Wilma was blamed for at least five deaths statewide.
"It will be days or weeks before we are back to normal," Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Alvarez said.
In the wake of complaints over the way the government dealt with Hurricane Katrina, the governor praised the early response to Wilma.
Frustration, humor
At Dania Beach City Hall, however, more than 100 people waited in line for ice and water that was supposed to arrive at 9 a.m. but never came. At the Orange Bowl in Miami, storm victims were frustrated to find limited supplies of relief items.
"Waiting six hours to get one bag of ice and six bottles of water is not a good thing," Alberto Martinez said.
Distribution went more smoothly elsewhere, though. At Key West High School, the food even included Key lime pie.
And many storm-savvy Floridians coped with good humor, their mood lifted in part by spectacular weather in the wake of Wilma: cloudless skies and unseasonably low temperatures that dropped into the 50s about dawn Tuesday and were in the mid-70s during the day.
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