Hurricanes:

   I am adding a few more pictures from a previous storm because I have received a few questions from people who can't imagine what a hurricane is like. I have lived in South Florida for over 50 years. There have been many storms during that time. Many of the storms of the 1960's caused extensive damage that left memories that live forever, but I have no pictures. I have a few pictures from a few of the storms that came to South Florida during the past decade.

  Every storm is different and causes differing amounts of damage. Some storm have a lot of rain, 20 inches or more in a few hours. This usually causes a lot of flood damage even in South Florida, which was designed to handle severe rain storms. Some storms (like Wilma) have little rain, about 2 inches. For a storm to be called a hurricane it must have sustained winds of 74 miles per hour or higher. Wilma allegedly only had winds of around 100 mph. The damage looked like it was a lot higher.

  Most hurricanes have an "eye". This is an area of relative calm that the winds revolve around. It can be small (1 to 5 miles wide) or large (50 miles wide). In some cases there can be total calm with clear blue skies and no wind in the eye. Hurricane Wilma had a relatively large eye with no rain and light grey skies with mild winds. Everyone in the neighborhood was outside during the eye. The damage at that time was mild. As the eye passes over the winds will resume quickly. Often the most intense wind is concentrated near the eye. This was the case with Wilma. Most of the destruction happened during the 10 minute period right after the eye passed over.

How long does a hurricane last? Again every one is different and often the storm does not hit directly, so that the intense part may only last an hour or so. A small (200 miles wide) storm moving at 20 miles per hour will still affect you for at least 10 hours. A large (500 miles wide) can move at 5 miles per hour or less. Hurricane Francis stalled off the Florida coast for 12 hours. This caused storm force winds for 24 hours, leading to the slow destruction of my roof.

Hurricane Wilma

These are pictures that I took during, and after the storm. All of these were taken within 1 mile from my house, most are from the street that I live on. I have added some pictures that my neighbor took.

I shot this picture during the storm from my front porch. It is a section of the roof lifting off of a house.

This is a wide angle view from the front porch of my house. It is about 5 minutes before the picture above. The house (roof mostly intact) shown above is to the right of the two white cars in the center of the picture. Check out the palm trees to the left of the white cars. The red SUV in the foreground moved about 4 inches during the storm.

House across the street lost their front porch and most of their roof. I saw two more houses like this one today. The wind got under the front porch, and lifted it up, taking a chunk of roof with it. In this case there was a 60 gallon water tank and solar water heater attached. It was found 40 feet away.

Same thing here. The porch went, and took some of the roof. All of the broken houses face west. I live in the same model house. Mine faces east.

Another roof with a large hole

This was a fence and a pool patio

This used to be a shed. Pieces of the shed were found several houses down, but most of the contents remained in place. The dirt bike still runs fine. The plastic sheds that come from Home Depot didn't hold up well. Most metal ones didn't either.

I know that I used to live around here somewhere

Here you have high voltage power lines in the pool.

This was the shed behind my house. It was an expensive aluminum one. When they get pelted with debris at 120 MPH they come apart.

This is what's left of the contents. I have found items that were in my shed five houses away.

The pile of debris in the background used to be a shed. The debris in the foreground was the roof from the house on the left. There were pieces all over the neighborhood.

This '69 Mach 1 was sitting on jack stands IN the driveway. It has no engine or trans, so it is lighter than normal. I saw it lift up and then come crashing back down. If you look carefully at the garage door, you will notice that it is bent. It was pushed in almost a foot by the wind.

This is Flamingo Road, it runs adjacent to the Sawgrass Mills Mall. It is deserted because it is blocked off due to the power lines in the street. Notice the concrete pole and street light in the street. It is severed in half at the base.

Wilma, Tiki Goddess of Destruction. Made of 100% recycled trees, plenty of them around.

This doesn't help the power situation

This was the rear patio. It came over the house and flattened a Firebird. Note the ceiling fan still attached, sticking up from the center of the ceiling.

Today, this is worth its weight in gold. 130 gallons of gasoline. The fuel situation here is either you wait in a gas line for 4 hours to get gas, limited to a $20 USD purchase (about 6 gallons), or you have a friend that lives 200 miles away who is willing to fill the back of his pickup truck with gas cans and bring it here. This is the second trip he has made since the storm. This keeps about 5 family's generators running for a few hours per day, for a few days. This is the only reason that I can post these pictures.

Boat out of water.

Most of the trees have lost their leaves, or been blown over. These are at the Sawgrass Mills Mall. Picture by David

There are a lot of power poles down. I wouldn't want to have the wires finally snap when I was driving under. Picture by David

More power poles down, and wires in the street. Picture by David

Even more. This is why we won't have power any time soon. Picture by David

Need a power transformer for a really big tube amp? These things are just lying around. Picture by David

Sometimes, they are just hanging out. Picture by David

This is the debris pile from the roof at the warehouse complex next door to the complex where the tubes are stored. It is 30 feet long and 5 feet high. The contents of these warehouses are likely a total loss. Picture by David

This is a storage unit in the same complex where the tubes are stored. It was pounded in by flying pieces of roof from the complex next door. Fortunately my unit does not look like this. There are dents in the door, but it does not look damaged. I haven't been there yet. Picture by David