Floridians begin cleaning up Wilma’s mess
Published 9:00 pm Tuesday, October 25, 2005
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. – 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 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.
The quantity of debris from the Category 3 storm 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.
Some of the worst damage was in downtown Fort Lauderdale, where winds of more than 100 mph blew out windows in high-rises.
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 Airport, domestic flights were to resume this morning. Airports at Fort Lauderdale and West Palm Beach remained closed to commercial traffic.
Agriculture officials said damage to their industry would be in the hundreds of millions of dollars. The greatest losses were believed to be to the winter vegetable crop, which provides more than half the nation’s supply from November to February.
Wilma was blamed for at least five deaths statewide. Before hitting the United States, it killed at least six people in Mexico, one in Jamaica and 12 in Haiti as it swirled across the Caribbean.
Farther north, a nor’easter that drew energy from the remnants of far-off Hurricane Wilma battered New England and the mid-Atlantic states with 20-foot waves and winds up to 70 mph on Tuesday, brought some inland areas their first snow of the season and knocked out power to nearly 200,000 homes and businesses.
In Mexico, thousands of tourists battled for airline and bus seats out of hurricane-battered Caribbean resorts Tuesday. President Vicente Fox’s office said that about 22,000 foreign tourists remained in the area, down from a peak of almost 40,000.
Associated Press
Joe Smith of Port Salerno, Fla., fills gasoline cans in Stuart, Fla., on Tuesday, as long lines form for buyers to fill up.
