Tuesday, June 13, 2006
Wilma: 8 Months Later
Since it came up in the last post, I thought I'd recap what things are like in South Florida since Wilma slammed through late last October.
The big things are mostly back to normal, of course. Everyone has electricity, gas is available, and the streets are pretty much free of debris. But if you look a little more closely, some things are still in disarray. It's a lot easier to get lost than it was a year ago, because many of the street signs are still missing. This is especially true along some of the highways, where message board signs are still in place to mark exits. I know of at least one exit sign on Florida's Turnpike that still hasn't been replaced from when Katrina blew it away almost two months earlier. Also, gas-powered generators are selling a lot faster than they ever have before. I just hope people will be smarter about running them indoors, yet I know they won't.
Blue tarps still adorn roofs everywhere, and that is a particular point of concern now that we are once again in hurricane season. A number of small businesses are gone. Even a Wal-Mart in Sunrise is permanently closed, and the store where I work has a sister location in Deerfield Beach that only reopened last month. More importantly, there are still hundreds of families still living in temporary housing because they lost their homes. With all of the attention on the greater devastation caused by Katrina, the long-term victims of Wilma seem to have been largely forgotten in the public eye, but be assured, they are there.
On a more personal level, while I didn't suffer anything more than a few days without electricity and a significant loss of work, I am still carrying an indirect effect of the hurricane. Early last November, my car has hit by a neighbor in the parking lot. No injuries or major damage, but the damage has yet to be repaired due to the backlog of cars damaged in the hurricane. When I talked to the guy in December, he said they were booked through May. (Not a complaint; in fact I made a point of telling the body shop I would wait while people bring in their hurricane-damaged vehicles.)
Here's hoping the worst winds of 2006 blow out to sea.
The big things are mostly back to normal, of course. Everyone has electricity, gas is available, and the streets are pretty much free of debris. But if you look a little more closely, some things are still in disarray. It's a lot easier to get lost than it was a year ago, because many of the street signs are still missing. This is especially true along some of the highways, where message board signs are still in place to mark exits. I know of at least one exit sign on Florida's Turnpike that still hasn't been replaced from when Katrina blew it away almost two months earlier. Also, gas-powered generators are selling a lot faster than they ever have before. I just hope people will be smarter about running them indoors, yet I know they won't.
Blue tarps still adorn roofs everywhere, and that is a particular point of concern now that we are once again in hurricane season. A number of small businesses are gone. Even a Wal-Mart in Sunrise is permanently closed, and the store where I work has a sister location in Deerfield Beach that only reopened last month. More importantly, there are still hundreds of families still living in temporary housing because they lost their homes. With all of the attention on the greater devastation caused by Katrina, the long-term victims of Wilma seem to have been largely forgotten in the public eye, but be assured, they are there.
On a more personal level, while I didn't suffer anything more than a few days without electricity and a significant loss of work, I am still carrying an indirect effect of the hurricane. Early last November, my car has hit by a neighbor in the parking lot. No injuries or major damage, but the damage has yet to be repaired due to the backlog of cars damaged in the hurricane. When I talked to the guy in December, he said they were booked through May. (Not a complaint; in fact I made a point of telling the body shop I would wait while people bring in their hurricane-damaged vehicles.)
Here's hoping the worst winds of 2006 blow out to sea.
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I do hope the severe stuff passes you over. I arrived on Guam shortly after a major typhoon. We were there for 2 weeks and had no electricity the whole time. We were staying with my Grandma. No generator. Very similar tropical climate as Florida. It can be very miserable with no A/C, I'll bet.
# posted by 
: 5:52 AM
: 5:52 AM
So far we're doing okay. A lot of rain this afternoon, so I got a little we going to lunch, but it's settled down now. If there's a complaint here, it might be not enough rain to help with the fires.
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