October is soon approaching and to many people in the country it serves as an introduction to the fall season but to people in Florida it brings to mind the anniversary of Hurricane Wilma. After enduring 13 years of near misses and false alarms Florida, in particular Broward County, had been faced with another disaster but many residents took the news nonchalantly. This would prove to be a costly mistake both financially and physically. The original forecast stated that Wilma would steer into the Gulf of Mexico and target Mexico and Costa Rica. Waking up the next morning, residents were in for a shock including myself. The new track took Wilma into the Gulf of Mexico and u-turning back towards Florida.
I remember being in shock initially but then I realized that we've had false alarms before so I put it behind me. By the time I arrived at work everyone was talking about it. Almost everyone said that this was just another near miss and that we would be back at work tomorrow.
Later that afternoon however, the boss informed us that the office would be closing early in preparation for the storm. After initially being elated about the fact we were leaving early I became concerned. My mom called and asked me to pick up some supplies at Publix. Once I arrived. the lines went nearly to the back of the store and nearly all the shelves were empty so I purchased whatever was left. By the time I left the store, the weather took a turn for the worse. It was quite dark (even though it was 4 pm in the afternoon) and very windy. It began raining so I raised my umbrella when a sudden squall came and nearly took the umbrella out of my hand. I fought hard not to let it go but by the time I entered my vehicle, my umbrella was torn to shreds. That's when it hit me--this was the real deal. That squall was clocked at over 60 mph.
I spent the rest of the evening watching updates on the news an worrying about the weather until I fell asleep. Then at 1 am I woke up to howling winds and torrential rain. It was so loud I could not hear my mother who was yelling at me from the next room. This occurred for another 8 hours and just when I thought everything was over, it got worse. By 9 am the winds were clocked at over 100 mph.
I looked outside and could barely see anything--at one point someone's front door flew past my house along with shutters and plywood. It was then I heard a crash and papers began flying. The den window broke from all the pressure and ceiling began shaking. In a panic I took a piece of plywood from the garage and pushed it against the hole in the window and stood there for 3 hours because I did not want to lose the roof. Those were the longest 3 hours of my life.
This along with other survivor stories paints a poignant picture of life in Florida at that time. The period after the hurricane was nearly just as tumultuous. Millions of people were without power for more than a week and there were food and gas shortages. It wasn't unusual to see people fight for both food and gas. One man in Miami was killed when he cut in line at a gas station and an angry motorist ran him over.
Things have changed since then. FPL has improved the power grid and now a majority of power comes from underground resources and solar power. Businesses are now required to have back up generators and price gouging at the tank has become illegal.
So far the past 11 years have been blessing but at some point the "party will be over" and we will be faced with another disaster. The question then will not be how we will recover but how will we live?
