Hurricane Wilma Live Thread, Part IV

NHC - NOAA ^ | 24 October 2005 | NHC - NOAA

[NautiNurse]

Category Three Major Hurricane Wilma is barreling toward the Southwest Florida coastline. The storm is packing wind speeds of 125mph, moving NW at 20mph, with an enormous eye 65 miles in diameter. Landfall is anticipated shortly in Collier County between 6:00 and 7:00AM ET.

Storm surge flooding of 9 feet to 17 feet is possible along the coast near and to the south of where Wilma makes landfall. Storm surge of 5 to 8 feet is predicted for the Keys. The storm has spawned tornados throughout the Florida peninsula since yesterday evening.

The following links are self-updating:

Public Advisory Currently published every 3 hours 0500, 0800, 1100 etc. ET
NHC Discussion Published every six hours 0500, 1100, 1700, 2300 ET
Three Day Forecast Track
Five Day Forecast Track

Wilma Forecast Track Archive
Forecast Models
Buoy Data SE Florida
Current Weather Warnings and Watches for Florida
Florida Department of Emergency Management

Images:

Storm Floater IR Loop
Visible Storm Floater Still (only visible during daylight hours)
Color Enhanced Atlantic Loop
Florida Radar/Sat Loop Caution: Broadband users only
Extra Large Miami Radar Broadband only
Extra Large Key West Radar Broadband only
Miami Long Range Radar Loop
Key West Long Range Radar Loop
Miami Radar Still Image w/watches warnings
Melbourne Radar Still Image w/watches warnings
Key West Radar Still Image w/watches warnings
Tampa Bay Radar Still image w/watches warnings

Streaming Video:

WBBH-TV/WZVN-TV Ft. Myers (WMP): http://waterbc.wm.llnwd.net/waterbc_netvideo
WESH-TV/DT Orlando/Daytona Beach (RP): http://mfile.akamai.com/7883/live/reflector:24028.ram
WFTV-TV/DT Orlando (RP): http://mfile.akamai.com/7883/live/reflector:20361.ram
WKMG-TV/DT Orlando (RP): http://mfile.akamai.com/7883/live/reflector:23942.ram
WPBF-TV/DT West Palm Beach (RP): http://mfile.akamai.com/7883/live/reflector:24035.ram
WSVN-TV/DT Miami (WMP): http://216.242.118.140/windowsmedia/asx/wsvn_broadband.asx
WTVJ-TV/DT Miami: http://nbc6.feedroom.com/iframeset.jsp?ord=381015
WPLG-TV/DT Miami (RP): http://mfile.akamai.com/8660/live/reflector:23941.ram
WFOR-TV/DT Miami (WMP): http://wfor.dayport.com/viewer/content/special.php?Art_ID=612&Format_ID=2&BitRate_ID=8&Contract_ID=2&Obj_ID={obj_id}
WTSP-TV/DT St. Petersburg/Tampa (WMP): mms://wmbcast.gannett.speedera.net/wmbcast.gannett/wmbcast_gannett_sep252004_1915_64623
Hurricane City (Real Player) - http://hurricanecity.com/live.ram
ABCNews Now (Real Player) - http://reallive.stream.aol.com/ramgen/redundant/abc/now_hi.rm

Additional Resources:

Pet Friendly Florida Shelter Info
Central Florida Hurricane Center
Hurricane City
CrownWeather.com

Category	Wind Speed	Barometric Pressure	Storm Surge	Damage Potential
Tropical Depression	< 39 mph < 34 kts			Minimal
Tropical Storm	39 - 73 mph 34 - 63 kts			Minimal
Hurricane 1 (Weak)	74 - 95 mph 64 - 82 kts	28.94" or more 980.02 mb or more	4.0' - 5.0' 1.2 m - 1.5 m	Minimal damage to vegetation
Hurricane 2 (Moderate)	96 - 110 mph 83 - 95 kts	28.50" - 28.93" 965.12 mb - 979.68 mb	6.0' - 8.0' 1.8 m - 2.4 m	Moderate damage to houses
Hurricane 3 (Strong)	111 - 130 mph 96 - 112 kts	27.91" - 28.49" 945.14 mb - 964.78 mb	9.0' - 12.0' 2.7 m - 3.7 m	Extensive damage to small buildings
Hurricane 4 (Very strong)	131 - 155 mph 113 - 135 kts	27.17" - 27.90" 920.08 mb - 944.80 mb	13.0' - 18.0' 3.9 m - 5.5 m	Extreme structural damage
Hurricane 5 (Devastating)	Greater than 155 mph Greater than 135 kts	Less than 27.17" Less than 920.08 mb	Greater than 18.0' Greater than 5.5m	Catastrophic building failures possible

Previous Threads:
Hurricane Wilma Live Thread, Part III
Hurricane Wilma Part II
Hurricane Wilma Live Thread
Tropical Storm Wilma
Tropical Depression #24

[NautiNurse]

FRmail. If you don't know where you would stay, then where would someone driving 235 miles each way stay?

[patriciaruth]

Thanks for the wind speed readings for the Atlantic coast areas of Southeastern Florida.

[patriciaruth]

That's something I have mentioned to him if he was thinking about staying overnight in the area, which is why I am trying hard to find someone locally to do the tarping.

But if he ends up being our last card to play, and no commercial place available he might stay with the taxi driver's family that live nearby. Or with my former Pastor, now widowed, who lives near the airport, too.

If it comes to that, we'll work the problem.

[NonValueAdded]

Whoa, the tease for the 11 PM local news tonight (WESH Orlando) was "will we see Beta? See what we're tracking in the tropics." Maybe it is a good idea to keep those boards up for another week. Sheesh. Beta "bubba" thread up yet? I think Gamma's nickname should be "Ray."

break

The area of interest is just south of Jamaca and the weather babe said "generally these storms don't come to Florida this time of year." Then again it is heading towards Honduras and the Yucatan peninsula. We know what the last one to hit the Yucatan did!

[NautiNurse]

Hurricane season is over.

[elfman2]

Hey, hope you guys made out okay?

It was a wicked experience here. We woke our 3 year old up to see 60’ trees whipping around like rag dolls. I didn’t know they could move around that fast without breaking, then they broke…

What was most freaky was the ultra low rumble, kind of a sub-harmonic, like a big waterfall echoing through a canyon. That was in addition to the expected noise of the wind and cracking limbs. I thought it was that “freight-trains” tornado sound at first, but it was constant.

Not a lot of damage to our neighborhood though, mostly just landscaping and little things. Publix, Shell and Woodies Pizza were open within hours after hurricane winds yesterday.

One neighbor came over today and said that the National Guard was giving out MREs and ice at Coral Shores High. We no more needed the stuff today than last month, but wanted to get the kids out of the house. We pulled in and the troops were cool. They even posed for pictures with our kids. No MREs though - just boxed meals. Our power was back on when we returned, but that didn’t stop my wife from going back for 3 more boxed meals and water. (Must be the Cambodian in her…)

I hope you made out well.

[Sam Cree]

We're OK, minimal damage. Using wife's laptop on dialup, phone's been going in and out. IMO, the hurricane was strong cat one in this neighborhoood, but with gusts probably over 120, as best as I can extrapolate from my anemometer. Most damage in the neighborhood is to trees and fences.

We got a little piece of the eye for a couple minutes, I think. Our stronger winds were during the second half, after switching to NW.

Am much relieved to have it over with.

Saw that a new one is forming down in the Caribbean!

[NonValueAdded]

Is that a wishful, exhausted, or a declarative sentence? :) Only 36 more days!

[My Favorite Headache]

You might want to rethink that comment...all models except one show Beta forming 300 miles south of Cuba in the next 3 days.

[exhaustedmomma]

Anybody seen pictures out of Miami yet?

Showed skyscrapper windows blown out. Interview of some lady saying, "I just didn't know it would be this bad." And all channels are showing that weather channel guy blowing in the wind... knocked to his knees... blown all over the place in Miami. (He's like the weather reporter god now.) CNN even had a tribute to the "weather" reporter heroes... and guess who they kept showing? The weather channel guy in Miami. You haven't seen him yet?

[aberaussie]

They went through the neighborhoods and handed out flyers to the folks they thought would need the blue roof. I called them and they sent me to the local FEMA center (which had been set up relatively close to our area) where I filled out a form authorizing them to come on to my property. It was a three step process. One person came out and measured and decided what we needed - we ended up with a fully covered roof. A crew came out a few weeks later and put it on. Another person came out some time later (I never saw him or her) and inspected it.

These blue roofs are not designed to last a long time. We got ours in October, I think, and it was shredding by March. Our neighbors loved us.

[Marak]

I live in the northern section of the island. If your parents do not have power yet, I would bet that they do tomorrow. I am glad that your parents escaped major damaqe.

[Elle Bee]

Power just came back

splashed my beemer ... surge got it ... I'm ordering an new one with a bigger engine ... or maybe I'll go with the supercharged Rover

a waterspout hit my backyard ... fish on the roof .... twisted ... I saw one as the storm came in it was HUGE

cell phones are still a mess

the high ground in Old town looks pretty good

the Afterdeck bar @ Louie's is no more... the Atlantic Shores hotel gone ..... the Hilton dock gone .....the dock at the Galleon gone ..... dock at the Ocean Key house gone ..... couldn't get a look at SSK .... we've arranged to get over tomorrow ...... that turn out on the ocean between 1800 Atlantic and the other condo La Brisa on Higgs beach gone

a lot a people were completely wiped out .... there are some streets in New town which look like Bangladesh ... I really feel quite fortunate

the Schooner Wharf is much cleaner .... but you would never know anything happened down there .... BOs is considerably cleaner and has few fewer trees

... it's clear that I had a waterspout touch down in the back yard ... shells, sand and fish on the roof and elsewhere ... trees and fencing twisted counterclockwise ... things from the backyard out front

behind the Kevlar netting ... nothing moved

I discretely sprinkled some shekels around to several who were near tears ... they work so hard for what they have then suddenly it's gone .... they're really alone down here and suddenly have nothing dry and no place of their own even to sleep

reports from up key are much worse

there are hundreds of cars down ... many hundreds just here in town How are the rest of the FReepers?

.

[Howlin]

Glad you're okay, Elle!

[Elle Bee]

Thanks ..... I've had less interesting weekend ... and I hope to have more

How did everyone else fair?

.

[Howlin]

Pretty good, as far as I have heard.

Wish there was something I could do to help. :-(

[buickmackane]

Sorry to hear about about your beemer getting splashed, but at least your beeber wasn't stuned!

The shekels will be a great mitzvah to the people you helped; that was very kind of you indeed!

;-)

[NautiNurse]

a waterspout hit my backyard ... fish on the roof .... twisted ...there are some streets in New town which look like Bangladesh ...

Eeeesh...the stuff of vivid nightmares

behind the Kevlar netting ... nothing moved

Incredible...Prayers answered you are safe. Power is getting restored well ahead of the 4 week estimates. Please let us know what we can do to assist your neighbors. Still haven't heard from quite a few FReepers, including jsh3180 up the road a bit from you. Take care.

[NautiNurse]

Thank you for checking in. Very relieved to hear you are safe, with minimal property damage.

All reports indicate this was an unusual storm with the strongest winds on the back side. Something about the cold front moving down simultaneously, causing a bigger pressure gradient.

[NautiNurse]

Hurricane season is over.
Is that a wishful, exhausted, or a declarative sentence?

yes