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Hurricane Wilma damaged their roof and like so many victims of the storm, one South Florida couple had trouble finding a roofer because of a shortage of materials and workers. John and Kathleen Jurewicz finally did get contractor, but it has been anything but smooth sailing. The couple hired McClung contractors to do the work. With their insurance money, the couple paid the company nearly $14,000 for the roofing materials which was suppose to be turned over to ABC supply company. Four months later the supplies still sit in their driveway and the work on the roof was never completed....

Hollywood · A group of civic activists is taking the city to task over the case of three firefighters who applied for emergency food stamps after Hurricane Wilma, even though they each earn more than $70,000 per year. The federal emergency food stamp program, run by the state Department of Children & Families, was intended for people who lost wages or suffered such catastrophic damage they could not feed their families that month. Approximately 500,000 Floridians applied. Firefighter Anthony Cioppa, 41, Capt. Raymond Powers, 51, and Driver-Engineer William Gutierrez, 42, made substantial overtime as a result of the hurricane, city...

Hurricane Wilma, with its 120-mph winds, punched South Florida in the gut. A record 6-million people lost power. About 15,000 homes were damaged or destroyed in a three-county region, preliminary estimates show, with many of those homes inhabited by the elderly or poor. At least 27 people statewide died after the Oct. 24 storm, most from carbon monoxide poisoning or traffic crashes. Yet compared to the concentrated fury of Hurricane Charley in Punta Gorda last year, or to the widespread death and devastation of Hurricane Katrina on the Gulf Coast in August, Wilma spared South Florida - and especially its...

Not kidding.... (Can't remember how to post a link here so click on the Ebay link above)

Saw this on Ebay - what a hoot! If only it were haunted....wait....what if.....? http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=5630980057

Today Harriet Miers informed the President in writing that she was withdrawing her nomination for Supreme Court justice shortly after the President and the first lady attended an event titled 'Helping Americas Youth' at Howard University in University. The President then travelled to Florida to met those affected by Hurricane Wilma and find out how the relief work is going and also visited a Hurricane Center in Miami. Yesterday the Vice President delivered remarks at a reception held in honour of Rep. John Dingell (D-MI) currently the longest serving member of Congress. Yesterday former U.S. president George Bush and former...

Copy of official dataHURRICANE WILMA DISCUSSION NUMBER 18NWS TPC/NATIONAL HURRICANE CENTER MIAMI FL5 PM EDT WED OCT 19 2005 AGREEMENT AMONG THE TRACK GUIDANCE MODELS...WHICH HAD BEEN VERY GOODOVER THE PAST COUPLE OF DAYS...HAS COMPLETELY COLLAPSED TODAY. THE06Z RUNS OF THE GFS...GFDL...AND NOGAPS MODELS ACCELERATED WILMARAPIDLY TOWARD NEW ENGLAND UNDER THE INFLUENCE OF A LARGE LOWPRESSURE SYSTEM IN THE GREAT LAKES REGION. ALL THREE OF THESEMODELS HAVE BACKED OFF OF THIS SOLUTION...WITH THE GFDL SHOWING ANEXTREME CHANGE...WITH ITS 5-DAY POSITION SHIFTING A MERE 1650 NMIFROM ITS PREVIOUS POSITION IN MAINE TO THE WESTERN TIP OF CUBA.THERE IS ALMOST AS...

Hurricane Wilma, which was upgraded from a tropical storm just 24 hours ago, has roared to become one of the strongest cyclones ever recorded in the Atlantic basin. That distinction is based on barometric pressure, the force which drives a hurricane's winds. The National Hurricane Center's 8:00 a.m. advisory indicated observations inside Wilma are the lowest in history. Hurricane hunter aircraft reported Hurricane Wilma's winds soared to 175 mph early Wednesday, making it a catastrophic Category 5 storm on the Saffir-Simpson Scale. Hurricane Wilma's surprisingly rapid intensification is the quickest on record, and its characteristics are now in line with...

DATA FROM THE AIR FORCE RESERVE RECONNAISSANCE AIRCRAFT INDICATE THAT THE DEPRESSION HAS NOT STRENGTHENED. INDEED...THEY HAVE YET TO FIND ANY FLIGHT-LEVEL WINDS HIGHER THAN 31 KT...WHICH ONLY SUPPORTS 25 KT AT THE SURFACE. IN THE INTEREST OF CONTINUITY HOWEVER...I WILL ASSUME THAT SLIGHTLY HIGHER WINDS EXIST SOMEWHERE THE AIRCRAFT HASN'T YET SAMPLED. WHILE CONDITIONS ALOFT AND AT THE SURFACE ARE VERY FAVORABLE FOR DEVELOPMENT...THE CONVECTIVE PATTERN REMAINS DOMINATED BY OUTER BANDS WITH RELATIVELY LITTLE ACTIVITY NEAR THE CORE. FURTHERMORE...WATER VAPOR IMAGERY INDICATES DRY MID-LEVEL AIR HAS BEEN PUSHING SOUTHWARD TOWARD THE CENTER ALONG THE EASTERN SIDE OF HIGH PRESSURE...