TAMPA, Fla. -- Bill McKnight, president of Automated Petroleum & Energy Co. Inc. in Tampa, Fla., reported what is becoming an unfortunate refrain in the Southeast: power and phones out at some locations after Hurricane Wilma made its way across Florida Monday.
McKnight said that while his sites were not located in the hardest-hit areasKey West north to Daytona Beacha couple of his locations did experience power troubles. And as of midday yesterday, the phones were still out at those sites, but he expected all of those issues to be resolved within 12 [image-nocss] hours.
Hurricane Wilma left a wide, messy swath of damage Monday as it sped across Florida with winds of more than 100 mph, shattering skyscraper windows, peeling off roofs and knocking out power to at least 3.2 million customers from Key West to Daytona Beach, according to a report from the Associated Press. One death was blamed on Wilma, and even storm-savvy Floridians found the hurricane fearsome as it sliced through the middle of heavily populated South Florida, according to the report.
The Category 3 hurricane littered the landscape with damaged signs, awnings, fences, billboards, roof tiles, pool screens, street lights and electrical lines. Felled trees dotted even expressways.
More than one-third of Key West flooded, cutting off the island, and there was scattered floodwater elsewhere. In Fort Lauderdale, Miami and Miami Beach, high-rises had countless windows blown out, including at the Broward County Courthouse and the 14-story school board office building.
"Fort Lauderdale hasn't seen anything this bad in a long time," Adam Baer, 27, a courthouse employee and lifelong resident, told AP. Across the street, a water cooler from an office above rested on the sidewalk.
All the Florida Keys was without power, and outages extended as far north as Daytona Beach, an eight-hour drive up I-95 from Key West.
The eighth hurricane to strike Florida in 15 months made landfall around 6:30 a.m. EDT near Cape Romano, an uninhabited island south of Naples in Collier County on Florida's southwest coast. Wilma moved northeast at 25 mph, and devastating winds reached Florida's east coast by midmorning.
Gusts exceeded 100 mph in suburban Fort Lauderdale and Miami, where winds howled in the bunker-like National Hurricane Center. A Coral Springs man died when a tree fell on him, Broward County spokesman Carl Fowler told AP.
By early afternoon, cleanup had begun. President Bush promised swift action. He signed a disaster declaration for hurricane-damaged areas and was briefed on the situation by Homeland Security secretary Michael Chertoff, acting FEMA director David Paulison and Bush's brother, Gov. Jeb Bush.
"We have prepositioned food, medicine, communications equipment, urban search-and-rescue teams," the president said. "We will work closely with local and state authorities to respond to this hurricane."
Governor Jeb Bush said 4,000 utility workers were ready to restore power. For a change, lack of air conditioning was not an immediate concern in the aftermath of a hurricane. The strong cold front that pushed Wilma through Florida was expected to send the wind-chill factor into the 40s Tuesday morning.
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