Just got back online from Hurricane Wilma. Thought I would share some photos I took just after the storm passed thru Marathon in the Florida Keys. The winds were still pretty stiff but the main storm was north of us beating up Miami Dade county. Keep in mind this all took place after the storm had passed.
At about 8am monday I was surveying the yard and saw a small wall of water heading down the street towards me. It was so bizzare it took several seconds to comprehend what was happening. About that time the wall of water was about three or so feet tall and moving down the street filling in all the lawns as it moved. From the time it took me to run up our ramp to the house and get the car keys and my wife and got back down the water was all ready knee deep. We concentrated on getting what ever we could out of her patrol car. As we opened the door the water was already high enought to pour into the car. Anyway to make a long crappy story short we had about two minutes to get what we could. By then the water was up to out chest and we had to retreat back up the ramp to the house. The first pic shows the gate just at the top of the ramp leading into our house (9ft). The water eventually rose to the top of the double 2x6 you see in the pic. thank god for building codes. From the time I first saw the water coming and we had to retreat due to the depth of the water was no more than I figure about seven minutes. That is what scared us the most. I imagine those poor folks that got hit with the Tsunami with a wall of water a hundred feet tall would be devestating.
Good to hear you’re okay! I was getting worried! It’s too bad about the vehicles, though. How is everything now? Are the cars salvageable? Do you have a way to get around?
It’s great to hear from you.
Matthew
Matthew - The vehicles were under water for over ten hours so they are totalled. A fellow state trooper loaned us his pick up for the time being so we are good to go. Getting tired of MRE’s though. The wife and I are going to celebrate her day off next monday (after working 16 days straight) by going to the Outback restaurant. Unfortunately nothing is close by here in the keys. Its about 30miles away but we are looking forward to some good ole deep fried, greasy, calory rich chow.
Art - Vehicle loss here in the keys is in the hundreds because of the suddeness and amount of storm surge. So i guess it will be some time before we get a visit from the Little green Gecko. And yes now that the lawn is back to as close as we can get it to normal I can while away the hours putting sound in my new NYC FA/B1 units. But before I can do that I have to clean out all the muck on the layout floor. Our neighbor has an older home not raised and the wall of water blew his furniture etc out thru a wall on to the street so we figure we did real good.
Terry
terrible (but great) pics! It would suck being your neighbour! having to go out onto the street to find your stuff. You should have told the rain to come here, (at least some of it!), cause Melbourne’s water storage is still at only 60%, and that’s before the summer starts! Have good fun with your sound! Danny
scubaterry, good to hear that you all are safe, and back on line! Sorry to hear about the vehicles and other damage but glad to know the layout survived. Hopefully insurance will cover your losses and life will return to normal. Great photos of what happened. It is amazing what power a wall of water has. My family was stranded on a temporary island here in the northeast back in the 70’s when the remnants of Huricane Agnes hit the area with many inches of rain and the dams couldn’t hold it. Storms can get real scary sometimes… (I’m known far and wide for understatements.)
Matthew - the room is about 20 X 18 ft. I use about 2/3 for an around the room layout. The other third against one wall is work benches, tools etc. Actually the muck, mud layer isn’t but about 1/4 inch. The door was shut so the big stuff got filtered out. I just need to take every thing out of the shed and hose down the floor put it all back and I am sure the track is going to need a good cleaning even though it didn’t get wet. With all the moisture in the room for four days the track is certainly needing attention. Can’t wait to get my FA/B1 units sounded and running.
Ray - Yes it was scary in the fact I had no idea at the time how much water was going to pile up. As it got nearer and nearer to the front deck I really got nervous. Apparently the surge came when the Hurricane went north of us and the winds came from another direction. The water came from the Atlantic Ocean which is about a 1/4 mile to the east (obviously) traveled across the main highway downtown and ended up dumping into the Gulf of mexico (which is about a block from our house).
Conner - All we lost was our vehicles. I had all my Rolling stock and Loco;s wrapped up tight in rubbermaid boxes taped shut and wrapped in heavy duty plastic and put wayyyy up on top of a shelf in the house. The water would have had to rise another ten feet to get to my Train stuff. You have to have priorities you know.
I’m happy you’re back up. There are things more important than cars and bikes, even more important than trains. Glad to hear you and your lady still are with us. (Yeah, me and the Blues Brothers are real sad about the patrol car, too.)
My in-laws are over on a barrier island in Stuart, ground zero for the two Atlantic hits last year. They may not have the lights on after Wilma for another two weeks. Fortunately, their cell phones are working so we know they’re all right.
Terry
How did Herbie’s Restaurant fare from Wilma? Is that little submarine still in the parking lot? Of course with Herbie’s it may be difficult to determine hurricane damage as it looked a little windblown the last few times I was there. Best wishes from Marathon County, Wisconsin.
Mark B.
Mr Beasley - Some parts of Miami Dade and Broward County are not projected to get their power back on until Nov 22nd (worse case). So once again I figure we did OK. We had cell phones but no power in the house to charge them and our car chargers of course were in the cars. On a side note - some people are selling MRE’s they got from the gov during the last three hurricanes on ebay. Talk about some low lifes. Two days ago I would have sang and danced for an MRE. And there are many people just north of us who are still going without food. Sad real sad.
Terry
Mark fm Marathon - Wow thats interesting. Actually Mark I have not left the house until today because we had no vehicles. They gave my wife a beater Patrol car so of course she goes out everyday. Five state troopers came by the house today and helped us get our yard back in order. Taking down bad trees, cleaning up muck etc. For lunch we went to the Chinese Buffet on the corner about a block from our house. One more day and she gets two days off. The hurricane hit on her sked day off of course. But I will check it out for you. We have never ate there but it is probably less than a 1/2 mile from our house. We stopped in one day and the flies kind of drove us out and we never went back. But it is apparently a well known land mark here in Marathon. What brought you all the way to Marathon, Fl from Marathon, Ws?
Terry
Terry,
The city I live in (Mosinee) is in Marathon County. We also have a Marathon City in the area. A friend of mine is a Deputy Sherrif up here and last trip down there with him he brought some extra shoulder patches to swap with the local police.
Good trade, they were unaware of a Marathon County WIS.
I get down there once in awhile to go fishing (Marathon Lady by the bridge) and otherwise its a family vacation. We usually stay in Marathon and drive down to Key West for a day and make like tourists. Next time down I’ll give you a holler.
Terry, I can empathize a bit with your cleanup. About 5 years ago we had a tornado go through our property and take down a bunch of trees and some damage to the house. I was out the next morning cutting up trees to open up our driveway when I noticed a couple of helicopters flying around me. I sort of waved and went back to cutting trees. Later that evening I saw myself on CNN news waving to the helicopter with the headline remarking about the severe wind damage to parts of central WI. I didn’t think it was that bad. I guess if you think the storm damage was not all that bad, but it makes CNN, you maybe a redneck…
I hope all goes well for you and family in this stressful time.
Mark B.
Scubaterry:
I was reading the CarTalk website (Click and Clack) the other day on water damaged cars. The said that any water that gets in the cylinders has ruined the engine.
Scubaterry, I feel for you man. If I had to watch my Harley go under like you did I don’t know what I’d do, probably cry alot, lol. Maybe you could buy it from the insurance company and rebuild it.