Hurricane Wilma, Oct 2005, by Carly Fabrikant

From MemoryArchive

Who: Carly Fabrikant
What: Hurricane Wilma
When: Oct 2005
Where: Miami, FL

As hurricane wilma started to hit, I got phone call after phone call from my brother who weathered out the storm in my families apartment. First the electricity went out, and than my apartment started flooding because the strength of the rain. My brother called and said the windows were bubbling so he was going to move into someone elses apartment because it was deemed safe to be on the south side of the building anymore. Eventually the hurricane subsided. Our home was damaged, some of our neighboors windows were blown out, and it looked like winter in FL. There were trees everywhere, and lights out. After going their over the weekend of Nov 5, I got to see what was happening in FL. People had lost their homes, and were now living in motor homes, and tents a little farther north. People were still out of power, and you were told to still not drink the tap water. We went to a local mall and they were finally giving food stamps out to hurricane victims. There were still many street lamps out, so you we were not able to take as many shortcuts as we used to be able too. Another thing is, is that when the traffic lights finally came back on or were put back up, they were not on the right schedules, which caused tons of traffic everywhere. When we drove a little farther north, you could see parts of buildings missing and signs cut in half. It was outrageous. My father said because the hurricane was moving so fast, that the pressure was so bad, and thats why the hurricane was worse than they thought it would be. It turns out it was only a category 2 when it hit FL but it was still really bad. People are still trying to recover and windows are still boarded up. People like my family will have to replace windows because they can not withstand another hurricane. It was definitely an experience that people will not forget.