Oct 24, 2007 11:33 am US/Eastern
S. Florida Marks The 2nd Anniversary Of Wilma
MIAMI (CBS4) ―
The 2005 hurricane season had already broken records when yet another tropical storm formed in the Caribbean on October 17th, getting the last name on the list: Wilma.
But this one would break even more records. As it crossed very warm waters on the 18th, Wilma intensified at an incredible pace; from a tropical storm to a Category 5 hurricane within 24 hours. The next morning, Hurricane Hunters flew into Wilma, finding the smallest eye they'd ever seen; less than two-and-a-half miles wide, clear evidence of an extremely powerful hurricane.
From the flight data, the Hurricane Center estimated Wilma's central pressure at 882 millibars, the lowest ever in our part of the world with top winds at 185 miles-per-hour.
Wilma weakened to a Category 4 before it pounded the Yucatan on the 21st and 22nd. When it entered the Gulf, Wilma was a much weaker hurricane.
Late on the 23rd, as it struggled to intensify, Wilma got caught in the first strong cold front of the season, pushing the hurricane toward South Florida. When Wilma hit the coast around 6:30 a.m. on the morning of the 24th as a Category 3, it was moving fast at nearly 25 miles an hour with an eye nearly 60 miles wide.
The good news was that Wilma crossed the entire peninsula in a few hours. The bad news, though weakened to barely a Category 2, Wilma's winds tore up roofs throughout Miami-Dade, Broward, and Palm Beach counties, and snapped thousands of power poles, putting millions of us in the dark for days, even weeks.
The extensive damage to South Florida's power supply system meant gas stations couldn't operate, supermarkets couldn't open and thousands were forced to line up for water and ice in the days that followed, showing just how vulnerable South Florida is to any hurricane, not just "the big one."
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