Hurricane Wilma slammed into south Florida on October 24, 2005. According to the weather media this storm would blow by quick at the category 2 level of intensity. I'll tell you what, this storm did not blow buy quick, matter of fact hurricane winds lasted at least three hours at my residence in Delray Beach which is about 25 miles north of Fort Lauderdale. I downplayed this storm as not going to be all that bad. Just to be safe I installed my storm shutters and secured my outside garden furniture. I have what I call a hurricane kit in my garage with survival necessities along with a 12 gauge sawed-off shotgun. I did not need the shotgun but my supply of fresh water, lanterns, and batteries came in handy.

The storm slammed into my area right around 7:30 a.m. Of course the power died right about this time. I have been in 7 hurricanes and this is my most frightening. Sitting button upped in my house was not a nice experience. You sure hear lots of strange noises. I could hear the nails in my roof screeching as they pulled out of the supports. The roof held up fine in the end but there were moments I thought it might go. If my garage door was not reinforced with aluminum girders I believe it would have been sucked out of its tracks.

After about 90 minutes of hard wind the eye of the hurricane was over us with its eerie calm. I went outside to access the damage. The damage was not as bad as I thought it would be. I had some trees down and lost the oranges on my orange tree. My landscaping was screwed up but still I was please that we had no structural damage. I kept hearing on the radio and from some neighbors that the backside of the hurricane would not be too bad. Simply put, they were wrong. The backside finished off what the front side did not get.

Anyway we survived Wilma and the biggest inconvenience was no power. Our power was restored at approximately 7:00 p.m., October 30, 2005. My telephone still does not work although the DSL connection going through this line works fine. My cell phone did not work until 3 days after the storm. I had to cut down many of my bushes and trim back broken trees. I had some food loss. I did get a chance to cook my best meats on my grill. I always keep two extra gas bottles as part of my hurricane kit.

Few people who used common sense and prepared for this hurricane suffered. The national news media has tried to make us look like fools in Florida. You have people down here like anywhere else that think the government owes them something for their stupidity and lack of personal responsibility. The news media searches out these people for interviews on just how horrible the situation has become and how they are being short changed by all levels of government. This is bunk. FEMA responded quickly as did all levels of local and state government. Remember the Boy Scout motto, "BE PREPARED."