Situation in Florida after Wilma

Hi,

first off all I hope that all of you hit by hurrican Wilma are alive and
well. My wife and me are headed for Miami and Key Largo on Nov., 11th.
Could anyone please give me a rough idea about the current situation?
Should we try to change our arrangements?

Thanks, Michael

Much of Miami Dade and Broward Counties are without power. Streetlights are
down all over the place and few are functioning. Gas supplies are reported
to be adequate, but you can't get it out of the tanks. Gas pumps run on
electricity and only a few stations have power. Ironically, it's the oldest
stations that opened first. Their electro/mechanical pumps will work off a
generator. Apparently the newer, computer controlled ones, won't. The gas
stations that are open are taking cash only and, for now, are also limiting
the amount of fuel they'll sell to any one customer. Lines are sometimes
miles and hours long. The power company is projecting that 90% of their
customers will have power by November 20. Power is coming back on in Miami
Dade faster than in Broward County, but there's still more than 800,000 in
that county without power.

From south to north, the counties are Monroe (all of the Keys), Miami Dade,
Broward and Palm Beach. Relative to the east coast, the storm came in
around the middle of Broward and exited around the middle of Palm Beach
Counties. It appears that Broward County, where I live, was hit hardest.
Both Palm Beach and Dade Counties got hit pretty hard too. It's more a
matter of the kind of destruction than the extent. In Broward, it was
infrastructure. Damage to power substations and transmission lines was
extensive. In Dade and Palm Beach Counties, the damage should be more
easily, and quickly repaired. Key Largo is south of Miami Dade County and
did not get hit as hard. They'll may have power back already. They never
went under a boil order, suggesting that their water supply should be OK
too.

You're just going to have to monitor the situation day by day, just like
those of us without power, safe water or phone service (I have a generator
and my phone service came back on last night). Miami International Airport
is open now. Fort Lauderdale is not. Both highways from Miami to Key Largo
are open. They should not be any more of a problem than normal, which is
bad enough. Getting from the airport to the highways may still be
unpleasant and gas may still be an issue.

Visibility is another issue. The hurricane will have stirred up
everything. If the wind stays relatively calm between now and then,
visibility should be back up by the time you plan to visit, but I'd
certainly check with the operator I planned to use before spending a lot of
money to get there.

Lee

"Michael Schwind" <michael.schwind@web.de> wrote in message
news:3sbhjrFngldrU1@individual.net...
> Hi,
>
> first off all I hope that all of you hit by hurrican Wilma are alive and
> well. My wife and me are headed for Miami and Key Largo on Nov., 11th.
> Could anyone please give me a rough idea about the current situation?
> Should we try to change our arrangements?
>
> Thanks, Michael

Hi Lee,

Thanks a lot for your elaborate reply. I can imagine you've got a lot of
things on your mind that are much more important than diving conditions
just now.

Thanks and all the best, Michael

I'm actually heading down to Miami on Nov 11 as well. I'm hoping to dive
the Spiegel Grove on the Sunday Nov 13. Last time I checked, there are some
operators that do have scheduled dives on the Grove on Sundays. Hope their
dive boats didn't get banged around by Wilma.

Clint

Free Spirit Activewear
http://www.FreeSpiritActivewear.com

"Michael Schwind" <michael.schwind@web.de> wrote in message
news:3sbvr4Fnhch6U1@individual.net...
> Hi Lee,
>
> Thanks a lot for your elaborate reply. I can imagine you've got a lot of
> things on your mind that are much more important than diving conditions
> just now.
>
> Thanks and all the best, Michael

Lee Bell wrote:

> Gas supplies are reported to be adequate, but you can't get it out of the
> tanks. Gas pumps run on electricity and only a few stations have power.
> Ironically, it's the oldest stations that opened first. Their
> electro/mechanical pumps will work off a generator. Apparently the newer,
> computer controlled ones, won't.

A friend of mine who owns perhaps the last gas station where they still
wipe your windshield and pump the fuel for you (he nostalgically refers
to it as a "service station") has a manual bilge pump for events such
as you are currently enduring.

You could probably make one for yourself with +-$50 and a trip to
Boater's World.

I would also not be surprised to learn it is "illegal" to pump fuel
this way as the various, greedy, leech-like government entities are not
able to monitor their taxes and we certainly can't have that, even in a
"state of emergency".
--
SJM

Clint wrote:

> I'm actually heading down to Miami on Nov 11 as well. I'm hoping to dive
> the Spiegel Grove on the Sunday Nov 13.

Sounds like fun. I hear that in that neck of the woods you can get a DM to lead the
dive if you're not comfortable going alone.

--
Steve

The above can be construed as personal opinion in the absence of a reasonable
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