(go read my Digital Expressions entries from today if you want to hear ALL that has REALLY been going on...otherwise, this should suffice!)
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/13024354.htm Posted on Fri, Oct. 28, 2005
As S. Fla. recovers, a joyless weekend looms
BY WANDA J. DeMARZO, TERE FIGUERAS NEGRETE AND MARTIN MERZER
mmerzer@herald.com
More gasoline streamed into fuel tanks, more ice clunked into foam containers, more lights flickered back to life. But warm weather returned, long lines prevailed, a largely joyless weekend loomed.
And a chorus arose Friday from hard-hit, partially defoliated Broward County and the rest of sour, sore South Florida: Enough already.
''We can't take it anymore, knowing you have to go through this every day . . .,'' said Sherily Louiston, 25, of Fort Lauderdale, planning a quick trip to Orlando. ``It's stressful.'
An aerial survey found that Hurricane Wilma damaged 70 percent of the homes and businesses through much of central and north Broward County, the area that endured the worst blow.
Many people will not see an insurance adjuster, a roofer or a utility repair crew for weeks, and two competing smells hovered over many Broward neighborhoods: backed-up sewage and backyard barbecue.
In addition, schools in Miami-Dade will be closed again Monday and Tuesday, and in Broward, they will be closed at least through Monday -- because some still do not have power.
Still, here and there, South Florida life edged a little closer to what passes for normal.
By 1 p.m. Friday, Florida Power & Light reported that nearly half of the 3.2 million homes and businesses darkened by Wilma were back in service.
Still waiting -- and not very patiently: About 631,500 customers in Broward and 474,400 in Miami-Dade County. FPL gave itself a new deadline for completion: Nov. 22, two days before Thanksgiving.
As more power came on line, more lines formed at energized gasoline stations.
Some of those lines stretched for miles. Only about one-third of the estimated 2,800 gasoline stations in Broward, Miami-Dade and Palm Beach counties were open Friday, state officials said.
''I have a weight lifted off my shoulders,'' Carlos Pérez, 42, of Miramar, said after his third attempt in three days to buy gasoline finally gained him $120 worth of the precious commodity from a Hess station at Palm Avenue and Pembroke Road. ``I can finally walk into the house with a smile.'
Everyone had a story about fuel-seeking tension or shouting matches or even a few fistfights. But, from time to time, random acts of kindness -- and commerce -- tempered frazzled nerves and short fuses.
In the Doral area of Miami-Dade, waitresses from an International House of Pancakes hit the streets and took breakfast orders from harried drivers idling in a line stretching from a Mobil station.
As they awaited their turn, they gratefully consumed French toast and crisp bacon. Yes, they had to pay. Charity only runs so deep.
At the same time, regret was the order of the day.
''Everything is my mistake,'' James Brown of Fort Lauderdale said as he held empty gasoline containers at the end of a long line in Plantation. ``I should have done everything on Sunday. I should have gotten gas, [barbecue] coal, lights, a flashlight. I can only blame myself.''
In Miami-Dade, all roads were passable for the first time since the storm, according to county officials. Chainsaws and chippers buzzed and whirred as workers began chipping debris.
''It's a monumental task,'' said Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Alvarez. ``But things are returning to normal.''
It was an even more monumental task in Broward.
A helicopter survey by the insurance industry found that Wilma inflicted its worst damage in the west Broward communities of Margate, Coconut Creek, North Lauderdale, Sunrise, Plantation and Davie.
At least 70 percent of the homes and businesses in those cities sustained some damage, according to the Insurance Disaster Assessment Team. The group found no catastrophic structural failures, but it did see widespread roof and modest structural damage.
The team, consisting of adjusters from major insurance companies, found relatively little damage in the eastern half of populated Miami-Dade, with about 10 percent of the homes and businesses there harmed by the hurricane.
But it detected wider and more substantial damage in West Kendall, Westchester, Vanderbilt Park and other sections of western Miami-Dade, where older homes sustained roof and other modest structural damage.
''Throughout all eight hurricanes [that hit Florida since August 2004], we have found clear cases where newer and better built homes fares better than older homes,'' said Sam Miller, executive vice president of the Florida Insurance Council.
In other developments:
• Operations ran a little more smoothly at 17 water and ice distribution sites for Broward residents and at eight sites for Miami-Dade residents.
Miami-Dade also began sending supplies from main distribution sites to satellite 'pods' in poorer neighborhoods.
People waited fewer than five minutes outside the Hollywood Dog Track in Hallandale Beach for water and food provided by the Federal Emergency Management Agency -- but there was no ice. They had run out.
In Miami-Dade, distribution sites at MetroZoo and Amelia Earhart and A.D. Barnes parks reported brisk business and supplies ran low, according to county workers.
At the Orange Bowl, however, where thousands had lined up Thursday, so few people turned up Friday that workers shouted, ''Water! Water!'' to attract attention -- and takers.
After delays in getting supplies to sites earlier in the week, Miami-Dade officials said they would not specify today's distribution points until water and ice actually were in place.
Residents were urged to call the 311 Answer Center for the latest information.
• BellSouth reported that it restored service to 112,000 customers, but 817,000 lines remained impaired throughout its service area.
• Motorists with sufficient gasoline to venture out discovered a previously unknown affection for traffic lights. Without them, courtesy sometimes prevailed, but . . . well, you know.
In Broward, only 78 of the county's 1,350 traffic lights were working by Friday evening. With some gone with the wind, officials said they had enough replacements for major intersections, but other intersections would remain light-less until an order could be placed and filled for new lights.
In Miami-Dade, 1,002 of the county's 2,600 traffic lights were working by midday.
• Curfews remained in effect in both counties, though enforcement is selective and flexible. In Miami-Dade, the curfew begins at midnight and ends at 6 a.m.; in Broward, the curfew still runs from 11 p.m to 6 p.m.
• Sewage treatment and removal remained a problem, especially in Plantation and North Lauderdale.
No power at lift stations means it's difficult to move sewage from homes to water treatment plants. Instead, the raw sewage bubbled up through storm drains and manhole covers, leaving the potent smell of unflushed toilets on many city streets.
In some places, city crews used vacuum trucks to suck up the backed-up sewage, said Joel Gordon, a battalion chief with the Plantation Fire Department.
FEMA distributed 27 generators to help power lift stations throughout the county.
• The state brought together a dozen insurance companies at a parking lot at 6901 W. Sunrise Blvd. in Plantation. About 1,000 Broward residents have gone to the makeshift insurance village to file claims.
Insurers have laptop computers hooked up to the Internet and are meeting with residents under shade canopies.
''The line's moving at a pretty good clip,'' Davie resident Monique Hunsinger said while waiting for a Citizens representative to call her number.
• In the Florida Keys, Key Largo, Islamorada, Marathon and other tourist areas in the Upper and Middle Keys reopened to visitors. Key West and the rest of the Lower Keys will reopen to tourists Monday, officials said.
Throughout the chain, power was restored to nearly all 59,000 customers. All three hospitals were open.
• In the southwestern corner of the Caribbean, Tropical Storm Beta approached hurricane strength as it also approached Nicaragua and Honduras. Residents in many parts of Central America confronted the danger of heavy rain, floods and mudslides.
The hurricane season officially ends Nov. 30, though storms can form at any time of the year. So many storms have formed this year that forecasters ran out of regular names and, for the first time, had to resort to the Greek alphabet for auxiliary names.
''I just want to know how many letters there are in the Greek alphabet,'' Miller said, ``so I know how many more hurricanes we'll have.''
Herald staff writers Evan S. Benn, Jerry Berrios, Erika Bolstad, Elaine de Valle, Gary Fineout, Julia Neyman, Matthew I. Pinzur, Charles Rabin, Roberto Santiago and Nikki Waller contributed to this report.