Wilma hammers Florida mainland (AP) Updated: 2005-10-24 22:09
The streets of the Keys, no more than 16 feet above sea level at their
highest point and connected to the Florida mainland by a single road, were dark
and deserted as the winds and rains picked up and power went out block by block.
Seawater sloshed into downtown streets in Key West and local media reported
parts of the Overseas Highway were swamped in the Upper Keys.
"It's still angry out there. Oh my, the trees are really blowing," said Key
West resident Mary Casanova, who weathered Wilma at a hotel in downtown Key
West.
"I'm just praying that we just have a trailer out there," said Casanova, who
lives at the north end of Key West, where many of her neighbors decided to ride
out the storm.
Fatigued after being forced to evacuate for three earlier hurricanes this
season, no more than 7 percent of the Keys' 80,000 residents fled ahead of
Wilma, officials said.
Key West Police Chief Bill Mauldin said early on Monday he had not received
any reports of deaths or injuries.
In southwest Florida, where residents crowded restaurants and bars on Sunday
evening and seemed to pay little heed to warnings, the hurricane's tidal surge
was expected to be up to 18 feet above normal.
At 7 a.m. (1100 GMT), Wilma's center was just north of Everglades City and
was moving northeast at a brisk 23 mph (37 kph). Hurricane-force winds extended
up to 90 miles , while tropical storm-force winds stretched out 230 miles from
the center.
Wilma was accelerating as it raced across the Florida
Peninsula. The storm plowed through the heart of the Everglades -- Florida's
famed "River of Grass" and home to endangered species like the Florida panther
and tens of thousands of alligators -- on a path to the state's east coast
around Palm Beach County.
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