Not since 1910 has Key West and the lower Florida Keys flooded as much or as deep.
60-70% of the houses in Key West were flooded between 1ft-4ft, many had no flood insurance.
Wind caused very little damage.
As the storm passed us moving from the southwest to the northeast , the storm surge coincided with a high tide on the Gulf side of the Keys at about 630 am
resulting in approx. 8ft above mean high tide.
If it had been low tide on the Gulf side my house would have been surrounded by water with...... no water in the house.
Had the cold front that was sweeping across the Gulf of Mexico been 12 hours earlier, the storm would have passed to our south, probably missing the Keys and south Florida.
Auto carrier trucks have been hauling thousands of flooded, total loss cars out of the Keys for two weeks.
Auto carrier trucks have been hauling thousands of new cars into the Keys for two weeks.
The day after Hurricane Wilma stomped us, the Mayor of Key West announced
that Fantasy Fest would be postponed for 5 days.
We all heard this news on our battery powered radios, as we hauled all of our appliances, furniture, clothing....our stuff to the street.
All we could do was laugh!
