WPCNR WILMA REPORT. By John F. Bailey. October 30, 2005: WPCNR interviewed a mother and her six and seven year old son and daughter who have been living in the aftermath of Hurricane Wilma’s rampage across Florida, and have returned to live with relatives today in White Plains while awaiting Florida Power & Light to restore power to their home in the Pompano Beach area.
Life in FWE (Florida Without Electricity). Electric Birds Fly North “Cannot Take It Anymore.”
Talking to Amy, the young mother who has made her way North, WPCNR learned first hand what’s taking FP&L so long to restore electricity. She reports that her home was very lucky, with no damage done to the home but she believes a tornado, spawned by the storm just missed her community, because cars were tossed into yards and fences were swatted down in a swath immediately to the rear of her home.
She told us that FP&L is taking longer than expected to restore power because the concrete power poles used in their area “snapped in half, and it’s taking longer to replace them.” She reports 236 of 300 schools still are without electricity and there has been no school for a week. Amy reports that communities which had underground utility cables did not lose electricity.
She noted that electricity was restored to the Florida Keys first, because they had a separate power company. FP&L worked on the South Miami-Dade area, which has been restored. Now, she reports they are working their way up into Broward and the Palm Beach area. She said FP&L is promising all power will be back on by November 22. Asked what explanation Florida Power & Light has for the slow pace, she volunteered that “there was more damage to the power substations than expected.”
Her two children, Alexis and Austin, have been amusing themselves with a portable battery run T.V. but they were not going to have a Halloween in their area because that has been cancelled because of the lack of street lights, wreckage, and conditions.
Amy says the cooler weather in Florida since the hurricane strike has been “a Godsent,”
because people have not been as testy. She remarks police in her community of half-million homes, have driven past offering ice to keep food from spoiling. She says mostly they have been living from canned foods using a hand-can opener. She has had to boil water, and has used a generator, but says unfortunately, once gasoline for the generator is gone you cannot get gas because the gas station pumps are powered by electricity.
She told us FEMA has been providing food and if you cannot get them, you can call and they will bring you supplies. However, cellphone towers have been knocked out and there is still no telephone service in her area in Pompano Beach.
Domestically, ther family has had to take cold showers with contaminated water. It gets dark about 7 PM and, of course there is no light. She said the family could not take it anymore and she and her husband have come north to stay with relatives. Her husband will be working out of the New Jersey office of his firm. The family moved to Florida a year ago and has experienced four hurricanes.
Austin, six years old, reports he was not scared, but he hurricane was “bad.” Alexis, 7 years old reports the hurricane was also “pretty bad.”
Amy says the media have not been running regular network programming and instead has been running 24 hour a day information on where to go for supplies, if you need help, and informing residents how to deal with the onset of inconveniences.
