Hurricane Katrina

[up+down=midtown]

sad,sad,sad day for south florida.nothing more to do than clean up and go back to work monday.

but our hearts go out to the panhandle area which will probalby get hit with a cat4 katrina,seeing the damage cat1 katrina did i hope you guys prepare.

[Urban_Legend]

^OMG! Dang....

After hearing of all this lost power, I feel especially blessed. I don't think any of West Palm went in the dark.

Wishing all of the south-region forumers the best!

[knas167]

I am on Coral Way near downtown...thought you guys would want to see a couple photos.

These banyan trees used to have leaves on them...

truck next door...

that is a sign that has been impaled into a powerline pole...

and a roof missing from a restaurant next door...

The wind was coming from the south and my balcony faces north...So I got a chance to watch the whole thing from the balcony. Probably stupid but it was quite a show. It was pretty intense. Luckily no damage to my property. My condo was swaying a little, but it's still standing. Hope others are ok!

[bic]

Just to keep things accurate, there were not any commercial planes overturned at MIA. The 767 in question belongs to Lloyd Aero Boliviano and the wind gusts pushed it into a wall.

[Topher1]

My best friend in Miami says the Banyan trees all over south dade got absolutely raped. He says that UM lost at least 10 (some of which were my favorite trees on campus), and the canopy on Miller Dr. is ruined... The banyans are my favorite thing about the Coral Gables/Coconut Grove area, and apparently they're the only trees that sustained significant damage down there... I have a feeling that I'm going to be very upset next time I'm in town...

[Aessotariq]

Wow, this is the first time I'm seeing these pics this weekend... I just got my power back a few minutes ago. Boy, it's great to have air conditioning again!!!!!!!!

Poor banyan and ficus trees... terrible terrible. Storm packed a greater punch than we thought it would.

I can't bear to think what is up and coming for the next target..

[I-275westcoastflorida]

This is probably the worst cat1 ive seen but cat1 are usually weak it seems this one packed a punch but somethings like the power being out to so many peope is miami's crappy power grid the power lines alot of them are on wooden poles and look poor quality according to people i know from there also trees seemed to be the biggie here killed some people a person i know said that a big tree crushed a honda in the neighborhood but mostly the damage was fallen branches and leaves and depending on where you live flooding miami is pretty low mostly no significant elevation change.

Anyway most of the time cat1's are no big deal and do little damage mostly tree branches knocked down and some rain i myself wouldnt evacuate unless a cat 4 or above was coming. Really you have to go through a hurricane to understand one. I almost laughed when cnn showed that aluminum sign being torn apart they made a big deal out of an aluminum sign flying off even got made fun of by john stewart from the daily show. Anyway the most moronic thing that can be done during a hurricane is staying in a mobile home which usually get the most damage from a hurricane i cant understand why they allow them to be built in florida it makes no sense.

[Brickell]

Just for the record, I'm still alive in Kendall. We got power back Sunday. We totaled 12 inches of rain total over the 3 days according to my rain guage (9.5 thursday night alone). The streets were flooded during the storm but drainage in my immediate neighborhood is pretty good. Other nearby neighborhoods, not so much. We have a southward facing house and when the winds whipped around from that direction the rain found every crack and opening we had. A lot of water came through the walls, but no structural damage. We have a lot of trees down. Palm Trees, Ficus, Gumbo Limbo, Sea Grape, Oak, Black Olive... Katrina didn't discriminate in my neighborhood. I've lived in Florida all my life, and this is the worst I've ever seen it. Miami will be a bit barer for the foreseeable future.

I like to think about it this way... After last year, it was our turn to get hit. If this is the worst we get this year, we're lucky.

[DigitalSky]

I think a lot of damage that happened in Florida, has been overshadowed by everything happening in the gulf

[Aessotariq]

It turns out that the I-beam that were installed on the flyover had not been properly braced and were just resting on top of the piers. No wonder they came down.

Looks like some heads are going to roll under the bus on this one. Incredibly miraculous nobody was driving near it at the time. Amazing nobody was killed.

http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/front/12488540.htm

[RiverwoodCLT]

I know you folks down in Fla. had damage, but you will be able to recover much quicker than the Gulf Coast States. Have you got most of your power restored?

[Aessotariq]

Power is still out in many places...

The power company estimated that 90% of customers would have their power back by Tuesday, August 30. The remaining 10% would be up by Friday. These were mostly in flooded areas that would have to wait for the water to recede. Many areas have already dried up.

I got my power back on early Sunday morning, around 3am. In my neighborhood we were fortunate because there were no downed lines. Our utilities are underground but the distribution lines that serve the area are above ground along the main arterial roadway; all the transformers up there blew up. This was the longest we were without power in recent memory. During last year's hurricanes, the longest we were without was probably 3 hours.

In the grand scheme of things, we got out of this thing remarkably well.