Wilma Damage:Espirto Santo bldg

[miamistreets]

Sorry but,this was a badass storm.It was stronger than I and others expected.Downtown Ft.Lauderdale got it bad,and we did too,a lil bit.Atleast a freeway wasnt blown down this time.

[up+down=midtown]

some more damage pictures

Just rode the ole bike down to the office (gotta save that precious fuel) and snapped a couple of pics.

Here is Fortune Internationals office in the foreground unscathed...Greenberg Taurig back left severely

damaged (mostly on the south/east side) Jade inbetween unscathed, and the Espirito Santo western facade apparently unscathed.

Just speculating...but as you can see from this photo of Espirito, the damage appears to be from projectiles breaking the southern

facade. I didn't see any windows "blown out" in the sense that there was too much pressure or faulty frames/construction.

It's also significant to mention that the damage occurred mostly above the 15th floor which is the first floor above the Santander

building next door. It wouldn't surprise me to find out that the Santander has a pebble roofing material although I didn't see all that much

on the ground. We all know that these buildings have impact resistant glass on the lower floors, but maybe we should think about

the materials that are put on short roofs.

Now with this one...it's anyone's guess! This is the Southern facade of the Colonial Bank building. 13th and Brickell, the only thing accross

from this facade is a big parking lot with some palm trees.

[Dale]

I've had to do a lot of business-related travel this week, and I've been around both Dade and Broward counties.

Here's what I have noticed so far:

Broward County lost a LOT of traffic lights -- I wouldn't be surprised if the number is as high as what Dade lost after Andrew.. Many of their intersections are configured in the traditional span-wire style, where the signals are installed suspended from catenary cables. Most of these were either left dangling or were totally blown off. After Hurricane Andrew the state had established a policy that durable mast-arm signals would be installed at intersections for all state roads within 10 miles of the coast. Up to now, so far the county had only upgraded the signals for major intersections on state roads east of University Drive (the 10-mile boundary). Wishful thinking, but hopefully this will speed up the upgrade to mast-arms, which are obviously more durable and most aesthetically pleasing.

Miami-Dade County seems to have done better with its signal inventory (ignoring that most of them still don't have power). Most of them are mounted on mast-arms (the installation of which was accelerated by Andrew), so those generally remained physically intact. Some of them lost their visors but still appear secure. Just about every spanwire signal I saw had been damaged. In the three hours I spent in line waiting to get gas today, I found that most of the signals that had been on mast-arms were operational, although they were being ignored because police were still directing traffic.

Aesso -

Has Miami-Dade made more of an effort to bury utilities for these very reasons ?

[Aessotariq]

All new residential developments are required to have underground utilities. The high-voltage transmission lines, however, are above ground. The new lines I've seen installed lately on are these really tall girthy aluminum poles driven deep into the ground.

The negative to the underground utilities is their accessibility after flooding, especially in areas that were built before it was a requirement to raise elevations for new construction. This isn't as big a deal in newer areas.