Tropical Update

from Bloomberg

Hurricane Wilma Heads Out Into Atlantic After Crossing Florida
Oct. 24 (Bloomberg) — Hurricane Wilma crossed southern Florida today, knocking down trees and power lines and flooding low-lying areas on a path to the Atlantic Ocean. The storm may cause $2 billion to $6 billion in insured damages, less than two of the four to hit the state last year.

The center of Wilma, the eighth hurricane to strike Florida since August 2004, was over the Atlantic as of 11:30 a.m. local time, said Jack Beven, a hurricane specialist at the Miami-based National Hurricane Center. One death was attributed to the storm, which cut power to about 1.6 million people.

The storm would have been more devastating if Miami-Dade, Palm Beach and Broward counties were in its direct path, said Tom Larsen, a senior vice president at Eqecat. The southeastern part of the state, which includes Palm Beach and Jupiter, was receiving hurricane-force winds from Wilma’s back end.

“Hopefully it will cause less damage because it was quick, because the strongest winds didn’t last as long,” Beven said in an interview.

A man in Coral Springs was killed by a falling tree, said Margaret Stapleton, a spokeswoman for Broward County Emergency Management Agency.

Wilma, which weakened as it crossed the state, will turn to the northeast, according to the center. The U.S. Northeast may receive as much as 3 inches (8 centimeters) of rain and winds as strong as 50 miles per hour (80 kilometers per hour) in the next two days as moisture from Wilma combines with a system moving through the Ohio Valley, forecasters said.

The storm is forecast to dump as much as 12 inches of rain in central and southern Florida, the hurricane center said. It will begin to clear up by sunset, said Lieutenant Dave Roberts, a Navy meteorologist posted to the center.

Naples Hit

The storm came ashore with winds of 125 mph near Cape Romano, about 20 miles south of Naples, at about 6:30 a.m. local time. The coastal parts of Collier County, which includes Naples and nearby beach resort Marco Island, haven’t been hit by a hurricane since 1960.

The state was hit by a record four hurricanes last year, causing a combined $22.9 billion in insured damages. Charley accounted for $7.5 billion, Ivan caused $7.1 billion, Frances resulted in $4.6 billion and Jeanne left $3.7 billion in insured damages.

Hurricane Katrina, which struck the U.S. Gulf Coast in August, is expected to be the most costly U.S. disaster for insurers. Storm modeler Risk Management Solutions Inc. estimated $40 billion to $60 billion in claims, as much as three times the $20.8 billion produced by Hurricane Andrew, which hit Florida in 1992.

Disaster Declaration

FPL Group Inc., Florida’s largest utility owner, said 1.6 million customers were without power, or 40 percent of its customers, said Florida Power & Light spokeswoman Jocelyn Delagandara. The utility’s service territory covers the southern third of the peninsula.

Hurricane-force winds of at least 74 mph extended 100 miles from Wilma’s eye and tropical-storm-force winds, a minimum of 39 mph, extended 260 miles, the center said.

U.S. President George W. Bush today said he had signed a major disaster declaration for Florida. About 3,000 National Guard members have been mobilized and an additional 3,000 are on call, Florida Governor Jeb Bush said. He urged residents to stay “hunkered down.”

“We cannot say it enough, it is more dangerous after a storm than during a storm,” Bush said today during a televised press conference.

Key West Flooded

The whole south side of Key West was flooded with about 5 feet of water, with some streets turned into rivers, Monroe County spokesman John Ellsworth said. The county, which includes the Keys, is the southernmost in the continental U.S. He said the storm should clear out of the region by noon.

The back end of Wilma will probably flood all the islands in the county, Ellsworth said. Traffic reports suggest many of the Keys’ 60,000 residents didn’t leave ahead of the storm, he said.

“This is worse than the other three” storms that have hit the Keys this year, Ellsworth said in an interview from Marathon, referring to Hurricanes Dennis, Katrina and Rita.

Wilma knocked out power to most of Marco Island, said Jaime Sarbaugh, a spokeswoman for the Collier County emergency management office. The county, where Naples is located, has a population of about 297,000, according to 2004 U.S. Census figures.

`Minor Water Intrusion’

At the Ritz-Carlton Golf Resort in Naples, power was knocked out about 6:30 a.m. and guests used flashlights to navigate their way along the hot buffet line before carrying their plates into the formal dining room. They were met there by servers bearing pitchers of juice and tables covered in white linen.

“If I was going to be any place in Florida for a hurricane, this community is where I would want to be,” said Rebecca Constantine, a resident of the nearby Grey Oaks planned community. “The way Naples is situated seems to protect us from being hit.”

The three-year-old Ritz-Carlton is situated atop a 30-foot hill and designed to withstand winds of more than 125 mph, according to hotel manager Michael McMahon. The resort weathered the storm well, losing no more than some palm fronds and Spanish roof tiles and suffering “minor water intrusion,” he said.

No windows were damaged. Power was off in the guest rooms and only two of the four guest elevators were running. Staffers hung a plastic bag containing a flashlight and two glow sticks on the door knob of every guest room overnight.

Firefighters plan to begin heading out to survey the damage at 10 a.m., according to Chief Mark Batten, of the North Naples Fire District. Batten road out the storm along with 30 firefighters from two stations and four paramedics in the Ritz Carlton ballroom. They have five fire trucks and two ambulances here.

Shelters Open, Airports Closed

“Once we finish our reconnaissance, we’ll begin answering the backlog of 911 calls,” Batten said. “We already know that our fire stations received some roof damage from the winds, but we don’t think the storm surge was bad.”

Broward County has 168,000 people without power and 2,175 people in shelters, Stapleton said.

“We have widespread power outages, downed trees and there will be a lot of debris,” Stapleton said.

About 5,000 residents of Palm Beach County are in shelters, Beth Ingold-Love, a Palm Beach County spokeswoman, said in an interview.

Airports in Miami, Fort Lauderdale, Palm Beach, Key West and Boca Raton were closed, while Tampa and Orlando had 15 minute delays.

The storm skirted rigs and refineries in the Gulf of Mexico, pushing the price of oil down below $60 a barrel for a third day. Crude oil for December delivery fell 78 cents, or 1.3 percent, to $59.85 a barrel at 11:08 a.m. on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

Mexico

Frozen concentrated orange-juice futures for November delivery rose 2.25 cents, or 2 percent, to $1.125 a pound at 11:56 a.m. on the New York Board of Trade, after earlier gaining as much as 2.5 percent.

Wilma battered the Mexican state of Quintana Roo for about 48 hours. The hurricane tore down electricity lines, toppled telecommunications towers, damaged roads and ripped roofs off houses and hotels in the resorts of Cancun, Playa del Carmen and the island of Cozumel, said Juan Granados, an official with the state’s civil protection agency, in a phone interview yesterday.

Quintana Roo Governor Felix Gonzalez Canto said yesterday three people died in the province because of Wilma, according to a statement on the province’s Web site. Agence France-Presse reported eight deaths in Mexico.

In Cuba, almost 700,000 people were evacuated from areas at risk as the storm passed to the islands west and then north, according to the Web site of the official Cuban News Agency.

Alpha

Tropical Depression Alpha is expected to dissipate as Wilma approaches the storm, which was about 340 miles north of Great Inagua Island at about 11 a.m., according to the National Hurricane Center.

Alpha was named when it attained tropical-storm strength two days ago, becoming the 22nd named storm of the June 1 to Nov. 30 Atlantic hurricane season and breaking a record set in 1933. Wilma is the 12th hurricane of the season, equaling a record from 1969.

Wilma was the last of the hurricane names on this year’s list; forecasters use the Greek alphabet when the list is exhausted.

“This is now our eighth hurricane, and second tropical storm within 14 months,” U.S. Representative Katherine Harris, a Republican who represents Florida, said in a televised interview. “So I could tell you that I believe Florida now is the model for emergency-preparedness in the nation.”

To contact the reporters on this story:
Heather Burke in New York at hburke2@bloomberg.net;
Victor Epstein in Naples at vepstein@bloomberg.net.