After taking shelter in a location on Florida’s east coast near the community of Melbourne, Wilma crossed the state in the morning and early afternoon. Pounding rain and fast winds caused power outages throughout the state, the storm covering nearly all of Florida for several hours.

Wilma also sent a strong warning ahead of herself. Late at night on Sunday, several tornadoes touched down near Cocoa Beach and the neighboring Merritt Island, where NASA’s Cape Canaveral is located. One such twister passed directly by the location where I was. Allow me to dramatize for a moment and explain how tense this was. Although I’m sure this isn’t true with more powerful twisters, these tornadoes were almost completely silent, meaning the only way to know they were coming is to listen for the fierce rain that always accompanied them. A sort of panicky feeling descends as the constant light drizzle cuts off and is replaced by dead silence for a minute or two before the ceiling above your head is pounded with a strong volley of rain. Fortunately for us, the tornado diverted course and passed harmlessly into a wildlife refuge that was literally across the street from the location. This has apparently occurred elsewhere in Florida, and not always with harmless results, as one might imagine. However, such reports are still coming in at this point and my situation (having come back to Lee County) isn’t very conducive to information flow.

Power has been disabled throughout much of the state, but generators are being brought online by the minute. Land lines are unreliable, and many power lines are down. It is midnight as I write this, so I’ll have to wait until dawn to find out more. The city of Naples, which is just a few miles south of me, received the direct hit from the hurricane, so a close-up examination will be necessary at some point in the near future. Until next time, stay with VirtueMag.