Damage assessment

An extremely unscientific survey of the damage indicates not too much damage around these parts. Around my neighborhood, there is in fact very little damage. The occasional small shrub has been toppled, but certainly not the roof damage I saw last year.

Venturing out, some plastic sign damage (the kind with fluorescent lights behind them, like at most gas stations) was noted, but certainly not as bad as in the past. A couple of traffic lights were bent (but still functioning), and only a couple others were not working.

The southern part of the county appears to have taken a harder hit; not unexpected since they were closer to the storm center. Power outages are more common there, as is the flooding. However, Palm Bay has never drained very well, so flooding isn't unexpected there.

Flooding was also noted in the north part of the county. My Mother lives in Pt St John, and she had an awful lot of water get rather close to her house. Fortunately, the water had drained off by Tuesday morning. Part of the flooding problem results from the fact that the Melbourne airport is currently 14+ inches of rainfall above normal for the year to date.

The NWS Melbourne is producing a Wilma summary report. Currently the page has mostly placeholder links, but will be updated over the next couple weeks. They have captured all of the radar images and made one big loop (a very dial-up unfriendly download).