These were taken the day after Wilma, about 11:00AM. By my estimate, peak winds were long gone, having hit about 6 hours earlier. It was still pretty blustery, but since the storm was gone, we were very suprised to see the water level starting to rise. The water came over the sides of the canals and began to inundate the land about 9:30AM and had receded by 12:30, though the interior of the island that doesn't drain as well took over 12 hours longer to be free of the water.
This is Ships Way. My driveway is to the left of the power/phone pole in the center of the image. The photo was taken to the northeast, from the balcony of my house. The water at this point is starting to go down ( you can see how much lower in another photo), though oddly it's still flowing past towards me as if it was going up, since it's still fillng the interior of the island. Soon the flow reversed and began to go out to the ocean. I'd estimate that the water is 4 feet above normal high tide, though the depth at the end of the driveway is only about 1 foot.
This is the view to the west, towards the interior of big pine key. The water has begun to recede, perhaps 8 inches below the peak water level. It's a couple of feet deep since this is a little lower than the level of my carport floor. A few things to look for: The house on the left has a stairway railing that might help get a sense of the depth, and the base of the pillar on the right has a little wave in front of it from the water flow.
If your car was back here, it's dead now. Thousands of cars in the Keys were destroyed. I was lucky to be awake when the waters rose and managed to get both cars out to higher ground. Remember, this is salt water and fatal to most machinery.
The view looking down the stairs. Submerged under the water to the left of the deck at the base of these stairs are three more steps that go down to the actual ground level surrounding the house which is about two and a half feet lower than the concrete in the photo.
Things to look for here: You'll notice that the deck to the far left is a little higher and out of the water... It's floating, lifted up by a kayak and some empty gas cans, wedging the gate closed. It came down a few inches from where it started, and had to be jacked up and forced back onto its support blocks. To the right of the gate you can see the high water line. That's how much water we had in the lower area of our house. Yuk.
This is the "Luck Lady". Alas, this lady's luck has run out. Since nothing that's capable of dragging her out can get within a couple of miles of her current location, and she's in sensitive habitat so dredging a channel to her is right out, she's going to get cut up and removed in pieces. Photo taken several days after the water receded.
I can't confirm the story, but I've been told that she arrived here with $$ still in her slot machines, and it was removed by her owners while the winds were still blowing.
This is our home weather station. The important detail is the bar graph of barometric pressure. See how it drops out at the middle? That's Wilma.
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