Katrina's impact on South Florida:
No one was prepared
I'm the editor of the Florida Keys Keynoter and Key West Keynoter, the newspapers of the Keys. We in the Keys had no idea Katrina would hit us this hard, since it jogged hard south in the middle of the night; when we were all asleep. We have massive, widespread flooding, a hangar blew apart at the Middle Keys airport due to a tornado blowing threw, trees are down everywhere -- your usually Cat. 1 hurricane. But the thing about this one is no one was prepared. We thought it would be in Vero Beach, four and a half hours to the north, by now. Just goes to show, the National Hurricane Center usually does a great job. But Mother Nature rules all. And as for my newspaper, if I thought I had any shortage of stories Thursday for Saturday's edition, Katrina changed all that.
--Larry Kahn, Marathon, Florida

Scary, powerful and wet
Hurricane Katrina has created a 3-foot swamp here in the Cutler Ridge/Perrine area of Miami Dade County. Apartment dwellers here awoke to see their cars totally under water. First floor residents had water up to their mattresses. We have been with out electricity since 7:30 p.m. Thursday and now at 4:45 p.m. Friday our building has power restored. Last night we were pounded for over four hours of steady sheets of rain, thunder, luminous, green lightening and the occasional sound of a "freight train passing.” We were not sure what to think....tornado? wind sounds? Palm tree damage is great and the humongous "canals" of water are slowly draining but the leaves, branches and debris are not allowing the water to drain properly and efficiently. No one approaches due to the fear of encountering a live power line. Mosquitoes will have a feast in this standing water ! This storm was scary, noisy, powerful and very very wet. Thank God my friends in the apartment are ok and alive.
--Mayra Mora, Perrine, Fla.

Trees down, car stuck

Ricardo Parra

The photos that I sent you were taken in front of my house. I got home about 8:30 p.m. coming from a Mass held at our local Church, and felt devastating winds and couldn't imagine what was happening. I decided to shelter my car in the carport and locked all the doors in the house waiting for the storm to pass. At about 10 p.m. I heard a strange whistling noise and I went into my room with my children. In those few minutes we heard a huge roar and heard a crashing sound coming near us. I did not want to investigate what was happening until I was sure that the storm passed. When I awoke in the morning I opened the front door and to my amazement I opened the door into a jungle. I was surrounded by branches and wired vines. I could not believe what was happening. I soon realized that the Trees from the other complex had fallen in and on top of my house. At first glance I noticed that everything was okay but then noticed that My car was blocked in the drive way and I couldn’t take it out. I can't believe this was a level 1 hurricane. I will not forget this Hurricane and will always be prepared because you shouldn't think it will not come again. I hope these kind of photos show people how we can never think anything like this can't happen.
--Ricardo Parra, Kendall, Fla.

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Surprising damage
As a student in South Florida, I should be more than happy about this seeing as how I just got two days off. Unfortunately though, as I came home last night at around 12, which was when the winds calmed down I couldn't help but to cringe at the destruction which was wreaked upon my home. Traffic lights where literally on the floor and more than half of the trees in the median on Flagler were brought down to the ground by this seemingly feeble category 1 hurricane. In my years of living here I've been through many hurricanes and apart from Andrew I don't believe I've ever seen this much damage.
--Ernesto Martinez, Miami, Fla.

High water, high winds
I live in Tavernier (in the Florida Keys) on the 7th floor of a condo. A lot of water came through my accordion covered sliding doors. A lot of high winds still at this time. (7:53 a.m. Friday). No one told us we would have such a impact like this.
--Linda L. Lesher, Tavernier, Fla.

Visitor's perspective
Sitting in dark at Embassy Suites Hotel in Ft. Lauderdale -- reading MSN update on storm on Blackberry since hotel (was) without power. Winds still howling. Funniest thing so far was a rowboat which flew off somebody's car winding up in little hotel creek on property. Hotel sent guests up to suites at 8 p.m. to hunker down.
--Louis Tempkin, Sierra Vista, Ariz.

Rough takeoff
I just arrived back in Seattle after leaving Miami on a flight that departed at 5:25 p.m. (Thursday). While we were boarding the flight the jet way was rocking back and forth in the wind and the plane continued to do the same once we boarded. The pilots told us at the gate that they had our safety in mind and would not attempt to leave if we were at risk. I fly frequently and often and have never experienced winds like we had on take off. When we landed in Chicago all of the passengers gave the pilots a well deserved round of applause.
--David Fitzgerald, Seattle, Wash.

Unexpected strength
Hello to everyone: I work in Hialeah, Miami-Dade county where we had the eye of the hurricane and could notice the difference before, within (calm) and after with the strongest winds ever seen. I can not imagine how is to be in a category 3-5, but the city ran out of power, watching falling trees and branches. So far spoke with some friends within Broward and Miami-Dade county and they were in the same situation. We were expecting less wind and more water and was almost the opposite.
--Jose Bejarano, Miami, Fla.

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