One Month after returning from intercepting Hurricane Rita in Texas, I heard that Hurricane Wilma had developed and exploded over the Caribbean sea. She was the most powerful and intense hurricane in history. I had to be there to meet her in person. I quickly gathered up my hurricane tracking equipment – much of which was still unpacked from the Rita trip. I got a last minute flight to Tampa and soon found myself in the sunshine state.
 | | Stuart ready to go chasing! |
South West Florida is a tough place to intercept Hurricanes as much of it is covered in a swamp – the Everglades. This area would most likely flood for miles inland. Therefore the furthest south that I could go was a town called Naples on the very edge of the Everglades. Wilma moved off the Yucatan peninsula in Mexico and into Florida as a very disorganised hurricane. What was left was now due to make land fall over Florida on 24 October – the day my return flight was booked for! Fortunately the airport closed down that day as a precaution. This left me with some time to search for shelter along the coast As I drove South I was struck by just how beautiful this part of world is, somewhere that I must visit again under better circumstances. I drove trough a town called Punta Gorda, which was ravaged by Hurricane Charlie in 2004. I could still see wrecked buildings that had been untouched since being demolished that fateful day. I than ran across rows and rows of caravans – part of a temporary housing camp that even a year on, still housed many of the unfortunate residents of Punta Gorda. This reminded me it was time to focus on my own safety – Wilma was approaching.
 | | Damage done by a hurricane |
While searching for shelter, I took time to look at the waves that were building along the coast at Naples, an area that would be very close to the hurricane in about 24 hours time. What struck me was the complete apathy and lack of preparation for the oncoming storm. There were hardly any storm shutters on the buildings, no long queues for gas and food, no one evacuating – people were on the beach, playing ball and living life as normal. I asked a life guard what preparations he was making for the hurricane – he shrugged his shoulders and said: "surf!". But at least I was prepared. Wilma, although disorganised, was now passing over the Florida loop – an area of warm sea water. Feeding on this heat, the hurricane started to organise again. I hurried to complete my plans. The shops were open as normal so I stocked up on food and water and then set about scouting secure locations in which to hunker down during the storm. I found three concrete car parking garages down in Naples – marked their position and returned back to the comfort of a hotel room I had booked in Fort Myers. The hotel was far enough North of the storm not to be too badly affected – but still close enough that I could drive towards the shelter in Naples in preparation to meet the eye of the storm as it came ashore. Back at the hotel I smiled at the luxury of my weather command centre that I had set up. It was a far cry from previous trips where my bed was just the concrete floor of a parking garage. As dusk fell the first rain band passed over my hotel and the wind started to pick up – I knew that the weather would be downhill from here. For the next few hours I busied myself looking at weather and satellite data – Wilma was HUGE – 500 miles across with a 65 mile wide eye. But central pressure had been rising over the last 24 hours, really since the first landfall over the Yucatan and it really did look as if she would might not even make it as far as Florida as a Hurricane. | "Car alarms in the car park started going off, trees fell over, and across the road the roof of a restaurant was starting to flap and flail." | | Stuart Robinson |
It was then that I noticed the latest data from the hurricane Hunter aircraft sweep. I looked again at a satellite image and the blood simply drained from my face, my heart skipped a beat – Wilma was bombing and starting to rapidly intensifying still heading directly towards South Florida. I suddenly felt very alone – it was 4am back in the UK so I could not even contact other weather watchers there for a second opinion on the storm – I was really alone. My mind flashed back to the residents of Naples, playing on the beach, walking the dog, surfing. They would be asleep now. How could I warn them? I felt very small and helpless at that moment. My laptop bleeped in life - new data was in. The winds around the eye had now started to respond to the pressure drop – with a 110mph wind gusting to 130mph – Wilma was now a category two hurricane and she still had eight hours over warm water until landfall. I grabbed the weather station and my jacket and went outside to take to take a measurement. Tropical storm force winds were already here, earlier that I thought! I was cut off and it would now be unsafe to drive the 30 miles south to Naples to the hardened shelter – I was trapped at the hotel and would have to weather out the storm there. Back at the laptop another check confirmed my fears – Wilma winds had intensified further and was now a major catergory three hurricane with 120mph winds, gusting to 140mph. This was serious – The size of the eye meant that my location would be just outside the eyewall – but inside the swathe of highest wind speeds for some considerable time. There was a sound like a canon going off, accompanied with a flicker in the lights – the power was starting to fail as electricity pylons were being toppled by the winds. And then there was darkness - the power had failed.
 | | Stocking up |
Dawn brought the first real hurricane force winds. Car alarms in the car park started going off, trees fell over, and across the road the roof of a restaurant was starting to flap and flail. The next two hours were a blur, All I could do was look out of the window as the furious winds unleashed their fury over Fort Myers. Two hours later and the winds had decreased so that I could venture outside – I was kicking myself that had allowed myself to get cut off by the winds and could not make the eye. The centre of Wilma was now over West Palm Beach on the East side of Florida. I checked out of the hotel. I wanted to push south and see what had become of Naples and the poor residents. There was a lot of downed trees, but fortunately not much building damage – in fact not much at all. Naples and the residents had been spared. Naples, Fort Myers and I were on the north side of the storm and because Wilma was moving forward quickly for a hurricane at 25 mph, the net result was to take 25 mph OFF the wind speed – sure 100mph would topple trees – but it takes time to destroy buildings at this speed and Wilma moved over them quickly. I threaded North myself along tree covered roads towards Tampa and my flight home, the evidence of fallen trees became less and less I could find none at all. I checked into a hotel in Tampa and watched the local news, Key West had flooded, Miami had taken a bettering (South side of the eye) and six people had been killed. But it could have been a lot worse if the eye had come on land further North in a more populated area. Within one month I had intercepted another major hurricane and captured it on film. I was humbled by the power of nature and – if Wilma had spent 12 more hours over water she may well have gained category five status again. | 
