WSVN — Ten years ago, we were bracing for Hurricane Wilma. Ninety-eight percent of South Florida lost power for weeks, making necessities like gas and groceries scarce. 7’s Craig Stevens shows us how changes have been made since Wilma to keep that from happening again.
In the days following Hurricane Wilma, tempers flared.
Police were called in to break up fights as people searched for gas. Power problems also kept grocery stores closed for weeks. People were forced to wait hours in line for ice and water.
Some stores did finally open to let customers shop in the dark. Even writing out receipts by hand.
Mayor Carlos Gimenez: "With every storm we learn something new and those were the lessons of Hurricane Wilma."
Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Gimenez remembers the frustration.
Mayor Carlos Gimenez: "There were a lot of occasions where the gas was inside the tanks and you couldn’t get it out because you didn’t have power."
That’s why he joined Florida lawmakers to call for changes in the wake of Wilma.
The state now requires gas stations near highways or evacuation routes to have backup generators.
Publix also installed generators at nearly 300 of their grocery stores.
Nicole Krauss: "We realized we needed to make a significant investment into outfitting our stores so we could be better prepared."
And they have a backup fuel supply at Port Everglades in case power is out for weeks, like it was for Wilma.
Nicole Krauss: "To make sure we can get fuel to those generators, should we need them."
But Mayor Gimenez says there is only so much businesses and government officials can do. He hopes the citizens of South Florida learned something from Wilma as well.
Mayor Carlos Gimenez: "What we learned from that is we want to make people as self-sufficient as possible for the first 72 hours."
Which means not needing gas, food, ice or water so the grocery stores, the gas stations, even government officials have time to get organized.
The root of most of the problems after Wilma stemmed from loss of power. Friday night, we take a look at how FPL has gotten storm ready for the next one. In the Plex, Craig Stevens, 7News.