Tallying up Wilma

A Sun-Sentinel article puts the total damage cost of last October's hurricane at 2.9 billion dollars. That is for Palm Beach County alone. From our perspective, we have about $3,000 worth of damage. Our church the damage total runs in the six figures. There is no comparing Wilma and the two hurricanes of 2004, Francis and Jeanne.

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Hurricane Wilma ripped a $2.9 billion path of destruction through Palm Beach County, tearing indiscriminately at wealthy enclaves and poor communities.

Belle Glade and Pahokee suffered catastrophic losses, as is often the case in communities with marginal buildings. But Wilma was an equal opportunity storm: In well-to-do Boca Raton, Highland Beach and Wellington, it plucked off roofs, smashed glass balcony doors and tore through luxurious landscaping in parks and medians, county damage assessments show.

In all, more than 55,000 homes and 3,600 businesses had some damage. Businesses tallied about $1 billion in losses. Residential damage stands somewhere around $1.6 billion, estimates show. Local governments expect to pay more than $300 million for repairs and debris removal.

The 7.7 million cubic yards of storm debris picked up so far is enough to fill about 2,500 Olympic size swimming pools.

The direction of the hurricane and wind speeds makes all the difference, said John Tatum, Palm Beach County's recovery manager. Wilma came from the west, whacking the fringes of the county with fierce winds first.

"Plus, there are far more open spaces out there than on the east coast," Tatum said.

The storm also hit the southern half of the county hard, he said. No one needs to tell that to Mary Snell. For 23 years, she has enjoyed the views from the floor-to-ceiling windows in her 17th-story Highland Beach condominium near the Intracoastal Waterway. On a clear day, she can see from Fort Lauderdale to Palm Beach, she said.

Wilma wrenched through her Breamer Isle home, shattering four windows. Snell, 80, was in Michigan at the time, so her daughter removed 15 bags of glass.

The storm soaked the condo's interior, and flying glass ripped much of it to shreds. Doors flew off hinges, debris punched holes in walls and wind tossed everything into a wet furniture salad in the middle of the apartment, with bedding landing under the grand piano and dining chairs tumbling onto the balcony.

Wellington, a community that includes many newer residences, had 325 houses with major damage and 3,200 with minor damage out of more than 20,000 homes in the village, estimates show. Only the county's vast unincorporated area fared worse, with 467 houses taking major damage. The estimated damage bill in Wellington alone: more than $50 million for housing repairs.

Wilma hit Wellington's western neighborhoods and equestrian areas hardest, said Paul Schofield, the village's community services director. Village officials clocked wind speeds at more than 110 mph, with even higher gusts.

The bulk of the damage in Wellington was to roofs and screen enclosures, Schofield said. Concrete tiles flew off roofs. Tiles attached by mortar rather than nails fared poorly. Clyde Meckstroth remembers hearing the click-click-click sound of tile flying off his roof during the hurricane. He estimates that it will take about $100,000 to replace the roof and a collapsed screen enclosure.

"You're just sitting there and thinking, `Oh shoot, that's my roof,'" he said. "But there's nothing you can do about it ... just hope it doesn't spring a leak."

The storm didn't spare working class neighborhoods, either. The tiny village of Palm Springs, home to many apartments built in the late 1970s or earlier, had 460 multifamily homes with major damage -- the highest number in the county.

The 21/2-square-mile community also had a high number of four-unit townhouses and quadruplexes with flat, poorly maintained roofs that couldn't withstand Wilma's winds.

"We had more flat roofs peel off in Wilma," said Bette Lowe, the village's land development director.

In West Palm Beach, businesses took a $247 million blow from Wilma, second only to the amount of damage to businesses in unincorporated areas. Most of the damage was concentrated in several downtown areas, said Neil Melick, the city's director of construction services. Along the South Dixie Highway corridor known as Antique Row, Wilma punched out storefront windows, ruined interiors and soaked merchandise and furniture, he said.

Boca Raton lost 25 businesses, almost half of the 55 that were destroyed in the county. City leaders closed a couple of strip plazas because of hurricane damage, and many businesses along Northwest Second Avenue had roof damage, said Nicole Gasparri, assistant to the city manager. Some of those businesses have returned, and city officials couldn't say which ones closed for good.

Wilma threw down $32 million worth of trees, fencing, lights and bleachers, and it damaged ball fields, walking paths and some buildings in parks across the county. Boca Raton's plushly landscaped 967 acres of parks and medians saw $11.2 million of damage. Parks in the county had $13 million worth of damage, and the town of Palm Beach had $1.4 million.

Contractors are still cleaning debris out of Boca Raton's 94-acre Spanish River Park, which was impassable in the days after the storm. Besides removing the downed or damaged trees, the estimates include the cost of reinforcing the remaining ones and replacing others, Gasparri said.

Statewide, the hurricane drew 750,000 claims, most of which came from South Florida, according to Sam Miller, executive vice president of the Florida Insurance Council. Another major insurer, Citizens Property Insurance Corp., has gotten 20,000 homeowner claims from Palm Beach County alone.