Hurricane Wilma To Hit Florida Within Hours

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Hurricane Wilma accelerated toward storm-weary Florida on Sunday and grew stronger, threatening residents with 110-mph winds, tornadoes and a surge of seawater that could flood the Keys and the state's southwest coast.

After crawling slowly through the Caribbean for several days, Wilma pulled away from Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula as a Category 2 storm and, forecasters said, began picking up speed "like a rocket" as it headed toward the U.S. mainland. The storm was expected to make landfall around dawn Monday.

Wilma looks likely to become a Category Three hurricane before landfall. It's on the cusp of such an upgrade already, and landfall isn't expected for another 12 hours or so. That's another half-day for Wilma to grow stronger over the warm waters of the Gulf of Mexico.

Here's a track map.

Wilma will probably exit Florida near West Palm Beach, not too far south of my location. I fully expect to be without power for several days. And perhaps that is being optimistic, when one considers that I was without power for almost the entire month of September last year after Hurricane Frances and Hurricane Jeanne tore a similar swath through Florida (albeit from the opposite direction).

So, if ya'll promise to wish me luck, I'll promise to keep my looting to a minimum... ;-)

Article Author: RJ Elliott

RJ Elliott is a three-time graduate of the University of Central Florida. His passions in life are sports, politics, and nature. He dislikes daytime television, anti-American dictators, and people who talk like Garrison Keillor. …

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