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More Hurricane 2006

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Reprinted from the Oct., 25, 2005 edition

What can be said of Wilma?

It wasn't the strongest storm ever to come through South Florida. Andrew was far more ferocious when it hit the east coast in 1992.

It wasn't the most destructive in recent memory. Damage from Charley is still evident more than a year after it tore through Charlotte County.

It will never be mistaken for Katrina in the swath of human misery it created nor the political recriminations that followed.

It doesn't even have the most memorable television comedy character as a namesake. Floyd, and its unavoidable connection to Mayberry's barber, will hold that honor until there is a Hurricane Gilligan.

But what Wilma is, is our hurricane. Andrew will be forever linked to the South Dade neighborhoods it changed so profoundly. Charley is the property of Charlotte County history.

Now, Hurricane Wilma is a name that will evoke the image of Collier County. Other communities suffered through Wilma, but we did it first.

Not since Donna in 1960 has a hurricane been so much a Naples and Marco Island event. Few people were here then and even fewer are still around to tell the stories.

So from this moment forward, Wilma will be the reference point for hurricane lore in Naples. People will no longer have to qualify their accounts of living through Andrew or Charley by saying, "Of course I was in Naples; we didn't get the worst of it." It will simply be, "Wilma. It was a Category 3 when it hit us."

Not that one necessarily wants a hurricane. Only the worst sadist would welcome hurricane-force havoc.

But hurricanes happen to communities the way significant events happen to individual lives, not always wished for, not necessarily pleasant, but life-altering and character-revealing. The effects, for good or ill, linger for years and shape personalities.

And so Wilma, more than the glancing blows dealt by Andrew and Charley, will reveal to the world the character of this community.

The mayor talking to the nation is our mayor.

The damaged buildings are our buildings.

The rescuers are our rescuers.

The media relaying the stories are our media.

The neighbors walking up and down streets looking for ways to help are our neighbors.

And the neighbors in need of help are our neighbors as well.

Wilma was not "the big one" in the sense that Andrew, Charley and Katrina were big ones. In the coming days, the extent of the wreckage will become clearer.

We may come to realize that for all of Monday morning's roar, we did in fact dodge another bullet. A worst-case scenario was in the making, but for whatever reason, didn't materialize. And it may be that in less than a year, another storm with another name will put Collier County on the world's color weather radar screen again.

Or, it may be another 45 years before Naples or Marco Island feels a direct hit from a major hurricane.

Until then, we'll share tales and relive memories of Wilma.

Our hurricane.