Wilma upsets legal system: South Florida works to get back on track.

Jay Feldman is a solo practitioner in Tamarac with a hurricane plan--but even the best-laid plans got blown away by Hurricane Wilma.

He backed up and transferred copies of his computer records and documents to his home computer in Coral Springs, where underground utilities meant power was restored in just three days.

He had enough cash on hand to pay bills, his small staff, emergency supplies, and equipment. He had business interruption insurance that he hopes will cover his loss. He had a back-up battery for his phone system, but still had to resort to cell phones blocked by jammed airwaves. He had a home generator that powered two phone lines, though he wished he had an old Buick to more easily siphon gas to keep it running.

He subscribes to a voicemail system through the local telephone company that allows him to retrieve all messages from calls to his office that luckily suffered no damage.

But still--when Wilma, the worst hurricane to strike Broward County in more than 50 years--Feldman couldn't plan for everything.

A week after Wilma blew through on October 24, tumbling trees that felled power lines, there was still no power. And without power, his office elevator won't work. And when you specialize in elder law, well--many of those clients cannot reach his office on the second floor because they cannot climb stairs.

"Perhaps the worst element of the entire experience was my inability to provide my clients or their families with needed services during this period of tribulation," 57-year-old Feldman wrote in an e-mail October 31. "We elder law attorneys are especially sensitive to the vulnerability and dependence of the elderly."

Add to that a cable modem and DLS Internet service that wouldn't work after the storm, and Feldman proclaimed: "We lawyers come to forget just how completely dependent we have become on technology, that is until a Wilma strikes.... It may sound quaint, in a Charles Dickensian sort of way, to practice law by candlelight, but it is not fun, and certainly not efficient!"

Compared to many Florida lawyers, Feldman got off easy.

Wilma came ashore 20 miles south of Naples as a Category 3 hurricane, losing little intensity as it cut a wide, destructive swath through South Florida's most populous counties and knocked out power to a total of about 6 million people. On the East Coast, the blackout extended from Key West to parts of Brevard County, east of Orlando, a distance of about 400 miles.

Some law offices in...