If you live in the southeast of the United States, you may have some different perceptions of what it is like to live in the stomping grounds of hurricanes. As a Floridian, I know that every year we have the potential to have a visitor of the windy kind. With that in mind, we prepare as individuals and families for the upcoming hurricane season with water and supplies. These supplies are generally enough for a few days, and with any luck, that is all we hope to need before essential services are provided.
2004 brought numerous hurricanes to Florida, and I was without power for about 5 days or so on two separate occasions. The use of portable generators was helpful in keeping our refrigerator going and running some basic appliances, however, this had its own set of problems, such as noise and the need to find gas to keep the generator running.
Many people in Florida lost homes or even roofs. Yet with all the damage of the hurricanes of 2004, it doesn’t cumulatively compare to the damage of Katrina and how it affected the people of Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama.
When you see the destruction, you wonder if there really is much you can do to prepare for something as catastrophic as a CAT 5 hurricane. Your supplies, your generator, and your home could very well be obliterated. From the coverage that I’ve seen, many of the homes that were destroyed were wood framed. While Concrete Block homes tend to survive better in hurricanes, there are no guarantees. This lends itself to ask the question on what can we do to be able to survive long term?
Evacuate
Floridians probably would have been in a more precarious situation than other places, having experienced a total of 4 major hurricanes and coming through with few deaths, low lying flooding, and mostly roof damage. Apathy for evacuation orders sets in when the News sensationalizes the situation and seems to be like the boy who cried wolf. We’ve been here before and nothing happened, so why should I go now? I think that many more people would have stayed in Florida for a CAT 5 to their utter demise. Up until Katrina hit the Gulf Coast, even I would have considered staying.
I did evacuate for one hurricane last year, and spent the time in Savannah, GA. It was a good trip, but all and all, I stayed in an expensive motel 6 (they take pets), and waited out for the storm to pass so I could rush home and see what happened. Other than the loss of power, I was lucky, no damage at all to my home. It’s time to make a better plan.
As far as the local government, I don’t think they did as much as they could have done. While there as “mandatory” evacuations for the barrier islands, there were plenty of people who stayed at their condos on the beach. Some even went surfing. I’m not sure how much the local government can really do.
One recommendation would be extensive use of the reverse 911 system to order people to evacuate.
Response and Blame
Hurricanes are much more different than other natural disasters in that there is warning. A hurricane doesn’t just happen one morning on your drive into work. It is a week away, it is just like the scene in Austin Powers where the man gets ran-over by the slow moving steamroller. There is plenty of time to get out of the way.
Personally, I was glad to see that the Mayor of New Orleans dispensed with “nice-ities” to use the vernacular of the common man, and spew a few profanities out there to let people know how pissed off his really is. If you’re city was destroyed, you too would be cursing mad. I think that people overestimate the power of the Mayor of New Orleans in some attempt to equate it with the likes of New York City. No doubt N.O. is a world class city, with everything that people expect from living in a city, however it is small at 400K people compared to the population of New York City or Los Angeles.
Where are the Parishes (Counties) in all of this? They also bear some of the responsibility for emergency response. Then of course there is the state. I believe that no one has ever thought that a city could be destroyed in modern times. It is just not credible to believe that the ocean would some day swallow a city. There are plenty of other cities that should be concerned, such as Miami or Fort Lauderdale,.
Then there is the Federal Response. Honestly, the jury is still out on how the Federal Government’s response went. Yet perception goes a long way, and the perception as of this date is that the government was slow and unorganized.
When you think about Hurricane’s Hugo or Andrew, both of which was more than 10 years ago, in fact they predated the mass use of the Internet. They claim that the response to this hurricane was faster than that of Hugo or Andrew, however, computers and the internet have made the ability of agencies to be faster and more integrated than ever both cheap and easy.
Responding like the military. I’ve heard it said that we can deploy a ship within 24 hours notice, but we couldn’t get anything docked for more than 3+ days after the storm went through. I agree, this is a problem. Knowing that the hurricane is out there, the Navy and other military personnel should be ready to respond. It could even be necessary to bring in troops from other state’s national guard if that is permissible.
So who from the Federal Government do you blame if you’re not satisfied? Well, I say we leave it up to the people who are most affected. They understand their local politics better than we could ever hope to. They will elect the people they believe in. I do blame the State and Federal government for not ensuring that fuel producers and sellers weren’t engaging in price gouging, fixing, or other illegal attempts to fix and set fuel prices in a crisis higher than what the market should be paying.
I have a problem as well with watching my Taxes increase to pay for the problems that could have been prevented if congress and the senate wouldn’t have removed it from the federal budget, but at the same time funded a second bridge in Alaska for less than 50 people to travel on. Priorities are out of whack. “the government was spending so much on a second Alaska bridge that connected to an island of 50 people that it could just as well buy all the residents Lear Jets. -USA Today”