Hurricanes

Following the disaster in New Orleans has led to a few thoughts.

I never think much about how nice it is to live in the relatively rich and well governed State of Florida. Usually it's just the opposite. We worry about if our education system is competitive with other states. Or if we can keep up with the demands for emergency services, roads, sewers and all the other infrastructure with so many people moving here. Then you see the total disfunction of Louisiana and are startled into the clear idea that Florida simply operates at a much higher level. Kind of like watching the UF Football team play Louisiana Tech last weekend.

In Florida we got:

1. Jeb Bush declares state of emergency for huge swaths of Florida as any hurricane approaches and puts the Guard on alert.
2. Florida opens emergency headquarters and starts preplanning deployment of assets including FEMA, Nat'l Guard, Red Cross, and Power companies.
3. Maintains constant contact with local officials.
4. Unhappy, but relatively orderly Floridians somberly trying to get their lives back together while waiting in line to meet with insurance agents, FEMA officials, contractors and power companies.
5. In other words, a catastrophe, but general order.

Just last month the last blue tarp caused by Charley on our street was replaced with a new roof.

Since it's a storm and the storm never actually agrees with the track that National Hurricane Center estimates, there are mistakes. Last summer 800,000 people from Pinellas/Hillsborough drove to Orlando only to see Charley smash into Punta Gorda. Nevertheless, the Pinellas Beaches were under mandatory evacuation. Those who chose to ignore it were told under no uncertain circumstances that they would be on their own and fending for themselves.

In Louisiana we seem to have:

1. A crying governor
2. A screaming mayor of New Orleans
3. The head of Louisiana Emergency Management heading to New York a week into the crisis to speak at a symposium. Huh?
4. A police department left on its own with 50% deciding to quit.
5. The federal government paying off an angry mob of people looking for handouts to the tune of $2,000 each.
6. Oh yeah, disorder, looting, rape, pillage, murder, in other words, chaos.

I remember being angry when Andrew hit Homestead because our response was so much worse than Charleston's response to Hugo. We were running in circles where Charlestons mayor was absolutely heroic. But clearly Florida learned our lessons about planning, response, and the need for martial law to prevent mayhem and looting. I seem to recall Lawton Chiles grumbling about where the Nat'l Guard was too, and that he had to be reminded to fill out the freakin paperwork before they were allowed to deploy.

But Florida learned. And not because of who Jeb is related to, but because the Chiles government left behind a program that the Bush people picked up and studied. And when Charley, Jeanne, Francis, Ivan, Dennis etc. etc. etc. happened they executed the plan at a high level. Not perfectly, because you can't be perfect in response to a natural disaster. But competently, at least as competently as human nature and mother nature allowed for. Jeb Bush's response has been CEO like. Calm and careful, and in charge with clear goals like a.) limit loss of life, b.) keep channels of communication open, c.) perform triage while keeping people informed of their status and where they fit in the plan to (eventually) receive the government response they think they need. Katrina's romp across southern Florida as a Category 2 was almost ho-hum even though 1.2 million residents had at least a temporary loss of power.

One year later, 1300 families still live in temporary FEMA housing in Punta Gorda and 1000 still live in FEMA trailers after Ivan
These storms are huge deals, and the disruption they cause is catastrophic and long term. But I feel so much better about living here in Florida than in Louisiana.