The soft underbelly of a mega, natural disaster

"The irony of a big storm in Florida is simply this. The big storms happen when it is still hot down there, and the two things which seem to go out the most frequently are power and water." 

This is the first week after the ravages of Hurricane Ian. The assessors from FEMA and the State of Florida are just now starting to understand the magnitude of the damage. Putting the lose of life aside for a minute (and the number probably will top 100, as predicted), the hit on the infrastructure has been unfathomable. Parts of the cone of damage, will take years, maybe decades to make it look like it did before the storm hit. 

But it gets worse. The storm's track took it right over the "soft belly" of Florida's tourism. Yes, before it exited on the Atlantic side, it dumped copious amounts of rain (with some remaining wind) over Disney World. Besides that, numerous trailer parks, and RV campgrounds were hit with a sledge hammer. Hundreds of VRBO homes were damaged or destroyed. Sanibel Island was all but wiped out. Current status is - uninhabitable.

But who cares about Florida? For starters, we do. We have many friends and relatives who have retired to Florida. It is where we winter most years (not in the boot, but in the panhandle). When the rebuilding starts, we need to be smart about it. Florida has been hit with big storms for many a year now. It will continue. The building codes for houses and buildings have gotten better, and in Pensacola where we winter, the stop lights have been redesigned to withstand a nuclear blast (well, almost). 

The irony of a big storm in Florida is simply this. The big storms happen when it is still hot down there, and the two things which seem to go out the most frequently, are power and water. And, when it is hot down there, the two things you need the most are - power and water. When the Fort Myers area is rebuilt, the wizards of smart in Florida need to put their thinking caps on. Like - if this happens again (and we know it will), how can we stiffen our power grid and water resources? Otherwise, parts of Florida are like they were in the 1800's. That is primitive.

Florida has really taken a shot in their solar plexus. This is the rich land where the snowbirds dream of coming down to every year. But those dreams might need to be put on hold. We are not going down south this winter, we are heading west. But next winter, we are taking our RV and going south. That is, if any of the RV camps are healed enough to handle guests.