Now we are starting to hear gripes about FEMA's slow action.

[madfloridian]

Slow FEMA process frustrates many.
http://www.theledger.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20041005/NEWS/410050391

Not enough workers, supplies to cover roofs lost in storms.
http://www.theledger.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20041009/NEWS/410090325

Donor to replace couple's home. 8 weeks of empty promises from FEMA.
http://www.theledger.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20041009/NEWS/410090368
"In the weeks since the Aug. 13 storm, the Wickmans have had their hopes rise and fall repeatedly as FEMA personnel have provided conflicting information about their application for assistance."

Lakeland Hurricane victims needed city communication.
http://www.theledger.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20041009/NEWS/410090349/1037/EDIT
"Some serious changes need to be made in communication efforts to inform the public regarding what really is going on.

The consensus in my neighborhood is not having yard debris pickup may be forgotten. However, tossing and turning in the humid and most uncomfortable temperatures every night, trying to get some sleep with no air conditioning for several weeks, will make a lasting impression at election time -- especially when there is not sufficient explanation."

AND my own comment about communication:
Our local radios only gave real coverage on Sunday when Jeanne was passing through. I never listen locally as I detest Rush Limbaugh and Hannity, and the "doctors" who give all the advice. However, during the storm and the powerless days thereafter, I thought they would tell us where to find ice, what stores had food, what restaurants had power. And especially talk more to the power companies. They did none of that except for 7 hours on Sunday. All of our main radio is owned by this company.
Hall Communications
http://www.vermontguides.com/2004/03-mar/hallcomm.html

Hall stations
http://www.hallradio.com/

I know nothing about this station, and it did have 1 hour more than the others. However, it is faint in reception.
WWAB
WWAB
1330 kHz
ID: Lakeland
Format: Urban Contemporary, Gospel
Slogan: "Lucky 13"
Owner: Radio Station WWAB, Inc.
Facilities: 1,000 watts day / 118 watts night

[aquart]

1. ALL your radio stations in your area belong to ONE company?

Shouldn't that be against the law? WASN'T that against the law before George?

[madfloridian]

2. There are a couple of church owned stations as well.

And there are some with mostly music, of course. These are the ones that carry local news. Not much regulation of ownership any more with Colin's son, Michael, in charge.

[Cookie wookie]

3. Sorry to hear about your troubles

My cousins live just north of Tampa. One had a tree fall on her manufactured home but she hasn't been about to get FEMA or anyone else to help. She and her family had no place to evacuate, as the shelters weren't open this last time, so they had to tough it out at home.

[madfloridian]

4. Thanks, we were lucky, but finding out now that many were not.

A young woman we were talking to in an office this week said she spent two nights in her car with her 3 year old. Roof damage, phone did not work, and of course no power. This is 150+ miles inland from where it came ashore.

Another woman we met lost the roof on her home, and it was totally destroyed by wind and rain.

I think there are more stories that will come out about FEMA. There is this protective thing aura right now....but the anger will out. People are now saying, enough is enough.

Our street are so lined with debris in some areas that you can barely see the houses. They have had garbage pick-up, but no trash pick-up.

And there is no one to talk to....it is all automated now. I finally called city hall about a neighbor's problem, the mayor's office forwarded me to the customer service mgr for the power company.....and she listened and took notes. That was BEFORE Jeanne, and nothing has yet been done.

[Eloriel]

10. Well, now. There's NOTHING about it on the national news

In fact, you'd think that FL was just hunkey-dorey. I mean, we've got to fit our entertainment news in.

I am really sorry all of you are going through all of this. It sounds like a nightmare actually worse than living through the storms themselves.

Is there anything I can do? Please let me know if there is.

[madfloridian]

17. I know...the news makes it sound just great.

The worst ones we heard about were word of mouth. The gal who comes to clean here was so chipper and cheerful, we asked her how she made it through the storm, she said very casually that she lost her home.

We did a double-take as she was so calm. We found out where she was staying, and made some arrangements to help a little. She had been disabled by a car accident and was just getting back to work. Bless her heart, she was so upbeat.

I will never forget the death of our neighbor. We found out at the funeral that his poodles are being taken care of lovingly, and that his aunt hired a lawyer to keep greedy nephews from taking his house.
It just broke us up. It was stress, pure and simple.

We had no damage from any of the storms, just the psychological impact. The other day there was lightning, and I felt myself tense up just terribly. The power went out for an hour two days ago, and we both just got irrationally upset.

Silly little things like that.

[SharonAnn]

5. What a shame. Clinton fixed FEMA while in office, but * broke it again.

He siphoned off the money and the infrastructure for other things.

After all, FEMA's kind of an invisible thing until you need it.

[BeFree]

6. I'll bet you

the rich people are getting all kinds of help. I'd even go so far as to say that FEMA started in the important neighborhoods and will eventually get to those who have no other government help.

Afterall, the rich people pay way more in taxes and contribute far more money to campaigns than those little ol' trailer dwellers in the backwood backwaters of central Florida.

Ya'll just need to wait your turn, and make sure you get more Republicans elected. Oh wait, it ain't hardly possible to elect more pukes in Polk, eh?

Good luck MF. Hang in there.

[quaker bill]

11. No actually, I live in one of those neighborhoods

FEMA never came near the place. No one here would have qualified for their assistance, as it is means tested. While I am not wealthy enough to have been helped by the Bush tax cut or affected by Kerry's rollback, I am fortunate enough financially not to qualify for FEMA aid.

However, you are right in that since I live in a high tax rate neighborhood, the local government had the people, funds, and resources they needed to jump on the problem.

The folks who are really hurting are those who really stretched to get into a better neighborhood for the decent schools (that is the only place they exist in Fla). Those folks generally have incomes just a bit too high for FEMA assistance, are cash poor, and are getting hit with two or three (up to 4 percent of home value) deductibles by the insurance companies. (one deductible for each storm)

I was fortunate enough not to have to deal with this personally. But, since I do a part of the disaster relief work professionally, I have heard from many people stuck in this position.

[madfloridian]

15. Our congressional candidate is just like Republican.

He was put in to run against our Dean-inspired candidate, intelligent, educated, and capable. He was covertly pushed by the churches in the area because he is anti-choice, anti-gay, and everything else you can be against.

Surprisingly, our friend and good candidate, was doing quite well, and even got the endorsement of the Ledger.

Now we have a choice of two bad candidates. But one has experience. That is what our party does so well.

Am I bitter? Oh, yeah.

[quaker bill]

7. Sorry to hear that MadFla.

Having lived in Florida for a long time, I intentionally moved into the highest tax neighborhood I could afford as soon as I could afford it. I did so basically for the good schools, a rare find in Fla. (all three are rated "a")

However, it has also worked well for storm recovery. The City came by and cut up the three 60" caliper laurel oaks that fell on my property and hauled them off. I had crews working night and day and got my power and water back up in 36 hours.

The problem in Florida is that it is a low tax - low service conservative run State. There simply is not the manpower and equipment lying about in reserve in most places to jump on problems at this scale.

We have suffered through 20+ years of conservative led "shrinking the size of government". Since I am a manager for a small part of the disaster relief effort, I get to have the fun of explaining to republican congressional aides that they cut the funds and eliminated the resources for these efforts. I do enjoy the "But, But government should be about helping people" line I typically get in response. It is so damn ironic.

[madfloridian]

9. This time that rule of thumb has not worked well.

Like you say, you usually get the best service recovery in a higher class neighborhood. This time it seemed random. There seemed to be no priority for anything. Even the schools were not priority, as a couple were hit so badly. Most weren't though, and just were without power.

The debris thing and the power problems even hit Florida Southern College area which borders a high class area.

Now we read that maybe, just maybe, Jeb is going to contract some of the debris work out to private companies. I wanted to yell...hey Jeb....it already is....that is why it is not done. Those companies are not hiring extra folks yet.

As I say we are lucky, but the death of our neighbor from apparent stress from the 3 storms, the utter hopelessness felt by others in the days of heart.....really made us think. Florida is just not prepared...you are so right.

Jeb has given out so many billions in tax cuts to corporations that it is bound to be having an effect. He has privatized state services more than we probably can know, after firing long-termers who knew what they were doing.

[quaker bill]

12. You have a good points

I agree that the work is spotty. Over the last week I have been battling with conflicts between citizens, their governments and between local governments over whose priorities come first.

To quote Dr. Gray, University of Colorado - Hurricane expert "Florida has been living or borrowed time". The problem is that rather than spending the borrowed time to prepare, we have instead chosen to fiddle it away.

Think about it. I have been here since 1966 and had never experienced anything more than a moderately small tropical storm. In my field, wetlands ecology / surface water management, truly, the programs only got started between 1974 and 1983. For most of this time we have been managing for drought.

However we had a couple of warnings. Things got pretty wet in 1994, 1996, and 2002, but did our government respond by stepping up efforts? No, in fact under Jeb, they focused on laying off government employees. (you know we vote for Democrats, right?)

To afford the tax cut for corporations in FY 1997-1998 the repugs slashed funds for Division of Forestry, specifically for the guys who fight forest fires. Then came the fires of 1998, remember them? - they were national news. The money got put back real quick and very quietly.

I suspect we will see some of the same here before all is said and done. I also would not be surprised to see some new rules about developing in floodplains... You could not have sold them to Tallahassee last year, but next legislative session is another story.

[madfloridian]

14. Ah, yes, the "floodplains" in which developers have built with impunity.

In Jeb's Florida, and even earlier than that, they got away with it. There was a lake I remember from my childhood here called Lake Deeson. It had a wonderful pavilion, a place where families had picnics on the week-ends, and church groups as well.

One day about 10 years ago, it made the news. I had not realized it had long ago become a dry lake bed with expensive homes built in it. I never go to that part of town, and I had not paid attention.

I believe the developers got away without penalty. Building in a lake bed is a sin.

Also in our town Beef O'Brady's sunk into the ground during Jeanne, along with two other businesses. Since I am a native Lakelander, I know for a fact that they were built on a long ago phosphate pit which had been filled with the community's debris in the late 50's and 60s. I know, because I taught the kids of this well-known developer here, and we had parties at their home. I remember peering down into the pit which was filled with such goodies as garbage and furniture.

Homes were built on it in the 70s, no one said a word. Then came the businesses like Outback, Steak and Ale, and Beef O'Brady's. Now the homes are cracked and the businesses are sinking. Where is the outrage.

Your point about Jeb cutting back even more is what scares me. FEMA funding for emergency preparation in the area of natural occurrences has been cut...seems to be Homeland Security oriented now.

I think we are in a mess here.

[skooooo]

8. Maybe if the National Guard wasn't fighting in Iraq..

[cavanaghjam]

13. Exactly

Thank whatever name you give to the weather gods that there wasn't more devastation from these hurricanes or concomitant floods or other disasters. We are at risk here in our homeland while good men and women risk their lives in a foreign land, all for lucre and a lie.

[Scootman78]

16. I pointed this out in one of my first posts...

Since I live in Lakeland, Florida, I know all-too-well how much people were counting on FEMA. After Hurricane Frances struck, there were already a lot of critics of FEMA who finally spoke out publicly that the payouts would be delayed and then they would be much lower than people thought.

As for the yard trash - don't be so quick to blame your local trash companies if you were affected. FEMA contacted my county as well as others and told them that the no-bid or low-bid contract offered by FEMA prevents trash companies from interfering by picking up yard trash. FEMA said that pickups could take up to 60 days, and thats only in urban and suburban areas.

Its depressing, I still see plenty of dead trees lying near major roads.

Polls down here said that Jeb Bush mostly did a good or great job. I guess the people polled weren't ones that were seeing the problems with FEMA.

[DeepModem Mom]

18. kick

[madfloridian]

19. Letter to Bush: "Just leave us alone.....to get our lives back"

Now this expresses the anger I mention above....it is just now starting to really come out.

http://www.theledger.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20041010/NEWS/410100399/1037/EDIT

SNIP.."The president came to Lake Wales after Hurricane Jeanne, the president was here after Hurricane Ivan, after Hurricane Frances and after Hurricane Charley. What's the big deal other than ripping trees out of the ground and destroying people's homes and lives?"

SNIP..."Leave the people alone so they can try and put their lives back together.

I had a tree on my house from Charley, the last thing I wanted to see was a group of yes, yes boys with their clipboards making points. Doesn't the United States capital in Washington have ways to TV transmit? Might somebody know the cost of the fleet of Air Force One and all the support aircraft to do these visits? Just leave us alone..."

[madfloridian]

20. Kick.

Miami Dade is getting the action. They were lightly hit. Kick for outrage.
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/state/9885887.htm

I posted another thread about this in GD.