Floridians Wait for Food After Storm Hits

[madfloridian]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/08/27/AR2005082700783.html

Floridians Wait for Food After Storm Hits

By DENISE KALETTE
The Associated Press
Saturday, August 27, 2005; 3:32 PM

MIAMI -- "Hungry, thirsty and sweaty South Floridians waited for hours in lines that sometimes stretched for miles to get food, ice and water Saturday, two days after Hurricane Katrina knocked out power and flooded hundreds of streets and homes.

SNIP..."Flooding appeared to be the main concern, but it was unclear how many homes were damaged. Initial insured damage estimates were in the relatively low range of $600 million to $2 billion. Residents plowed through flooded streets without traffic lights, searching for grocery stores that were open or emergency aid. Flood waters subsided a bit as rains died down and the sun shone in some areas. About 815,000 homes and businesses were without power, down from a peak of 1.45 million, as temperatures soared into the 90s.

At aid distribution centers throughout the area, thousands of vehicles lined up to get free ice, water and food. Some people parked and shut off their engines to save gas in the slow-moving lines. While it appeared to go smoothly, there were some obstacles."

State officials said that millions of gallons of gas were at a Fort Lauderdale port, prepared to head to areas that had shortages. Some gas stations couldn't open because they didn't have power, although others sold everything they had. Some motorists in hard-hit areas waited for several hours to gas up.

In South Florida's farming areas, Katrina hurled ripening avocados off fruit trees, uprooted plants and thrashed shade houses. Damage estimates won't be available for several days. The nursery business is the largest segment of Florida's agriculture industry, and Miami-Dade's $400 million in operations make it the top nursery county."

[Boomer]

1. Darwin Award nominees

It's hurricane season, you live in an area that is pummeled by hurricanes evey year, and you don't keep at least 3-4 days worth of food and water?

I live in West Virginia, not known as a weather emergency hotspot, and yet I keep at least several weeks worth of food stores on hand. Canned goods, water bottles, dried fruit, nuts, etc.

Anybody who is standing in line for hours for food BEFORE an emergency rather than after, needs to get their act together.

[Lars39]

2. Perhaps because they have been pummeled every year

they no longer have the money to stockpile food.
People are living paycheck to paycheck now.

[Boomer]

5. Your math is waaaay off

If people are too poor to stockpile food, then they are too poor to stand in line and buy several days worth of food at one time.

It's much more economical to buy a single extra can of food every week and put it in a cupboard.

[madfloridian]

6. 40,000 new homeless from these storms.

Between failure of insurance companies to pay as they should and no workers to fix roofs...and the jobs lost in between...these people are hurting.

I need to find that article about the new homeless, but many of them are going to be kicked out of FEMA village soon with no place to go.

Lower income housing has not been rebuilt, and they have no place to go.

[Boomer]

8. Big Business has bought off government

Business interests and short-sighted government oversight have allowed the overdevelopment of vulnerable coastal areas. Not to mention the horrendously inadequate construction standards for the area.

Once you let people park their mobile homes in flood zones or right up against the coast, or allow mega-million-dollar hotels to be build within walking distance of the shore, you're setting the entire region up for disaster.

[Delphinus]

27. I saw the NBC newscast where the

county/city (some kind of commissioner) said that these people who lost their houses (in Punta Gorda) and are now living in FEMA city need to just leave. There's one heck of a boom down there now and people who lost what they had can't afford these new prices.

[Boomer]

37. Chew em up and spit em out

The same greedy officials who allowed uncontrolled growth and substandard building codes in vulnerable areas are now sweeping out the inevitable debris.

[Eloriel]

30. OMG, that's just unreal, heartbreaking

How much more can FL stand?

Are YOU okay?? You're further north than the storm, IIRC.

[KoKo]

45. It took over a year for my pretty wealth area of NC to get roofers to come

and trees to be cleared from yards after Hurricane Fran back during Clinton's term. Blue Tarps on roofs were the norm. There just aren't enough folks with skills to help when a huge devastation hits an area. We had crews from "out of state" who came in and helped clear the worst but that was for those who were willing to pay "big bucks." The folks who couldn't afford many of the "rip offs" that some folks were asking (and this was not "out of staters who came in...but our own local people who price gouged the day after the last rain bands left) were made to wait until their "turn."

It took really almost a year and a half for my area of NC to be cleaned up. I can't imagine how it must be for folks who have been through this before. Insurance covers even less these days, because many folks have had their insurance to up so high they had to raise their deductables just to afford the Homeowner's insurance. The poorest of us once again are screwed. Those who live in the wealthier areas don't find the thousand dollar deductable or the high cost increases a problem, but those living "on the edge" probably had to give up their insurance all together.

FEMA aid works for some but not for all..and in BUSH America...I'll bet that FEMA Aid goes to his rich buddies more than to those in average communities...especially since Jeb's brother just got re-elected and so much money needs to go to Iraq. The Bushie purse strings may not be so loose this time around.

The argicultural devastation hurt all of our grocery prices all last Winter. So, America imported more from Mexico and countries who don't have as tight a standard for pesticide use and hygienic standards. So, I expect it will be another Winter of high prices and questionable produce once again. And, with more South Florida small farmers having to sell out to the Devlopers at low cost to build more gated communities and high rises.

[theHandpuppet]

3. I second that nomination

That's about all I can say about folks who live in hurricane alley and can't seem to even keep two days' worth of food and water on hand. :eyes:

[KayLaw]

13. I'm not sure I agree with you

I'm a Florida native and have survived many storms. We always have plenty of supplies and a policy that should anything larger than a Cat 1 come our way we hit the road. Were we living in Homestead for this storm, I think we may have had a problem.

It was forecast to hit farther north and as a not-so-bad TS or Cat 1 so we would have stayed and put up shutters but there may still have been major problems because of the rainfall amounts and flooding.

I'm from Homestead and my 83-year-old step-father and his girlfriend still live there. We can't reach them by land line or cell but we're not too worried as they put up shutters are are well-to-do enough to have a nice pantry, but it sounds like it's too flooded to drive out of the area, so the possibility of sudden homelessness makes it hard for me to judge these people too harshly.

[Boomer]

22. I'm making distinctions that are lost

My comments have never been directed at aid efforts in general, or at the people whose homes have been devastated by the storms.

Perhaps I misread the article, but there seemed to be a distressingly large number of people who simply weren't prepared. They weren't homeless, just caught short of food and water.

And that makes no sense to me. But then a lot of contemporary American culture makes no sense to me. What I see as common sense, everyday preparedness for who-knows-what is viewed as "quaint" or paranoid.

[FlemingsGhost]

4. Iraqis deal with similar conditions everyday. Sucks, huh?

Empathy, at last!

[madfloridian]

7. A lack of simple human compassion permeates this forum now.

I should be used to it, I really should. But I am not.

The culture of responsibility preached by the right wing does not mean a damn thing to those who are living day by day.

[theHandpuppet]

9. Check out the line of big-ass SUVs waiting in line for their free water

Sorry, that doesn't drum up a lot of sympathy from me.

Photo can be seen clicking the link to the original WP article.

Edited to add: I wonder how many dollars' worth of gas these folks' SUVs burned up waiting in line for free water.

[Boomer]

11. Oh, please

There is a difference between compassion and free pass to irresponsibility.

I have compassion for the poor people in New Orleans who do not have access to a car or public transportation that can allow them to evacuate. I have compassion for people whose homes will be destroyed. I have compassion for those who will lose loved ones to the hurricane.

But I'm flabbergasted by the number of people who have the options to prepare AND DO NOT TAKE THEM! Emergency preparedness used to be a basic life skill. In my working class neighborhood, it's the older generation -- 70s and 80s -- who have larders stocked with weeks, if not months, of food. Even when they're on a limited budget, they have emergency supplies that would see an army through a local war.

But the young families with children just buy what they need at the store that day, or a few days in advance. They don't think ahead, they don't prepare for emergencies. They just assume that they can get whatever they need, whenever they need it.

That's stupid.

[madfloridian]

18. How do you know?

I am backing off here because when people are this insensible there is no reasoning.

That is what has happened to our country now. I was going to explain about some possible reasons, but your heart is too cold to listen.

I only have one question: How do you know their circumstances?

May God bless you with no problems beyond your control, and lots of money.

[Boomer]

35. You have miscontrued my comments

And I am more than willing to take the blame for communicating my position poorly. Given your interpretation of my remarks, I can well understand your anger and it would be justified if that was truly what I meant.

>> I was going to explain about some possible reasons, but your heart is too cold to listen. <<

Yes, you are quite right, there are many reasons that people have need of aid, and I never meant to imply a blanket criticism of anyone mentioned in that article. I worded my first responses carelessly because I knew what I meant, but didn't stop to think how easily those comments could be misconstrued.

Hopefully this thread will teach me to be less flippant and more explicit in future posts.

[Lars39]

14. It's an arrogant unwillingness to put themselves in another's shoes.

[Boomer]

17. No, you're missing my point entirely

Arrogance is expecting a crippled 80-year old woman to be prepared for a hurricane. And that has NEVER been the focus of my posts.

On the contrary, I think government aid should be expanded to distribute those goods to the needy and those without access to SUVs and the money to run them while waiting in line for hours.

I just don't understand how so many people who live in a vulnerable area can always be so unprepared for the inevitable. And it's not just Florida that displays this short-sighted thinking.

Every winter, as soon as there is an announcement of an impending snow storm, thousands of middle-class people flood the stores to buy enough food to see them through (GASP!) three or four days.

What's up with that?

Maybe it's a generation thang, maybe an urban/rural split. But in my house, we ALWAYS assume that there could be an emergency of some kind at any moment. And we make sure we have food, batteries, candles, whathaveyou for minimum one week.

This should be standard practice for every household in America that can possibly afford it. So every family with an SUV parked in the garage should NOT need to be in line for emergency supplies, free or otherwise.

The aid should go to those who really need it, who have no alternatives, who have no option to prepare. Not the people who just don't pay attention until a hurricane is about to sweep through their neighborhood.

[Lars39]

20. It's arrogance because you do not know what is happening

in their lives.

[fishnfla]

41. Word

Dude talks more than he knows.

Sad

[1monster]

39. Until you've lived through it, perhaps you shouldn't speak on the subject.

In Florida, the heat and humidity can destroy a loaf of bread in one day. Ice will last, even in the best cooler, only for about eight to ten hours.

An extra can of food a week, you suggest? Well, canned food usually needs to be cooked, with some exceptions. When there is not power, how do you cook? Dry foods such as the ramen cup of soup needs to have boiing water.

One can eat crackers and poptarts, but it gets really monotonous, isn't satisfying, and is hardly nutritious. Fresh fruits might last two or three days without air conditioning and refrigeration.

Water goes a whole lot faster than one expects it to. We are advised one gallon of water per person per day for a three day period. But that is for drinking. Forget about personal hygiene and cooling off. Until you've lived in the Florida heat and humidity without power, without water, without air conditioning, or even a fan to help cool you off, don't comment.

Having lived through three of the four storms that swept through Florida last year, and gone eighteen days without power, I can tell you that whatever supplies you lay in (even a generator which can and will break down occasionally) will probably be insufficient.

And how do you know that the people who are standing in lines for food and water did not have their emergency supplies wiped out by the flooding and/or other hurricane damage.

I do empathize with these people, whether their plight is due to foolishness, lack of knowledge, or uncontrollable circumstance, and I find your attitude lacking in knowledge, empathy, and experience.

[theHandpuppet]

40. Here's a shopping list

Here's a grocery list (for an emergency pantry) of foods which do not have to be cooked:

Trail Mix
Beef Jerky
Canned fruit
Dried fruit
Peanut butter
Canned nuts
Canned fish (tuna, sardines, etc)
Potted or canned meats
Canned pastas
Granola bars
Candies
Crackers
Powdered and canned milk
Fruit or tomato juices (small cans)

That's not counting the water which should be kept on hand for emergency use.

As far as my personal experience goes, I've been trapped by both floods and blizzards in the middle of winter with no heat and escape routes blocked. I make sure my pantry is stocked. It's simply a matter of adding a couple of food items to your regular grocery shopping trips, and I often use coupons to add food to the emergency supplies. I regularly rotate my stores by making contributions to the local food pantry. Really, it's not that hard. The more folks are prepared, the more emergency services can direct their energies to those who are truly in need.

[1monster]

43. Thanks, but I had most of that stuff and more.

[FlemingsGhost]

23. See post #4 (n/t)

Flem.

[QC]

21. Yep, this place has become a mirror image of Freak Republic.

Compassion just can't compete with the thrill of sitting in judgment of others, I guess.

[KoKo]

44. This is true. The lack of compassion by some is sad.... considering

how many DU'ers live in Hurricane Prone Areas. When I first came here we used to have long threads giving support to those here who were coping with terrible weather conditions, not only in the hurricane states but everywhere.

As our numbers here have increased we seem to ignore our fellow travelers on this board or sit in judgement.

We need to do better...but then I don't want to sound like a "bleeding heart" in this new "Tough Bush America." :-(

[Bigmack]

10. Being very Repub here.....

I'm tired of people freeloading on taxpayers like me. Free ice, water, and food!!! Don't those people know that all that stuff will weaken their will to pull themselves up by their (soggy) bootstraps.

That's the trouble with our society.... just because people get clobbered by a little-bitty windstorm, they start thinking of themselves as victims.

Repub-think at it's best!

[theHandpuppet]

12. When you can afford to sit in some big-ass SUV

... burning up 30 bucks' worth of gas while waiting for free water, this is not a matter of lacking compassion for those who truly need help. It's a matter of being gobsmacked by some folks' complete lack of basic common sense.

[Boomer]

15. Whatever

>> At aid distribution centers throughout the area, thousands of vehicles lined up to get free ice, water and food. Some people parked and shut off their engines to save gas in the slow-moving lines."

It's not the "free" aspect that bothers me, not has that even been mentioned in this thread, so your satire is misplaced.

My issue is with a general population that does not make preparations IN ADVANCE. What happened to common sense, folks? What happened to recognizing the annual hazards of the area in which you live and ALWAYS being prepared?

The coastal regions of this country are going to be a punching bag for an intense hurricane season. They have known this for months. This equivalent to earthquake preparedness in California.

The only people who should need this kind of last-minute aid should be the indigent (who don't drive SUVs), the elderly, the infirm. All other able-bodied citizens should be prepared NOW.

[madfloridian]

19. May God bless you always with good health and wealth.

And no cares.

[Boomer]

25. I would wish that for everyone in this country

Unfortunately, such good fortune is not easily ordered.

In lieu of the Godly benevolence that seems to be in short supply in some areas, I would wish that able-bodied, financially-secure citizens would employ the common sense to prepare for worst-case scenarios.

This effort would insure that when bad things happen, the people who need it the most -- the poor, the elderly, the infirm -- would be most likely to receive assistance first.

If disaster strikes my neighborhood, I'll probably be handing food out to all my neighbors because NONE of them keeps any emergency stores on hand. I know, because we've asked, and they look at us as if we're slightly.... odd. So, we've bought more than what *we* need so we can share with those who are going to be without.

This isn't "fair" to us, but we don't have the temperament to hoard for ourselves and watch others do without.

But I really shudder to think just how unprepared most Americans are for dealing with anything other than the "buy it now" consumer pattern that we've developed.

[madfloridian]

26. You make arrogant assumptions about people.

That is what is coming across. I went through 3 hurricanes eyes last year.....we only thought we were prepared. Ice was a luxury sought for day by day, even by the rich.

Water was in extremely short supply...right wing radio which permeates our area could not stop their regular programming long enough to tell us who had water, who had gas, and what stores still had food.

My husband on a trip for ice in the intense heat, stopped by a neighor's to check on him. The police were still there, he had died during the night....it was over 100 in his house and a tree had uprooted half the house.

I don't want to hear your assumptions....two more of our elderly neighbors died right after the storms. They were well-off and well-prepared but they died from fear and stress.

So don't talk to me about such things.

[Boomer]

29. That must have been a dreadful experience

And I can understand now why you are reacting so strongly to aspects of my posts. We are talking at cross-purposes, both of us focused on entirely different issues based on our own personal experiences, rather than debating the same point.

I have poorly expressed the narrow -- specifically, intentionally narrow -- focus of my concerns. And the result was interpreted as a scattershot critism of anyone who has need of aid. That was not my intention.

My apologies for causing you distress with my posts.

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

16. Thank God for Jeb!

[Scurrilous]

24. People are waiting in line...

...for free ice because there's none in the stores. Ice is one thing you can't stockpile. Whatever ice people bought Thursday (before the storm) is gone now and people will go to any lengths to get some.

[Payback Time]

28. Boomer has a point....

If people have cars and can wait in line, they probably could have afforded to store some food supplies for the season. It's also understandable though, that if their lives are hard and stressful, and they are working hard to provide for their families, that they, unfortunately, don't have time to think about these things, especially single-parent families.

As far as ice, without power, it is really a necessary thing.

I live in New Orleans. 'm a pretty pro-active person, but I wish we were more prepared earlier so there wouldn't be so many last minute things to do. We may or may not evacuate. I do not look forward to either prospect, especially the aftermath, if we stay, even though we have food, water, batteries, even a car battery & transformer to run our refrigerator on (my husband is pretty inventive).

Good luck and Blessings to all who are in Katrina's path.

[Scurrilous]

31. Good luck!

Katrina passed over my house Thursday night. Even at Category 1, it was pretty powerful. Watch out for the backend (after the eye passes). That's when all the damage happened.

[Boomer]

33. I'm praying for New Orleans

That city is sooo vulnerable to devastating flooding if Katrina hits them dead one, and the mayor has really been dragging at ordering an evacuation.

The most worrisome aspect is how many people simply do not have the means to leave the city, or the resources to find housing even they could get out. That's truly scary.

[Boomer]

32. This what worries me about this country

>> It's also understandable though, that if their lives are hard and stressful, and they are working hard to provide for their families, that they, unfortunately, don't have time to think about these things, especially single-parent families. <<

I see this every day, in my own neck of the woods, which is prone to different but equivalent disasters (floods, torandoes, snow storms). People simply do not prepare adequately for emergencies. It's a whole different mindset from the one in operation when I was growing up.

I'm NOT talking about the people who suffer a direct hit and end up homeless. There's not much you can do to prepare for that level of destruction. But a whole lot of other people who are only indirectly affected by loss of electricity or the disruption of normal distribution are caught without basic goods. This puts them in a vulnerable, dependent position and strains the system that is delivering aid to those who need it most.

Poor and working-class people have always had hard and stressful lives, but it used to be common practice to be prepared for emergencies. I learned those habits from parents and in-laws who were dirt-poor themselves. I don't see as many people follwing those same habits now as they did when I was growing up (many decades ago).

I think a more common underlying dynamic is that we're a consumer culture that is accustomed to simply driving over to Walmart to get what we need, when we need it. Stockpiling durable (but not very tasty) goods and keeping large jugs of water on hand (plus some clean garbage cans and trash liners) doesn't enter people's minds. And it concerns me precisely because I DO CARE.

If I didn't care what happened to people, if I really were the arrogant asshole that some people in this thread keep assuming, I would simply sit on my hoard of six-months of food and chortle. But one of the reasons I've stockpiled extra is because I know so many people in my neighborhood aren't doing it at all and I'll be sharing.

[KoKo]

46. It's that your postings have

come off as arrogant. If you'd explained yourself the way you did in this post we might have had a better understanding of what you say.

Still...there are many "new folks" who have moved to South Florida because of economic needs and they may not know what they need. Just because you and I grew up "preparing for emergencies" might not mean that everyone should be like us.

Plus...when you have flooding there's terrible damage and you might not be able to recover what you've saved. If you gas grill or charcoal has been drowned you might not be able to cook it. Many folks in those areas houses are built on slabs close to the ground. Flooding causes destruction and mold and sanitation problems. Also Florida's water table is so high that they need to use "pumping stations" to pump sewage and water. If power goes out, the raw sewage backs up into your toilets and drains flooding everything and contaminating it. You can't even pee in the toilet or relieve yourself otherwise because it's all backed up...or can't be flushed because the "Pumping Station" can't operate in a flood.

There's alot that goes on that might not apply to some areas of the country when an area like Florida gets hit with hurricanes or flooding.

And people might not have the extra money to go out and stock up on what you say...when one lives on the edge. :shrug:

We all could use some compassion because most of us in the next decades are going to live through stuff we might not always be able to be prepared for. ...That's all some were trying to say to you, I think.

[HeeBGBz]

34. I've spent everything I have except for about $20

Getting ready to get hit by Katrina here in Gulfport, MS.

Staying home and hoping for the best. Currently making ice and storing up water.

I'll probably live on Spam, Ritz crackers and peanut butter, if I survive it.

I do live in a sturdy house in the Category C evacuation zone, which is a good thing. Just depends on what Katrina has to serve up.

[Boomer]

36. Best of luck

>> I'll probably live on Spam, Ritz crackers and peanut butter, if I survive it.<<

On the up side, just think how good "real" food will taste after that experience.

[HeeBGBz]

38. That is true. Same for that first cup of ice after you've been out

I remember after Frederic, Jimmy Buffet showed up at a restaurant I worked at to get ice for his mom in Mobile. It was the only place in town that had any.

[Roland99]

42. Will the Propagandist be there handing out bottles of water

like he did during the election of 2004? I seriously doubt it.


Compassionate Conservatism??

:puke: