Nerves Fray in Florida as Grimy Reality Sinks In

[kskiska]

ARCADIA, Fla., Aug. 16 - Three scorching days after Hurricane Charley ravaged Florida, Pam Dodd is tired to the point of tears of bathing with a teakettle in a friend's backyard. Jamie Williams has had it with sleeping on the floor of a grimy shelter with no air-conditioning, though he cannot go home because the storm left him without one.

And Angie Ehling, who was almost ebulliently optimistic in the hours after the storm demolished her antiques store, wears a hard, blank look as she hauls ruined merchandise from a condemned building downtown.

"We spent our savings on a generator, $700,'' said Ms. Ehling, who was wearing her lucky cowboy hat when the hurricane leveled her town but had retired it by Monday. "What else can you do?''

Nerves are beginning to fray in the small Florida towns that the hurricane lay waste to on Friday, as the initial adrenaline and shock dissipate and people are left with the dismal realization that weeks, even months, may pass before they can resume even a bit of normalcy.

more…
http://nytimes.com/2004/08/17/national/17storm.html?hp

[aquart]

1. It's okay. Jeb's on it.

My heart to them. This is a genuine ordeal. As one raised by retailers, the antique dealer's story hurts most. Losing a home is hard, but a livelihood is your anchor to the world.

[indigobusiness]

2. Compassionate Conservatism should kick in any minute now...

and ride to their rescue.

This is a stark example of whether or not our system really works.

I just hope Earl doesn't compound things and stay on Charley's path.

[starroute]

3. Earl seems to have disappeared off the weather maps

At least, it's not there any more at Weather Underground.

Did it dissipate, or is there just a glitch on the site?

[indigobusiness]

5. Good question.

I didn't pay attention today, but it was moving so fast maybe it didn't develop.

[opihimoimoi]

8. Help is around the corner......

The money and resources are in Iraq....the NG too.

Our own now suffers the consequences of poor leadership...Bush is not a good QB

[indigobusiness]

9. Buiding materials are scarce and skyrocketing in price...Iraq is

priority #1 in the Bush vision.

I don't like living in Bushworld.

[opihimoimoi]

10. Bush World is a Losing one for us small guys...

We are victims of brainwashing...its gone systemic.

[indigobusiness]

14. Exactly

It even bubbles up in those that are aware of it.

[opihimoimoi]

15. Yup, Ed Zachery

[tkmorris]

13. It's still there, but........

It still moving quite fast, too fast to develop really, and it's staying south. If it survives at all it is almost certain to end up on the Yucatan Peninsula or the western gulf coast elsewhere.

[murray hill farm]

35. Earl

now a "tropical wave"..not covered since no longer a threat to USA, but heading toward Honduras...weather services in USA will not give that coverage.

[barb162]

4. There's been a lot of stories like this

And it's HORRIBLE!. So many of these people are poor and very elderly and they have no power, no phones, next to no water and there is this sweltering heat. WOnder how many more will die. They can't even call for a paramedic because there's no damned phones and the hospitals there are screwed up, damaged, etc. It is really unbelieveable how bad it is.

[Lindacooks]

12. Gee, maybe Florida could use an income tax?

Then perhaps there would be money for emergency preparedness, and even money to build more safe shelters that will take care of people even after the storm has passed.

[alcuno]

23. August is "no state sales tax on gas" month in Florida.

In July, I asked my dad if the state was awash in cash and he said no. Why the legislature eliminated the sales tax on gas for August is beyond me. Must be trying to buy votes.

[barb162]

41. now that's a good one

That has as much a chance of passing as annual driving tests for the people over 80 years old. (Didn't know they didn't have an income tax)

[gratuitous]

6. This is going to get a special kind of ugly

I was down in Chiapas, Mexico three years ago among the displaced communities. Although they had a few rudimentary amenities at Acteal las Abejas (as distinguished from Acteal and Acteal Zapatista), just a few days in the countryside convinced me that I wouldn't last much more than a week under those conditions. Fortunately, I had a house in San Cristobal to go back to after those few days.

It's going to be all kinds of worse in the next few days as folks try to adjust to this new reality, and there won't be a house they can go to for many, many days.

Good thing all those bleeding heart liberals will go down there to provide relief, run child care centers while the parents wait in line after line, swing some hammers, and drive supplies around. The Republicans and their sympathizers will be there, too, providing their own special brand of relief: Sheets of plywood for $100; signing big contracts for insurance and federal disaster relief bucks, then skedaddling with the loot; and generally making a quick buck off of other people's misery.

[classof56]

7. Don't forget their "God bless yous" and keep the faith admonitions

As in--"faith-based initiatives". They make me ill.

Bush MUST GO!!

[LastLiberal in PalmSprings]

11. * was on the scene in Florida the next day, hugging victims --

unlike 9-11, where it took him three days to make the scene. And when he finally showed up, he stood on the rubble which still held the victims' bodies and played cheerleader-in-chief.

[UpInArms]

16. on the news last night, I watched a woman

weeping and declaring that it "looked like a war zone". I wonder if anyone else will even contemplate that we have done this deliberately to Iraq?

A hurricane is something that you cannot prevent, an illegal invasion could have been.

I feel worse for the innocent civilians in Iraq than I do for people living in trailer homes in Florida.

I do believe that living in the BFEE's version of Amerika has cost me my sympathy for states that continue to put the Bushes in power - over and over.

[tlcandie]

17. Just don't forget that ALL who live in Florida did NOT vote to put him in!

I am one of those and we were spared. I can understand your loss of sympathy and I feel much the same. Just try to remember that all of us aren't under that umbrella!!!

:hug: :hi:

[UpInArms]

18. thanks tlcandie for the reminder

I will attempt to keep my humanity in these inhumane times.

It just gets harder each day. :(

Somehow the news grates on me - seeing some overstuffed woman bitching about eating too many sandwiches and demanding that somehow someone provide her with a "hot meal" went the wrong way with me.

:pals:

[Ripley]

20. I hope you don't ever have to go through a natural disaster.

Because you sound like a cold hearted asshole with that statement. And you know what they say...what goes around, comes around.

I can't believe the total lack of compassion some DUers have, and you know what? It's always directed towards people living in the south. Now it's even directed at the poor people living in the south who are lucky to have survived utter devastation.

Nice.

[Misinformed01]

21. hang on there Ripley

7th generation North Carolinian here.

I understood what that poster meant by his comments. I am sorry if he offended you, but there are more angles to the stories in FL than just the "victim" one.

Yes, there are many people who are victims in a hurricane (and yes, I have seen a major one...and tornadoes, and ice...and I was a paramedic, so seen other stuff too)...but, there are also a bunch of whiners...and those are the people making the above poster mad.

Stephanie

[Ripley]

22. So I guess my 73 year old mother deserves to be called a whiner

too. Because hell, she shouldn't bitch, Gawd forbid, about eating shitty sandwiches 3 times a day for 4 days. No, she should be thankful that her life has been ruined by the hurricane and she can't enjoy a hot cooked nutritious meal.

My mother said that after Floyd trashed her home. What a whiner she is tho! She should just pray to the Lord for forgiveness, because afterall she isn't in as bad a shape as a poor innocent Iraqi.

This board is so full of crap these days. If you think you have the right to judge how someone acts or "whines" when they have barely survived an extremely traumatic event and they are probably still in shock, well march on ye judgemental schmucks!

[Misinformed01]

24. Fucking put a lid on it dude

I spent a good part of my life PHYSICALLY helping people out of their catastrophes. What have you done...seriously? I mean that, because I don't know you (only from DU) and you very well might have done more than I ever thought of---

I assume that ALMOST all...note I didn't say ALL...Americans living in Florida realize that they are near the ocean...take it from there slugger.

Those people are going to be lucky if the electricity is back on in a week...and you know what? That fucking sucks. But, whining about having to "eat sandwiches" instead of being grateful for the sandwich can be kinda hard to swallow...catch my drift?

Stephanie

[Ripley]

27. Yeah, tell me to shut up.

Again, the wonderful world of DU. Lockstep in time now everyone.

You don't know a fucking thing about me and my family. And who the hell said they weren't grateful to have a free sandwich? The point I was making about the original poster I responded too before you jumped in was that she didn't think the victim, yes freaking victim of a hurricane had a right to be fat, live in a trailer in Florida and complain about wanting a hot meal.

Jesus Christ on a fucking pogo stick!

[Misinformed01]

28. You didn't even read my post

"You don't know a fucking thing about me and my family."

That's right..that's why I WROTE that-

Forget it, OK? You can just sit on the computer, and let your heart cyber bleed over all the victims in the world, and tell people like me that I am cold and heartless....whatever.

Enjoy your day.

[Ripley]

29. You seem to be a tad confused.

You told me to "put a lid on it dude." Uh, how is that not telling me to shut up?

I called the other person cold, not you. Why are you responding as if I was talking to you?

Some EMT you are if you don't have empathy for disaster victims. Hope you aren't around to shit on my misfortune.

[sal]

31. You don't live in Gulf state.

I sense you might be a nurse in the mid-west or west coast. You don't know what your talking about. You can't, or you would not speak that way to a brother who speaks from experience. Blaming victims is wrong and very Republican.

[Misinformed01]

32. Life-long NC here

Husband just moved from Sarasota...

Went through Hugo.

Come again?

[colonel odis]

19. actually, the majority in florida didn't vote to put him in.

thank you, katherine harris.

[Misinformed01]

25. and the sucky part is

the people that voted against him, or TRIED to...are the ones that are going to be suffering the worst this week. And next.

Doesn't that just chap your behind?

Steph

[atreides1]

37. n/t

I would guess that you are talking about George and not Jeb.

[colonel odis]

43. yes.

[atreides1]

38. But The Majority did Vote for Jeb

I sympathize with the people that have lost homes and personal mementos that can never be replaced, and I know that not all the people of Florida voted to put Bush in office, but that was George, not Jeb.

Jeb won the majority vote, and is still the governor, along with the majority Republican state legislature, who also won the majority vote.

I do hope that everything turns out well for all those who have been caught by this disaster.

Maybe it's time for a change.

Good luck to you and yours, and to all the people of Florida

[Eloriel]

30. Your lack of sympathy for Floridians is misplaced

They didn't vote Bush in. Gore WON Fl, or would hvae without the vote rigging and active vote suppression that went on. However, even with all that, under a recount, Gore still won.

[Rockholm]

33. Last night on the news 2 stories made me angry!

I think it was World News on ABC. Story #1 was on the folks who lived in trailer parks and lost everything. It was truly heartbreaking. Elderly folks on social security who have nothing now. No home, no money, etc. The second story was about some coastal island where homes sell for 10M. The owner of the island seemed so smug about riding the storm out. Oh, and they were already rebuilding! 2 days after the storm and things are getting back to normal for the richest and the poorest have nothing. SICK SICK SICK.

[jackstraw45]

34. The Bush Amerika....rich come first.

Where do you think the contractors were sent first?

[ignatius 2]

39. Our local rag, the Indianapolis star, had that exact headline. I sent

a letter to the editor asking why they show that headline with a natural disaster, but will not show the real thing with many people dying ON A DAILY BASIS. They did not print the letter, hell, they barely print the soldiers names killed in action anymore.

[Catfight]

26. My folks won't have electricity until Friday if they are lucky. I imagine

that it's getting a bit frustrating since it looks like a war zone.

[jackieforthedems]

36. It's Sad

It's definitely sad regarding what's happened in Florida. I've read all of the posts on here, and I agree with all of you in some way or another. What did Bush promise any of the Floridians - I've been following the Olympics, haven't heard alot of the latest news reports out of Florida? He and his business buddies should be kicking in to relieve some of the pressure to the worst hit and those in the worst predicaments, not just worrying about their (Bush and pals) share of stocks in the war-related profits being made. I can understand the frustration of the people in the trailer parks, etc... They may not be the most well-off Americans financially prior to the hurricane, but we shouldn't be judging them for that because we are not in their shoes right now. The government should be doing something to take care of their situations, but instead, programs are being cut, etc... to prevent this class of American from flourishing when disasters - whether they be weather related or job loss, health care, etc... related. That's flat out wrong. We make our votes, hoping whoever gets in has all of our best interests at heart, but I've never seen it happen with a Republican in. It p's me off that the religion issues always have to be dragged in to politics, preying on the God-fearing population of the country. You see more being done by volunteers, every day ordinary people in a disaster than you do the President. Yeah, come and visit and then leave and forget about it. Hope is on the way - sorry it won't come until late January 2005, though!

[Gem]

40. destruction & hot air

Florida hurricane victims this week are experiencing what Iraqiis have been experiencing since we arrived in March, 2003. Just at somewhat cooler temperatures.

[Name removed]

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