Well, where should I start? Living in Florida I guess I should start with Hurricane Idalia that made landfall just north of Cedar Key in the Big Bend area of Florida. Because it made landfall after sun up and thanks to the Weather Channel I got to watch all the coverage live. The scene in Perry as the eye wall went right over the city was amazing but not in a good way. To see those 100 year old oak trees being so battered as they fought a losing battle against the storm was a sight that I will remember for a long time. They stood proud and defiant against the rain and the wind but in the end, many were not left standing. I know that everyone will see the oak tree that fell on the Governor’s Mansion, but, that tree will be quickly cut up and hauled away and any of the repairs to the mansion will be quickly repaired, all paid for by the taxpayers of Florida. That won’t be the same for the areas that have been hit all over the State of Florida. The Governor will tour the area and show what people think is real concern. He will then walk away and move onto something else just like what happened after Ian. Some people’s lives have just been destroyed but when it is all said and done nothing is going to change. Living through Ian I have learned that when a hurricane hits it is news for a couple of days but then everyone else move on.   But, the people that are affected by that great storm will be experiencing the effect for not just days but for years. Ft Myers Beach and Sanibel Island are not even close to being recovered. People are still fighting a losing battle with the insurance companies and it is almost a year later. Many people are just going to have to move on. It is sad. You hear about all the uplifting stories about people helping people and they are true but the recoveries are just too long and too expensive for many of them. An example is that I got 500 dollars from the insurance company for a door that got damaged. In the end because of new codes it cost 7800 dollars. This is what many will have to contend with. The systems to truly help people are not there.

As I have stated our Governor has been making himself appear to be in charge or at least wants to get as much political mileage from this as he can. Florida’s response was good from emergency personnel just like it has been in the past. We have had 120 Hurricanes in the last 170 years so there has been lot of practice. I know that people will say that DeSantis has done a great job but the real hero is the Director of Florida’s Emergency Management, Kevin Guthrie. He is a 30 year veteran of Public Safety and Emergency Management in the state of Florida. In October of 2003 the State Emergency Response Team became the first State program in the nation to be fully accredited by the Emergency Management Accreditation Program. To expect anything else from this department of well trained individuals would be a story. Where Florida and I think much of the country fails is helping people rebuild their lives. We have serious insurance problems in Florida. Living just 10 minutes for Ft Myers Beach I see it every day. The State of Florida knew about the insurance problems long before Ian hit but didn’t solve them and if you did a little research you will see that the Republican Legislature and DeSantis may have made it worse on Florida’s homeowner. Between January 2018 and December Insurance Industrial Employees donated at least 3.9 million dollars to his “Friends of Ron DeSantis” political action committee. In addition the Heritage Insurance subsidiary and the People’s Trust Insurance donated a total of 125,000 dollars to the DeSantis 2023 Inaugural celebration according to a May report by the American Federation of Teacher’s Union and three other advocacy groups. Businesses and groups don’t give money without expecting something in return. What the Insurance Businesses got was laws that made it harder to sue the Insurance companies and even if you won your claim the Insurance Companies were not libel for your attorney fees. The laws are stacked against the Florida Homeowner and Florida’s insurance rates are four times the national average.

As most of the country knows Florida is becoming a violent state. We just had a guy walk into a General Dollar and started killing Black people. Our Governor went to speak at a memorial and he was booed by the crowd. Many blame DeSantis for the increased violence that is griping Florida. You would think he would have listened just a little bit, but no not him. Let’s fast forward just a few days and he is giving a speech in the aftermath of Hurricane Idalia and he is again promoting gun violence. He said “looters will be shot”. He didn’t say that they would be arrested and prosecuted under the law, he said shot. This is the 2^nd time he has spoken that way that I can remember and the other time I thought that he was promoting violence and not law and order. We have a Constitution and we have a Bill of Rights that is more than just the badly misinterpreted 2^nd Amendment. Everyone accused of a crime by our Constitution have a right to a fair trial. You are supposed to be able to face your accuser. You are supposed to be innocent until proven guilty. Well not in Florida. In Florida you can shoot first and ask question later. Going through Ian I heard a couple of people talk about some looting that occurred on Sanibel Island after Ian. I guess a person had put some stuff along the road by mistake and it was taken. I am sorry but that is not looting. The Florida Supreme Court had already ruled that dumpster diving is legal in Florida and that it was actually good for the environment. If the stuff is street side where trash pickup occur it should be fair game. To take something off a person property not set aside with the trash is theft so trash divers have to be careful and respectful. I will ask this, is taking a person’s life worth it? Well life is pretty cheap in DeSantis’s Florida.

We have all seen the pictures of the looting in the aftermath of Katrina over 20 years ago. A lot has changed in the 20 years and we can no longer look at that as the norm that you can expect. Emergency personnel are pre-staged close to where the areas that are going to be hit. After Katrina people were left for days without any assistance. It took the US Army to come in and render assistance. People were left in the Superdome for 5 days without assistance. After Ian emergency personnel were on sight within hours. What DeSantis did was just bring up those images of all those desperate people in New Orleans that were left to fend for themselves. We can discuss the rights and wrongs that happened back then but what DeSantis did was spur imaging of minorities reacting to an abnormal situation in an abnormal way. Will there be any looting after Idalia? That was my worry after Ian and I kept my gun at my side at all times for a few days. What I saw was not looting but people helping people and that is what you are going to see up in places like Perry.