Wednesday, August 18, 2004
The Bush Boys' "Hearts and Minds" Thing
"C'mere and stand on this rubble with me for a moment while they get a shot of me feelin' your pain. How're ya doin'? I'm George W. Bush."2 comments
St. Petersburg Times / Hurricane Charley: As survivors wait in heat, hope wilts, tempers fray
Let's see here...
Florida has two to three serious hurricanes buffet each of its coastlines every late summer/fall. Happens every year. So, these storms come as no real surprise. They come every year; and there's always a few days' to a week's warning to prepare.
It seems that by now, The State of Florida (Jeb Bush (R), Governor) should have this drill pretty much down. Like clockwork. Not only its internal state governmental response, but its interagency relationships with the feds. Florida and FEMA should be hand-in-glove on this. Seems it should take only a phone call or two to put everything in motion. The only joker in the deck is exactly where landfall is. Everything else should be good to go. Or so one would think.
Throughout Florida nearly 700,000 people are still without power, and some may have to wait until the end of the month before they can turn on their lights again.
As of Monday, Progress Energy Florida had about 298,000 customers without electricity, and customers in Polk, Highlands and Hardee counties may have to wait until Aug. 24. Tampa Electric Co. was expecting to have fewer than 10,000 customers without electricity, while Florida Power & Light said it still had about 313,000 without power.
Getting information like that out to the survivors is proving to be a challenge. Charlotte County officials plan to print fliers and distribute them by hand, street by street. Also under consideration: airplanes towing banners.
"Gee...thanks for the flyer."
"Your Government in action!"
Tin cans and string might be an option as well.
This report also points out that Florida may replicate last summer's horror in France as scores of seniors died during that country's ongoing freak heat wave.
PUNTA GORDA - On Monday, the third morning after Hurricane Charley laid waste to Southwest Florida, the people who survived the storm began to wonder if they would survive its aftermath.
For every commodity—ice, water, federal aid—the lines are long. The days are hot and humid. There's no power. Air conditioning is a dream. Cars have no gas. Tempers are frayed. Rumors are widespread. So are mosquitoes.
"I'm afraid that more people will die in the recovery than died from the impact," fretted Charlotte County emergency management director Wayne Sallade.
Sallade said he worries about the toll that living for weeks in homes without air conditioning will take on the county's many elderly residents, or what could happen while they're cleaning up storm debris in the broiling sun.
"My biggest concern is my seniors and their exposure to the elements," he said. "There is no way to take this 90-degree weather and make it go away."
This event is more than a Karl Rove opportunity for payback for seniors not embracing the Medicare Card boondogle.
If George W. Bush is capable of doing anything more than smiling nicely during photo-ops and rallying his hand-picked supporters, he has to move quickly to save the lives of many of these elderly Americans.
If he's wanted to show those millions of Americans who think he's merely a poor little rich boy who's never had to do much in his life while the family's or the government's paid staff did the work, then here's his opportunity to prove that he is capable of an honest day's work.
He has to actually be President for a moment.
He has to lead.
Does he have it in him? Does Jeb Bush?
Or are they just a couple of those "Points of Light"?
We'll see.
posted by Gotham 12:07 PM
2 Comments:
Maybe he could call out the National Guard. Oh, wait . . .
By 
, at
August 18, 2004 12:48 PM
Classic!
By 
Gotham, at
August 18, 2004 2:19 PM
