Hurricane Destruction
We drove down past Punta Gorda on our way to the Fort Myers area here in Florida. The sight of hundreds and hundreds of temporary trailers was impressive. Also stuck in my mind are the great piles of debris bulldozed out of the trailer parks. Striking were the light standards, one after another bent over at a 30 degree angle, failing about 3/5ths of the way up. It is claimed that they were designed to fail this way, having a "weak link" or fuse-like part that keeps the entire tower from crashing to the ground.
I was talking to an environmental engineer yesterday, living here on the river who had volunteered his services to help those unfortunate people. Of the 32 trailer parks, each with 100 to 150 units, every one was completely gone, destroyed by the extreme winds. That represents thousands of families completely wiped out by the storm. There are so many people who haven't yet been able to file claims with FEMA or their insurance companies because of the high numbers of applicants.
The devistation is complete. Very similar to the tsunami that killed so many on the other side of the world. Florida is still gun-shy with some people leaving for good but replaced by others who don't believe it could happen twice. Land values don't seem to have fallen off much.
Here at the WP Franklin Lock, they evacuated the campground but the storm was just far enough away so that the damage didn't amount to much. They were lucky this time and they know it. FEMA is about finished up here and will be moving to other areas in the state. We are moving the RV on Tuesday to Port St. Lucie on the east coast. They have a lot more damage there. I expect to be doing more photo documentation of damage.
I was talking to an environmental engineer yesterday, living here on the river who had volunteered his services to help those unfortunate people. Of the 32 trailer parks, each with 100 to 150 units, every one was completely gone, destroyed by the extreme winds. That represents thousands of families completely wiped out by the storm. There are so many people who haven't yet been able to file claims with FEMA or their insurance companies because of the high numbers of applicants.
The devistation is complete. Very similar to the tsunami that killed so many on the other side of the world. Florida is still gun-shy with some people leaving for good but replaced by others who don't believe it could happen twice. Land values don't seem to have fallen off much.
Here at the WP Franklin Lock, they evacuated the campground but the storm was just far enough away so that the damage didn't amount to much. They were lucky this time and they know it. FEMA is about finished up here and will be moving to other areas in the state. We are moving the RV on Tuesday to Port St. Lucie on the east coast. They have a lot more damage there. I expect to be doing more photo documentation of damage.