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Man-made chaos adds to storms' damages

By LUCY MORGAN
Published September 24, 2005

Back to the drawing board.

It's clear many of us cannot respond to a disaster, natural or inflicted.

We don't need terrorists to devastate us. We do it to ourselves.

Perhaps the best after-governor job for Jeb Bush would be heading up homeland security.

Faced with the threat of Hurricane Rita this week, the governor declared a state of emergency while still in the middle of a weekend in Miami, flew back to Tallahassee and calmly called for the evacuation of the Florida Keys and low-lying areas in Miami-Dade and Broward Counties.

Big National Guard airplanes and helicopters swooped down and evacuated three hospitals and two nursing homes. The patients were taken far inland to Sebring and, where necessary, to intensive care units in Miami.

Tourists were ordered out of the Keys Sunday, a day ahead of everyone else.

The traffic was heavy but nothing like the incredible snarls we saw in and around Houston. No buses filled with senior citizens caught on fire, and no one died trying to evacuate.

Of course, Florida has gained a lot of experience in these things. We know how to quickly reverse the flow of highways to take care of thousands of cars heading in one direction. We know how to suspend tolls on expressways and open shelters in protected areas.

We've gained all this experience the hard way, one storm at a time.

It's likely that the biggest impact Florida will get from Hurricane Rita will come at the gas pump. Some stations were already gouging us before refineries and oil rigs had to shut down to prepare for the storm.

We live close to a BP station that hiked its prices to $3.18 a gallon for regular gas by Friday morning. The same station jacked the price for regular to $3.31 when Hurricane Katrina came ashore, so it's likely to go higher.

The governor says we should conserve gas and not go around topping our tanks. So I topped my tank on the way to work Friday, fearing that my gas-guzzling SUV wouldn't make it through the upcoming shortage.

Yes, I know. I am disobeying my governor. But I am practiced at this.

About the time you are reading this someone will have posted my disrespect for the governor's orders on some Web site and I will start getting obscene e-mail. It's hilarious to read the orchestrated mail from people all over the country who accuse me of being a liberal this or a conservative that, depending on whom I criticized.

If they only knew I'm an equal opportunity offender. I'm looking for competence, not a particular party or dogma. Lately there hasn't been much competence in handling hurricanes outside of Florida.

The mayor of New Orleans and governor of Louisiana are both Democrats, as is the mayor of Houston. The governor of Texas is Republican Rick Perry. None of them displayed much competence in handling storm preparations.

The president is a Republican and didn't even seem to understand what was happening as Hurricane Katrina took out New Orleans.

The problems in New Orleans are tragically well known. We are only beginning to see what Houston can do, or not do.

It should not take anyone nine hours to drive through Houston, but that is what was happening as millions attempted to flee the storm. I was feeling sorry for the couple I saw who were stranded in traffic with two English sheep dogs until I heard about the bus filled with elderly evacuees catching fire.

Cars overheated and ran out of gas in 95 degree heat. Some people gave up and went home, preferring the storm's rage to man-made chaos.

Empty southbound lanes should have been opened early to handle the traffic. We shouldn't have to learn these lessons over and over again at the expense of citizens who die.

[Last modified September 24, 2005, 00:59:07]