Sick, frail, elderly suffer as S. Florida deals with Wilma's aftermath

[question everything]

Sick, frail, elderly suffer as S. Florida deals with Wilma's aftermath

KNIGHT RIDDER NEWS SERVICE

October 30, 2005

MIAMI – Still largely without power and fuel, South Florida confronted a new issue yesterday in the aftermath of Hurricane Wilma: storm-related injuries, jammed emergency rooms and deteriorating conditions for the ill, the frail and the elderly.

"If the power isn't restored to the high-rises soon, we're going to be seeing some real medical problems in the elderly, and quite possibly some dead," said Michael Weston, fire/rescue medical director for Broward County.

Scores of frail people have been unable to leave their upper-level apartments since the storm struck Monday because elevators are out of service. Others were beginning to feel the effects of rising temperatures without air conditioning.

Around the region, particularly in Broward County, north of Miami, some people dependent on oxygen flocked to emergency rooms after depleting supplies at home. Hospitals reported injuries from car accidents at unregulated intersections, falls from ladders and burns from barbecues.


Find this article at:
http://www.signonsandiego.com/uniontrib/20051030/news_1n30wilma.html

[Sarah Ibarruri]

1. Things are very bad for the poor, the ill and the old

Amazing that in this country such things can happen, but I think they've always been happening. We've all just been led by the propaganda machine that this is the best country for people. BS.

[Delphinus]

16. That's because

they never think of the time they're going to be old, sick, frail, and poor. That's for someone else, not for them.

[nadinbrzezinski]

2. Whe yuo elect people who don't believe in government

that vote has consequences, and we are seeing it

[ninkasi]

6. You are right...

You say "When you elect people who don't believe in government, that vote has consequences, and we are seeing it." So the next question is, if they don't believe in government, why do they try so hard to get elected? Of course, we know that they really mean that they don't believe that government should help ordinary people.

They use being in government as a weapon to take from the rest of us, and divide the spoils among themselves. They send our children to fight their wars, and hide the returning caskets in the dead of night, so that we don't start wondering why our child had to die. They hide the horribly injured, the maimed, the blinded, the ones whose minds have been locked in a hell they can never escape, and wrap themselves in the flag, and demand more sacrifices.

It is unsurprising that government under these people is doing such a terrible job of assisting citizens recover from natural disasters. Unless there is a profit for them, or it will deliver them votes, they don't care. Democrats must break away from being Republican-lite, and move in the direction that will restore our country, and our citizens, to a decent life again.

We must get these neocons removed from office, and begin to reshape our society. It has become obvious to the rest of the world that America has broken it's promise, and it's contract with it's own citizens. Pampering the rich and powerful is not the function of government, and we need to stop it now.

FEMA under Clinton was a well functioning department, and can be again, once the crooks now occupying the White House, and the Congress, are replaced.

[Child_Of_Isis]

8. why do they try so hard to get elected?

So they can spend our money. Live off of the taxpayers. It is easier than getting a real job.

[question everything]

21. Just a typical selfish behavior

They don't believe in government when they do not realize how much they benefit from it, when all they see how the poor and the sick do - and they don't like it.

But when something happen to them - they are the first to ask for help from the government.

I still wonder how many former Enron employees still voted for Bush last year even though they wanted someone to give them their savings back.

And, of course, unless you live in a cabin in Montana and self support yourself, you do benefit from government programs, but, of course for them it is "different.."

For me, this is the basic definition of a liberal: someone who thinks of others' welfare even when it has nothing to do with oneself. Someone who is not waiting for a disaster to anticipate needs and work on them.

[cornermouse]

3. In years past, they died.

The legislation that the republicans are passing right now will make that come to pass again. Those are facts.

[EuroObserver]

4. NOLA revisited. n/t

[booksenkatz]

5. And just as in NOLA,

these deaths will not be counted because they did not occur at the very instant the hurricane passed over. Government officials apparently are counting Katrina, Rita and Wilma-related deaths the same way they count the deaths in Iraq... by undercounting when it's convenient. It is breathtaking that they're allowed to get away with this.

[malaise]

7. Very sad

remember Jebbie said to blame him.

[Gin]

9. does anyone know if the phone service is out in west palm beach?

g

[Jeanette in FL]

14. Phone service has been spotty in WPB

and in Broward too. I still have relatives that I have not been able to get in touch with since Monday. Relatives in Palm Beach Co. have had their phone service restored only to have it go off again.

[Gin]

17. thanks

g

[Danmel]

23. I just reached my aunt in Boynton Beach

She just got her phone service back late yesterday afternoon and she got her electricty back at about 6 pm tonight. She was exhausted and said it was horrible. (then she went to make something to eat). They are not too happy down tehre.

[virgdem]

24. Just spoke with my Dad about an hour ago...

he lives in Tamarac and my brother lives in Boca. They still don't have power, but their phone service has been restored. My brother's phone service never went out, but my Dad just got phone service back late last night. They aren't happy campers, but at least there are places they can go out to eat at. My Dad said it looked like a war zone, with trees down everywhere. I told my Dad -"Welcome to Jeb Bush's Florida."

[xultar]

10. WAIT!!! I thought JEB had shit under control!!!

[rodeodance]

25. only in election years.

[Rainscents]

11. Remember, they Republicans try to blame NO on Democrat governor and Mayor?

Now, I don't hear fucking shit out of rightwing nuts!

[malaise]

12. or their hacks

in the media
Edit -sp.

[Sarah Ibarruri]

13. Here's the hurricane story of a well-to-do GOP family in Broward....

I personally know a family of well-to-do right wing extremist conservatives who live in a rather ritzy area of Broward. They are the kind that ridicule lefties and claim the poor is made up of welfare moms. You know the type.

Anyway, they have no electricity, their water pressure causes only a tiny stream of water to come out of the faucet,(and that water needs to be boiled for usage), their roof is damaged and they can't get a roofer to come out there, they had to stand in line for a tarp, their luxury cars were smashed by trees and flying debris, they can't get a rental car. They're in an area where standing for gas last I heard is a 6, 7 or 8 hour wait, so even their one broken-but-driveable car can't be filled with gas.

Having no A-C, no gas, no light at nite, broken cars, a broken roof, no jobs because there's no electricity, not enough water pressure to flush toilets, no drinking water, and scrambling to get a ride to get food from restaurants is not fun. They're in a vile mood, as you can imagine.

It sure is hell to live like the poor isn't it?

[Rainscents]

26. Oh, poor babies... They are getting first hand of being poor! LOL

[sweepster]

15. Americans want instant services and gratification

Cmon people this is not a democrat or republican thing. Am I the only one who thinks it's not insane not to have services back up huriicane katrinna and wilma?? It's only been a week since wilma hit land.

Do you think those power lines just get put back up with a snap of the fingers??

I'm tired of the blame game between the republicans and the democrats over these hurricanes.

Yep my house got blown over. For christ sakes it's been 3 days after the storm and my house is not rebuilt. Some ones to blame dammit!!

[Yavin4]

19. A Week Is More Than Enough Time

Power companies plan for these scenarios all of the time. It's not like hurricanes have never happened before. Power is essential to our lives. Without it, people die. It's that simple.

We live in a world where the power elite are more concerned about their compensation packages than they are about running their businesses. Power companies are natural monopolies, and as such, they have to be able to respond to disasters in a timely fashion.

[Feron]

29. Realistically a week isn't enough time...

when you consider the large scope of the damage. Before they do anything, they have to assess and remove debris away from the poles and lines. If the substations and infastructure like it are damaged, then that will have to be repaired first and easily will extend the outage. Not to mention that first responders like hospitals, fire and police stations are always restored first. Then businesses and large subdivisions next and so forth.

BTW, underground lines don't make your lights come on any faster after a hurricane. My lines are underground and it took two weeks for my power to be restored. If the transmission lines, which cannot be buried in a swamp, are damaged then you are still S.O.L..

Plus while you rarely lose electricity with underground lines normally, repairing them can literally take hours because the linemen have to find the source of the problem. In order to find the malfunctioning area, they have to dig and often in multiple places. While aboveground lines have the infamous squirrels, underground lines attract electricity-loving fire ants. Both systems have their pluses and minuses ,but I prefer underground lines because I hate transformers on a pole. :)

[Sarah Ibarruri]

20. You're wrong (and by the way, this is the 8th day, not the 3rd)...

This is not about blame. This is about ineptness, inefficiency, and shoddiness. It's about endangerment, destruction of people's lives and property, and death.

First, the infrastructure in Florida is hellish. It's almost third-worldish.

1) A state such as Florida with a season of hurricanes that lasts 7 months each year cannot have its entire electrical network above ground with little wires flying in the wind, wooden posts holding them up high, and substations completely exposed to the elements. This stuff needed to be underground long ago, as it is in many states. Florida needs this more than other states.

2) The sewer stations have NO generators of their own. This means that when the electricity goes down, the sewer stations are unable to suck up away the waste. Eventually what happens is what happened in Pompano, where it bubbles up the manholes and into the streets.

3) Florida has no public transportation to speak of. It's complete aimless sprawl and absolute absence of planning, with the developers being the judges of what shall be built and where. As a result, when there is no gas (as was the case with this hurricane), there's almost no other mode of transportation. One has to wait hours for buses, connect 3 times, sometimes 4 and 5 times, waiting a long time at each stop. The metrorail is one line: north-south, period. It goes nowhere else. It's practically useless. As a result, everyone has to rely on cars.

4) However, the highways here are a mess. They're badly planned, badly connected, recently, a highway that was being built was so shoddy that it fell straight down into another highway (the 836) when Katrina struck as a category 1!!

I could go on about the infrastructure endlessly, but won't.

Second, I'm good friends with folks who own an Argentinian architectural firm. They let me know long ago that the construction in Florida, which should be superior to that in other states due to the dangers of hurricanes, is, in fact, the shoddiest, cheapest, most miserable construction. They don't limit this to bad neighborhood construction. This includes expensive housing and buildings as well. One of the most exclusive areas in Miami, Brickell Avenue has brand new buildings which are said to follow a new code against hurricanes of far stronger winds than those of Wilma. Well, they look like they were bombed out.

Third, the distribution of water and ice here, on the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd day were disastrous. The same thing that happened in N.O. happened here, with the inability of FEMA to distribute properly, even tho we didn't have a flooded population as in N.O.

As a result of these things and many more there's no way I could even discuss here or I'd be online for hours, roofers (and every other kind of repair person) can't move around, can't fix things, and have more work than is humanly possible, and which they won't get to for probably months.

There's no excuse for what's been going on here.

No money goes to the right things in Florida. Just into the deep pockets of the rich. It's all superficial bullshit. As a result, what should be a hurricane 3 result, appears more like a hurricane 4 or 5. Naturally, we have a Republican governor, so let's not expect any infrastructure, codes improvements, good transportation or sprawl control any time soon.

[sweepster]

28. My reply

I said it was a week since Wilma. The 3 day replay was in my sarcastic remark.

I agree the electric lines should be buried. There was a guy on Lou Dobbs last week that said the same thing and is trying to get that done. The resistance is the people of Florida literaly voted against it. He said the power companies wanted to do so but would have to raise electric bills to do so to help fund the cost. I can't remember the exact comments but that since this was not a regular electric increase it had to be approved by the state of Florida as well as the people via a special referendum (??) and the people voted against it. There was also some other reasons.

Also the federal monies that would help out for a change such as this went instead to infrastructure to get more tourist into the state i.e. roads to new them parks, sewage lines to those parks etc.

A high school friend moved down to Florida some years back. The house he bought was built in the early '60's and was made out of pored concrete and then covered with stucco. He said it could survive a nuclear bomb( I'm being sarcastic). People that built houses there in the 50;s and 60;s had more common sense than todays folks.I think common sense has gone out the window and people forget that they live in hurricane alley. You also have alot of transplants from northern states that go down there to build homes and bring the stick lumber building methods with them.

I don't like Jeb but there was a democrat gov in front of him for many many years that did nothing. It is more big business than politics that control a states economy and infrastructure.

[Yavin4]

18. This is NeoCon America

The weakest amongst us suffer. This is the Republican world. This is their Utopia.

[HockeyMom]

22. Naples

My husband sat out the hurricane in Orlando. He went back to his condo in Naples 24 hours later. All power and phones were restored. However, the software company he works at, also in Naples, didn't fare so well. As of Friday, there was no electric or phone service. Since they cannot operate without eclectic or phones, they all went home.

[EuroObserver]

27. I noticed this:

My niece flew out of Freeport, Grand Bahama, to hole up in the Four Seasons Hotel in Miami.

When I phoned shortly after Wilma passed, I could get through to reception, but because the power was out they had no computers and so couldn't locate my niece's room number.

However, I was reassured that, "as far as human lives are concerned, sir, everyone here is ok."

(Later I heard about the sucked-out windows at the hotel, and surrounding considerable damage... It seems the southern edge of the eye passed over them.)

Now I'm thinking again: wait a minute, if they had no access to computers, and apparently had not made a printout of the guest list beforehand, how could they be sure everyone was ok? - sure, I only spoke to a recepionist, apparently, who sounded pretty shocked, although relieved, I must say.

Anyway, I used to think most of Florida was quite well-prepared for this type of event, but now I see that's not necessarily the case - except when it comes to declarng states of emergency and claiming federal funds?

BTW, the northern Bahamas were quite badly hit. See eg: http://www.thenassauguardian.net/national_local/284554511932867.php

[Sarah Ibarruri]

30. The national media has reported nothing

It's remarkable how little if anything the national media has reported about the damage done by this hurricane. If the national media had shown and told what we've seen and lived down here, there'd be shock. We're still living it. It took me 5 hours to get home tonite from work. It's all four-way stops. And this is the least of it. I should've taken my camera and recorded a real account of what's going on around here. It's a real human tragedy. Nothing like New Orleans, however. That was horrific and now the media is silent on that. Not even the total number of dead is mentioned.