Just watched Tsanami on HBO....gave disturbed memories about the 04 hurricanes here.

[madfloridian]

I was watching Tsunami, the Aftermath on HBO. It was very disturbing, the feeling of helplessness after such tragedy. Things were moving like they were in slow motion, like there was no way to organize.

It was the isolated helpless feeling that Tsunami triggered, like deja vu...but without all the deaths.

I remembered how we felt after the third hurricane went over us here in 2004. The third time we were left without power for days. We had stocked up on everything.

But there was something very wrong. It took a while to get a grasp of what it was. The day the winds died down we got emergency details from a radio station in the county.....they told where to get ice, which grocery stores had food in stock, which restaurants were opening. It gave a feeling of comfort.

Then at 7:00 that evening, the announcer said well now we have to resume regularly scheduled programming. That was it. With our portable TV that could get one Tampa station, with our satellite radio, with our portable battery-powered radio.....we could get no news about our area. Not after the first few hours.

There was no way to just drive around the city...huge oaks were on houses, in the streets, power lines were all around. You had to know where you were going, and not just drive aimlessly looking for something.

It was of course not comparable to the aftermath of the tsunami, except perhaps in one way. We were isolated without news of our own area. I could call our kids in other states, and they could give us some info about general things.

The communications efforts by the city itself consisted of turn to station such and such...but that did no good. It was all canned talk or music, and after the first few hours no local updates at all.

I mentioned here that an elderly neighbor died two days after the storm. We were trying to talk to him the day before, to calm him down about his tree that had fallen on a neighbor's home. He said he felt so alone and couldn't cope, and we tried.

We all kind of got by, we called places to see who had ice coming in and what time. We got ice for those who could not lift the bags. We managed, but there was no coordination. George Bush came around to a nearby city, stood in an orange grove...and said how neighbors would help neighbors. He forgot one thing, you need a way to communicate..our nation has had that for decades. All kinds of way to communicate.

And besides when your neighbors are just as devastated and weary after 3 hurricanes in 6 weeks...they can't help each other very much.

There was no way for a city of 80,000 and its neighboring areas to keep up with local help centers. The local radios had sold out to huge companies that had to resume regular programming rather than serve the communities they are in. We did not have a way to find which help centers were open or where they were or what they provided.

I think when I watched Tsunami those feelings of isolation came back. People said oh how great Jeb was during those storms, but not really. A country like ours should have been able to give our area communication capability, a window to the outside world. Hell, even a window to which grocery stores were getting stocked again. Local radio stations devoted to communities rather than canned talk and music. No way to call in to them to get information either.

Florida and the country did not do a good job during the hurricanes of 04. New Orleans needed the government in 05, and they were left on rooftops. The 2nd part of Tsunami airs Sunday, and I am not sure I can watch.

[madfloridian]

1. I forgot the link to the HBO site for the movie.

http://www.hbo.com/films/tsunami/