Tropical Storm Ernesto will go down as the storm that wasn’t - at least from the perspective of the U.S. Mainland that was bracing for our first real threat of the 2006 Hurricane Season. Don’t get me wrong - we’re all very happy that Ernesto broke down like a Wall Street Junk Bond Dealer. And, we’re already asking ourselves and our community what we can learn from the storm - or from our response to the storm.
First up - the mainstream media is about to jump to the immediate conclusion that since Ernesto fizzled, future storms are more likely to be ignored by area residents. This logic is easier to understand when you spend hours struggling with storm shutters, waiting in gas lines and enduring grocery cart cattle calls that are right out of a wild west movie only to learn that it was all for naught. We look across the street at our neighbor that didn’t do a thing and we hate them for being so damn lucky. We become numb to it all. Apathetic would be the watch word here.
How about all the things that were smoother this year than last?
I noticed quite a few improvements here in the West Palm Beach, Florida area. Over the last couple of years all your basic Hurricane supplies quickly ran out. Trying to find some C or D batteries, water, propane, flashlights or anything else used to ‘camp’ inside a stifling hot oven (better known here as a house without air conditioning from the storm aftermath) was next to impossible. This year, I found both grocery stores and our local home improvement stores both well stocked and relatively uncrowded.
Have distribution methods and preparedness improved in these retail sectors or were we all just better stocked-up after two years of constant reminders, delivered to us by high and low pressure fronts that steered nasty Tropical Storms and Hurricanes to our neck of the woods?
Here’s what hasn’t changed.
People, including yours truly, still put off taking action to protect themselves and their homes until the last minute. Hey, we’re busy, just like you, and we don’t have time to waste. If we’re going to prepare, we all have some internal threshold that needs to be met before our basic human desire to live kicks in and fires up the save-your-ass afterburners.
People still rush around like morons, including yours truly, after finally accepting that a storm may in fact arrive on our doorstep.
People are a little more on edge, blaring horns a little longer than needed, waving arms around excitedly, gesturing with hands and fingers in ways that we’d be otherwise quite embarrassed about.
Well, maybe not me.
Then there’s the gasoline…
If there’s one thing people don’t like it’s not having any options - and apparently if you’re a Floridian, running like hell is one of our favorite options. We’re fond of hanging chads and concealed carry gun laws for Granny as well.
That’s why we fill up our cars before, during, and after, we do anything else. And then if our cars are full, we fill up our spare gas cans. And if the storm still isn’t here yet, we go fill up our boat’s gas tank. Then, if the storm still isn’t here, we fill up our lawn mower because, heck, someone, or something might be able to ride it the hell out of here. We can live without a lot of things here in Hurricane Country, but gas ain’t one ‘em.
We ran out of gas quickly and the stations were jammed. I understand the lines, especially during peak times, but stations running out of gas seems entirely avoidable. What’s the problem, we’re not paying enough these days for our gas? Perhaps the petroleum companies can’t afford to send extra trucks so we can buy more of their product? I really thought that with advances like new Florida laws requiring gas stations close to major highways to have backup generators were a sign that we were building more fail safe systems? The power never went out, and we still couldn’t get it right.
It wasn’t because we had a lack of gas. Governor Jeb Bush reminded us that we didn’t need to hoard gas, that we had a plenticious supply, and that we had just done such a good job of being prepared (hoarding) that we had run low in some places.
Maybe next time we can get the re-supply of gas right? Here’s a hint to the petroleum industry - if you get this right, you can rob us blind even more!
Three days out from a forecast Tropical Storm or Hurricane hitting a region start sending a lot of extra gas trucks! I know you’ve already thought of this but apparently Buford didn’t get the memo. Better yet, I’ve got an idea to make you even more money.
Portable gas stations.
After all, what’s a gas station but a big tank of gasoline with spigots attached to it. A tanker truck is just an above ground gas station on wheels with some gas pumps missing. But what about modern conveniences you ask? Sure, a cashier, twelve temporary pumps, all hooked up to wireless ATM’s would be nice. But we’ll pay cash in the first few days after the storm since we understand that our communications infrastructure will be amiss. WE KNOW an engineer could figure this out. Actually don’t we already do this in the military? Supply chain right? Oh, so someone already thought of this a long time ago. Well, this is America. It seems like there must be a market for this and if it’s not South Florida, I don’t know where else I can suggest that’s better.
In closing, I just want to remind our readers and myself that, like our Tax deadline, December 31st, or Memorial Day, Hurricanes can be prepared for. Planned for. Strategized over. Staffed for. Contingency planned. Worst-case scenario’d. We can and should expect our providers to meet the demands of our market. And we can and should expect to use common sense and be accountable for firing up our save-your-ass afterburners just a little earlier, and a little more completely, the next time.