Weather
Two days ago we saw a dust devil while we were out riding our ebikes. They pop up and make little dust tornadoes. If you get in the middle of one, you’ll get sandblasted a bit, but you’ll be fine. They’re fun to watch dance around. This one went across a parking lot and then onto a baseball diamond where it found more dust to play with. We moved on then, heading home from a 6 mile ride around the area to get out for some exercise and fresh air.
The weather here. It’s been pretty great! We are at the tail end of monsoon season at the moment. That means there are pop-up showers, usually in the afternoon or evening now, sometimes. You can see the rain in the distance because the sky is huge. Sometimes it rains here. Sometimes it doesn’t. Sometimes it rains at my sister’s house, 6 miles away, and nothing here or vice versa. It’s new weather for us, and it’s nice to enjoy the rain again. There’s usually a rainbow somewhere after it passes.
The monsoons can also be dangerous. The ground takes a bit to absorb the water, so the arroyos - basically open air storm drains - can get full and create temporary rivers. People die in arroyos here every year. The best way to avoid that is just to avoid the arroyos when it’s raining. Easy peasy!
Now, I want to talk about the weather in Florida. Hurricane Ian is barreling toward Tampa at the moment. But when a storm of that size hits Florida, everyone gets rain and storms and power outages. My oldest sister lives there, as well as many dear friends. I worry about them during these times especially. I can’t imagine living somewhere that had a storm like that coming knowing there was nothing I could do to escape, or that my home might be destroyed and insurance - assuming I have it or could afford it - would probably not cover a lot of it because they just don’t. Insurance is a business. If they are losing money, they pull out of a market.
Kinda like health care. Because we should definitely base how much to pay for someone’s care based on how much money a business is set to make for shareholders.
Anyway.
Florida. There is a program there called Rebuild Florida. It’s a federal program put into place for all the people who had home damage after Hurricane Irma and had no insurance - any home over 20 years old in Florida is basically uninsurable or prohibitively expensive to insure - that’s why the rich people along the coast in Naples who want to sell raze their homes and sell the land for more than it would be with the home on it. So the new people can build a new home. It’s insanity x 1 million.
Also, FEMA didn’t help a lot of people that it probably should have. But some other dude was President at that time, so not unexpected.
Anyway, my sister’s home was damaged. Roof leak. Sewer backed up. Pretty bad. Needed a lot of repairs.
I’m not sure on exactly the timeline for this, but eventually this program came available, but the caveat is that in order to be in the program, you can do zero repairs to your home. So, if you need a new tarp placed while you’re waiting, the program has to do it.
They never did it. She tried to get someone to help - she’s like me… we don’t do roofs! - Nothing. I don’t even know how long there’s been no tarp on her roof.
It’s now 5 years after Irma and another big hurricane is hitting, and I’m worried that her home will cave in on her. What was damage that could be fixed is now deemed by the program to be a tear down and rebuild. So many people have been stuck in limbo with this program. Sometimes they’d tear down a mobile home, and eventually bring a new one, except they couldn’t get it hooked up to, oh, power and such, so the resident couldn’t move back in. They’re living in hotels.
This program has been so poorly run, I feel the government of Florida should all face a lawsuit and be found personally liable to pay back all the money they’ve wasted. They’ve had people in hotels for a year waiting on their homes. They have far too many people living in unsafe homes - including my sister - for years waiting for help.
They’re playing with peoples’ lives. It has to stop.
Or, if you don’t care about human lives, maybe realize it’s a complete utter waste of your tax dollars.
Please pray, send good thoughts, do a little dance, whatever you do when you’re thinking of others and hoping for the best for them for everyone in Florida this week. Hopefully they make it through this storm.
2,000 Floridians still waiting for help with Hurricane Irma damage (abcactionnews.com)
**Update since I wrote this - Hurrican Ian is slamming into Naples. That's where my sister lives. I'm pretty freaked out.