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HURRICANE? NO JOKE!
By
Jan Bergemann
Published
October 14, 2016
After Florida was left alone for more than 10 years by nasty
hurricanes, hurricane “Matthew” paid a visit. South
Florida was very lucky, since Matthew passed by on the Atlantic
with quite some distance to the shore. But then it hit Brevard
County and the North-East Coast of Florida. The hurricane more
or less hugged the coast-line.
Quite a few people in that area didn’t take the warnings too
seriously, after we had the weather folks on TV “crying wolf”
over the last few years. And many of them paid the price for
being unprepared.
But, as we have seen last week, there is absolutely nothing
funny about a hurricane and warnings should be taken seriously.
Once the hurricane is there, it’s too late to take precautions.
I sat in my living-room while Matthew was raging outside and I
watched my trees going crazy (since I have impact windows I had
front-row seats). Half of my big oak tree in the front-yard came
down – the same one I wanted to remove but didn’t get the
necessary permit from the local county tree-hugger. I guess
that I can have the remains of the tree removed now?
MATTHEW was a huge hurricane and did serious damage in NE
Florida. Firewood should be really inexpensive this year,
considering all the fallen trees I saw on my way down South on
Saturday.
There nothing anybody can do to prevent a hurricane from
visiting Florida, but I think that the State of Florida is
absolutely unprepared for a hurricane. It’s in my opinion
plainly ridiculous that we have old, antiquated overland wires
in a state that will be visited by hurricanes – the question is
just: WHEN?
The storm hadn’t really reached Deland, and we had already lost
electricity, cable, telephone and Internet. Obviously the old
overland wires get scared when they are hearing that a hurricane
is approaching. Honestly, I can understand that.
Our governor was busy giving press-conferences warning everybody
that a serious hurricane is approaching, but these “politicians”
do nothing to prepare the state for such events. In Germany
there are no more overland wires since the rebuilding after
WWII. They have serious winter storm reaching wind-speeds of
80-100 miles, regularly each year. The country is prepared! And
after the storm you don’t have to deal in Germany with lengthy
utility failures like here in Florida.
We all know the problems, but our legislators fail to do
anything about it. They still allow matchbox-houses to be built
– and they don’t force utility companies to build modern supply
lines. Who cares about the citizens as long as the campaign
funds are coming?
Make sure you heat hurricane warnings at all times. Prep your
house and make sure your family is safe. Rather go through all
the necessary preparation procedures one time too often than
ignoring the warnings and paying the price. A HURRICANE IS NO
JOKE!
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Jan Bergemann is president of Cyber Citizens For Justice,
Florida
's largest state-wide property owners' advocacy group.
CCFJ works on legislation to help owners living in
community
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associations. He moved to
Florida
in 1995 - hoping to retire. He moved into a HOA, where the
developer cheated the homeowners and used the association dues
for his own purposes. End of retirement!
CCFJ was born in the year 2000, when some owners met in
Tallahassee
- finding out that power is only in numbers. Bergemann was a
member of Governor Jeb Bush's HOA Task force in 2003/2004.
The organization has two websites to inform interested
Florida
homeowners and condo owners:
News Website: http://www.ccfj.net/.
Educational Website: http://www.ccfjfoundation.net/.
We think that only owners can really represent owners, since all
service providers surely have a different interest! We are
trying to create owner-friendly laws, but the best laws are
useless without enforcement. And enforcement is totally lacking
in
Florida
!
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