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And On Another Front: Hurricane Wilma
Everybody in my family is fine in the aftermath of Hurricane Wilma. Fortunately, we stocked up on food, water, cash and gas before the storm, which hit on Monday morning, October 28. We rode out the storm at our home on a barrier island seven miles south of Downtown Miami. At 6:30 a.m. the power went out and by 9 a.m. we were experiencing winds of about 100 miles per hour. The winds downed trees and took off shingles. Damage was widespread across South Florida, but it varied greatly. We got our power back on Wednesday, but some of the island is still dark. As of today, October 28, there are still about one million people in Broward and Dade without power, but they are getting it back quickly. The malls are even open.
This storm didn't destroy buildings or bring about the massive loss of life like Katrina, but it did wreak havoc on the infrastructure, especially power and gas. One is needed to distribute the other. Power was off nearly everywhere for several days so there was no gas, and no gas meant no trucks and no trucks meant no food. Television stations went off the air as the fuel for their generators ran out. Cell phones and land lines went dead as the generators stopped running. ATMs stopped giving money. In short, everything shut down.
Right now, there are half-day waits to get gas at the stations that have power. As more stations open up and the weekend arrives, I think things will return to normal. Schools will start on Monday after a week's hiatus.
Excuse this philosophical rant, but I want to get it down before I forget it entirely: The quality of life we enjoy is based on a distribution system that lasts only for a couple days, and during times of emergency just hours. We need to break free of oil dependency now before the supply begins to run low. If anything disrupts the supply chain, the whole system suffers catastrophic failure. When things are “normal,” you don't realize your so-called modern life is actually being supported by a series of electric wires and gas trucks. It's life support on a very short string.
Because the storm wasn't catastrophic, my family enjoyed a different quality of life when the power was off. We cooked on a grill and ate outside. No noise from cars or planes and you could finally see the stars because they weren't competing with the city's bright lights. We talked, played board games, and actually met our neighbors. We left the grid and it wasn't so bad. In fact, it was better in many respects.
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