Tampa Bay is breathing a sigh of relief as Irma fades from our collective weather memory. The storm surge which was to be the ultimate danger never really materialized. While there was wind and water damage, where was the surge? The same was true in Naples. The major news organizations hyped their coverage, showing live video of low-lying mobile home parks, but the widespread surge never materialized there either. The suffering is very real for those who did get flooded or who are still without power, and we were heartened to see caravan after caravan coming to Florida as we returned home from North Carolina after the Storm.
There’s a few things I’m observing: first, just like the aftermath of Harvey, neighbors are helping neighbors – young and old, black, white and latino – everybody is helping. We’re not divided; we’re uniting to love our neighbors practically. We live in a community in Ruskin, Florida and the entire neighborhood is using the Nextdoor App to communicate, ask questions and to reach out to our neighbors to help. Didn’t you just love that “Cajun Navy” heading to Texas to help a neighboring state? Maybe the “Florida Flotilla” are neighbors helping neighbors get to the other side of the 7th worst storm in American history.
Second, we are witnessing Communities in Action, the new CIA, working together. Government is doing what they are suppose to do and neighbors and doing what they are suppose to do. It’s really a beautiful thing. This rallying to community is something we all hunger for – real friendships where we work and live. Nobody is even asking political stripes and positions. Hope is rising that after the storm our communities will be better places than they were before.
You know the old adage, “Bad News Sells Newspapers.” Hopefully, we’ll demand something a little better in the future – This time, hype didn’t help!
For our part, the Freedom Boat club of Tampa Bay lost one of our locations – Lake Dora received a direct hit from one of those tornadoes. Already, the other members of our team are offering generators and support to our Membership Executive who will spearhead our efforts to rebuild. Coach Herter, a former NFL coach with two Super Bowl rings, is our man for the job. We lost 6 out of 220 boats and we all realized it could have been worse, much worse. We dodged a canon ball is how I’ve heard it explained. But, we are honestly facing the job before us and we are rallying for our club members in Lake Dora. This is being repeated across Florida today and is the bigger story currently lying just under the radar. Hopefully, it will surface in the days ahead.
