Wednesday Editorial: Be prepared for hurricane season

May 29--Hurricane Michael hit Florida's Panhandle with a sudden fury last October. It was the fourth strongest hurricane to hit the United States by wind speed, a rare Category 5. It caused 49 deaths and $5.5 billion in damage.

The recovery, sadly, has happened too slowly.

"Many residents are living in damaged homes or trailers unfit for human habitation," reports The Washington Post.

The ripple effect is everywhere.

The area around Mexico Beach remains devastated: debris still needs to be removed and there are homes without walls.

At Tyndall Air Force Base, all of the permanent base homes were damaged.

In parts of Bay County, it looks like a war zone. In other places, the homes appear OK from the outside but their interiors have black mold that's been caused by water damage. In all up to 70 percent of Bay County's homes have sustained some form of damage.

Meanwhile, hurricane-affected residents all across the Panhandle have grown frustrated with insurance companies, government paperwork and shady contractors.

And charitable giving has not kept up with the need: donations for Hurricane Michael were $35 million compared to $64 million for Hurricane Florence (which hit the Carolinas one month earlier).

The federal government has provided valuable assistance: FEMA has poured in more than $1 billion in disaster aid, most in low-interest loans, from the Small Business Administration; in addition $141 million has been approved for individual aid to 31,000 households.

But Congress has dawdled on passing a major disaster funding bill to provide long-term recovery for victims of Hurricane Michael and other disasters across the nation.

"The Forgotten Coast" has become a sadly appropriate nickname for the area east of Panama City.

Florida's elected leaders must see to it that every possible measure of aid -- from government, business, charities, etc. -- is made available for the Panhandle.

Hurricane season awaits

The 2018 hurricane season alone cost the nation $50 billion, according to the U.S. Department of Commerce. And the sudden impact of Hurricane Michael is yet another warning that Floridians need to be prepared for hurricanes: it struck just 73 hours after being named a tropical storm.

Floridians need to have hurricane preparedness kits that will provide them with adequate amounts of clothes, food and medication. Other major things to do to prepare for a hurricane include making a plan to protect pets, obtaining a battery-powered radio, downloading the FEMA wireless app and having cash on hand.

This is also a good time to examine your flood insurance: uninsured Texas residents received jut $3,000 from Hurricane Harvey while insured residents received an average of $117,000. If a house is not in an official flood plain, insurance premiums often are reasonable. But the reality is that just about no area of Florida, where many developments were built in low-lying areas, is immune to flooding.

Keep in mind that hurricane season runs from June 1 to Nov. 30 with peaks typically in August and September; however, one named storm, Andrea, already formed before the start of the season.

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