Barking Moonbat Early Warning System

Sarah Palin is the reason compasses point North.

Saturday - August 14, 2004

Final Update From Florida

Well, here it is Saturday morning. No wind. A few showers last night and very early this morning. Anti-climactic? YOU BET!!

I was kinda looking forward to a bit of a blow but that was not in the cards. So, yep, turned out to be a bust but thinking on it carefully, that's the kind of bust one wants. We in Hernando County were spared but things were ugly in the Port Charlotte area and inland. Now the radio and TV pukes along the east coast will take their turn putting on the media exaggeration associated with a storm like this. Good luck catching any sort of regular programming.

When all was said and done we never really got any of the predicted winds or rains, either. If gusts hit 20 MPH yesterday we were lucky. I was expecting 40-50 MPH from those feeder bands we were constantly warned about.

Right now it is sunny and the temps are rising. Got a grand total of one inch of rain. Think about it. A regular summer thunderstorm can dump 2 inches in an hour. We got one inch over three days. That SUCKS!!!!

On the bright side, all my plants and flowers survived.

As a side note, as I usually do every morning before it turns too unbearably hot, I was outside pulling weeds and trimming dying flowers. The birdbaths needed to be re-installed. The bird feeders replaced and restocked. The hanging plants re-hung in the protective shade of the trees. Squirrels are underfoot eating the seeds from the feeder I dumped yesterday.

All of a sudden I hear this racket on my screen porch. I turn around and see this hawk (big guy, too!) swooping upwards to take a perch on one of the peaks of my roof. Now, 5 years ago I was in my kitchen looking outside and saw this EXPLOSION of feathers and then a hawk lifting off with a mourning dove in its talons. So I knew that the fellow this morning did not come down to my rooftop to socialize. I focused on its claws and saw nothing there. I looked back toward the screen porch and there was this squirrel, chattering in a manner I've never heard squirrels chatter before. There's the "pissed off" chatter. The "calling a mate chatter." The "summoning the young" chatter. And the "normal" chatter.

This sounded like a "I am terrified and if I wore pants I'd have shit them" chatter. This boy was scared. Immobile. Chattering like a terrorist getting his nuts ripped off by an angry Marine.

Anyway, the hawk flew off and I went to visit Mr. Squirrel to see if maybe the hawk had punctured him with his claws. Mr. Squirrel was fine. He ran off still chattering a mile a minute, probably even more terrified now that this human had forced it from its seemingly protected place back onto the roof where Mr. Hawk might come back for a repeat attempt.

So today, even though Hurricane Charley disappointed, Mother Nature provided something like a consolation prize. The Hawk, though, is probably pissed off and later today at the Hawk Bar he'll catch hell from his hawk buddies for having missed a "stupid" squirrel.

Back to the hurricane story.

This same sort of hoopla we had associated with Charley, with county officials getting all worked up, people told to evacuate, etc. happened about three or four years ago. And then, same as this year, nothing. But-----back then the county used it as an excuse to fund a multi-million dollar emergency center (for government employees engaged in storm prep, and what not.) We are still fighting its construction. (yes, I am going somewhere with this.)

Yesterday a local radio host found out from listeners that the county planned to shut off electricity, water, etc. to all customers along their imaginary evacuation line. No exceptions. Draw a line down Highway 19 and everything west of it was cut off regardless if some of that area was not even close to being in a flood plain due to its height. The Sheriff and his posse went around telling places like Lowes, Home Depot, Wal-Mart, etc. they had to close, too.

Hey! It makes sense, right?

Well, considering that all this was taking place around 10-11 AM and forecasts called for Charley to hit us between 5 and 6, they wanted to cut everything off at 12!!!!!!!!!

NOON!!!

Yet by 12 we STILL were not getting any winds whatsoever. Stores had long been closed. And now it looked like power was shutting down, too.

A HUGE outcry went out and the county was inundated with protestations. The person in charge of the decision was located and put on the air. She said that since the storm had "slowed down" they were re-thinking that decision and moving the hour up but wouldn't fix a time certain just yet.

Mind you, Charley had been ACCELERATING (not slowing down) its forward speed from last night through the morning. This business of it slowing down was a patent lie by the county as we'd known since the day previous we'd get hit between 4 and 6. When asked why the county's phone answerers were telling people power was going to get cut off at 12 she said she'd call them and clear it up.

Almost an hour later people are calling the show saying they were STILL getting told 12 o'clock!!!

Sorry, but to me this is nothing but pure incompetence and I would not be surprised if it were not a ploy by these people to cite to our County Commissioners the examples of the citizenry not able to get timely information as a ruse for additional justification for and even more money to build an even bigger emergency management shelter to include improved communications devices.

Funny thing is, no land line phone service was ever disrupted and all this woman had to do was place one phone call to resolve it. If nothing else, relay instructions via cell phone. So why weren't those calls made? And if they were and bad info was still getting out, those employees should be fired.

AHHH!! Petty local politics!

Well, boys and girls, that's the story from Hernando County, Florida.

Just out of curiosity, has anyone else experienced similar bullshit in their county regarding disaster preparedness?.

${lang:my_avatar}$

Posted by Ranting Right Wing Howler

on 08/14/2004 at 09:34 AM
Filed Under: • Miscellaneous •
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