The problem with what DeSantis does is that now his people need help (both government aid and donations) and b/c he’s been such a jerk I am sure people are less inclined to donate.
Today I drove past the Lutheran church who had updated their readerboard from "Pray for Ukraine," to "Please forgive somebody who probably doesn't deserve it." I love that so much I may even stop wishing to pack everybody in Florida into the nearest Falcon Heavy....
Yes, "New Orleans came back." But how many times are we going to let people rebuild a city that's below sea level -- and subsidize them to do it -- before we tell ourselves and them, that sorry, but next time they're going to have to rebuild on higher ground?
The same goes, and then some, for the vast swathes of coastal Florida that we KNOW are going to be underwater within a generation or two. Yes, today is the day to send them food and clothes and water. But tomorrow is the day to halt development in land that we know is going to flood, incentivize people to move away -- with positive incentives if possible, negative incentives if necessary -- and turn those areas back into wetlands in the hope of saving the rest of the state. And that goes for everywhere along the coast that is going to be overtaken by sea level rise.
I understand the “there but for the Grace of God go I” concept. None of us is immune from a catastrophe befalling us. Having said that, there are places that are more hospitable to human settlement and there are places that are less hospitable. Coastal Florida is the latter. So are the coasts of the Carolinas, Georgia, Alabama, Louisiana and Mississippi. The desert southwest, where they will eventually run out of water, and large parts of California, where they experience repeated wildfires and mudslides, also fall into this category as well.
FEMA should be reserved for unforeseen emergencies. Hurricanes on the southeast coast do not fall into this category. Neither do wildfires in CA. These are known and highly probable events.
Basically, all the areas where the Boomers want to retire are highly susceptible to knowable catastrophes. And my belief is that we shouldn’t subsidize their poor choices. They can retire in the Midwest and northeast, where the winters suck but there is plenty of water and only a very small chance of hurricanes or wildfires.
You would think insurance companies would just refuse to issue policies to folks living in these high risk areas.
I saw on national news yesterday a man saying he had to drop his flood insurance because he could no longer afford it. His condo is standing but looks uninhabitable. What can people like this do?
See https://www.tallahassee.com/story/news/2022/09/30/marco-rubio-rick-scott-urge-senate-leaders-money-rebuild-state-hurricane-ian/8138004001/. But the article goes on to say: "Democrats said passing the bill was important to helping victims of recent natural disasters in the U.S., including Hurricane Ian, as it provides a Federal Emergency Management Agency disaster fund with a year’s worth of money up front rather than for two-and-a-half months. Florida Democratic Party Chair Manny Diaz blasted Florida Republican House members — all of whom voted against the stopgap spending measure to help storm victims — for not supporting Floridians." Scott voted AGAINST it; Rubio didn't bother showing up for the vote!
Should be headlines in all Dem ads: FLORIDA REPUBLICANS VOTED AGAINST AID FOR FLORIDIANS!
All of this dark money and lobbying firm stuff needs to go away. PACs need to go away. But I seriously doubt that there is even a 0.1% chance of that happening. The only way to make a lot of this stuff go away is through a fundamental change in the system.
If money is speech (and I disagree with that) then the people who are "speaking" need to be public with their speech. If you are unwilling to be publicly tied to what you "say" then that indicates a problem. The elimination of avatars/screen names etc--the elimination of anonymity would probably do a fair bit to quell some of the stupider and more extreme speech.
Sure, there are people who would still say the things they say--but I reckon they would be fairly few in number (in comparison to what we have now). Sure, the people with connections, power, and wealth would still spout garbage (looking at Tucker et al in this case).
Most of this money takes the form of campaign donations--either to individuals or PACs or directly to political parties. Limiting campaigns in duration and cost would reduce the need for those donations. Barring candidates from soliciting funds would probably help, given how much time they spend working for those donations vice doing their actual jobs.
My actual choice about this whole mess is something that I have mentioned a couple of times... sortition.
Say goodbye to elections (for the most part) and the need to finance them. Say goodbye (for the most part) to political parties.
Of course, a lot of people would lose their jobs (lobbyists, political consultants, spin doctors, PAC administrators). a lot of graft would disappear. and the political class would be largely left high and dry. So chances of that are exactly zero--especially as you would have to amend the Constitution to get there.
I understand the need for solidarity among all parts of the US, but at what point does living along the Gulf coast or in California's earthquake or wildfire zones NEED to become exclusively at one's own risk?
Earthquakes may not be frequent enough to be suited to detailed governmental procedures, but hurricanes are, and wildfires are becoming so. The main point being: how many times should the government support rebuilding homes in the same place after they've been destroyed by natural disasters? No more than once a decade seems prudent.
I know everyone loves to talk about earthquakes. But on a sheer quantitative basis, the only massive earthquake with damage occurred in 1906. Whereas destructive hurricanes seem to happen yearly along the East and Gulf Coasts - see Florida especially. Not to mention Tornado Alley where quite a number of lives are destroyed/ruined on a weekly basis. And yes, building in fire zones need to be more strictly controlled, but less talked about are the wildfires this past year in Nevada, Colorado and Arizona, and I remember a few in other states (3 MILLION acres burned in Alaska in 2022) as well.
I lived through both of them. And they were the last big quakes in So Cal, indeed in the entire state. Again - rare, very rare compared with the number of hurricanes that repeatedly hit the Gulf Coast states and Florida. I don't know if anybody's counted up how much money (and lives) have been lost in a single decade of hurricanes, but it far exceeds the deaths and damage from quakes out here. Ian wasn't a 500 year event, much as DeSantis would like it to be. Florida and that entire area repeatedly experiences hurricanes just as deadly. And unlike Florida, CA has learned how to build to keep deaths and damage as low as possible given our current technology. From what I can tell, Florida just keeps building in the same places with the same disregard for their pretty regular hurricanes.
Yeah, earthquakes don't appear to be that bad on a comparative basis.
The tornados aren't that bad either in terms of total damage and devastation to a region. A tornado comes though and in almost all cases the state can handle the damage. You also have most people fully insured for the damage, compared to the lack of flood insurance in much of hurricane prone areas. The real question comes down to how often the Federal Government is likely to have to pay to rebuild things.
The other question is how often do the Feds have to pick up the tab for a state that has no income tax. Though I have read comments on other boards that say the fees the cities, states levy are actually higher than any income tax they had to pay in other states. Not to mention that fees often hit the poor and middle class, not the rich. Florida should have a hurricane tax to pay for all those roads, etc.
I don't have any information to tell me that the zero income tax angle is bad on this, but from a gut reaction, why do I care how a state raises money? I mean, I get that there can be all kinds of differences between income, property, and sales taxes as they impact different economic strata; I just don't immediately see what that has to do with the level of federal help they need or get.
It's absolutely right to help the citizens of Florida get through this mess ... while at the same time skewering Governor DeSantis for a two-facedness so cruel as to warrant renaming "hypocrisy" to "desantisitis."
While we should absolutely send aid without any delay, it's perfectly reasonable to question whether the inhumane performance artists in the GOP who took advantage of previous disasters to score points have learned why that's not a good way to live. If you remove all consequences of "owning the libs," you're going to wind up with a lot more of it, and a lot of people who don't really see the point. And that's the sort of thing that'll *really* curdle the milk of human kindness.
I’m thinking that maybe Biden declare, repeatedly, that all federal aid to Florida is ‘less$12M’. He should hammer home the point to FL voters that the governor is squandering their money.
This project is really too good; every Saturday I have to remind myself of the recommendation you made a few months back of a column on how to keep one's email box from being overwhelmed with things one wants to read and becoming frustrated with having too much to read and not enough time to appreciate it all. I have to limit myself to reading pieces from Labash and Legum when they are recommended by someone else.
With regard to this little weekend project of JVL's and that recommendation about email in one's inbox, I read it, too. And when I see an edition of said project such as today, it almost comes as a relief, since it was responsible for my subscriptions quite some time ago to two of the three offerings today, thus reducing the temptation factor to hit 'subscribe' by a dramatic 66.6%.
We're talking about human beings. the kind Ron and Greg tried to dump on the vice president's porch like they were bags of flaming shit. The kind they shipped under false pretenses to Martha's vineyard, dumped and ran away from.
As a Florida resident I'm watching how DeSantis handles this very closely. Especially looking for any graft.
Well, his wife now has a "charity" to help Florida victims. Hope someone's keeping an eye or two on it. BTW, good old Florida boy Gaetz voted against increasing disaster aid. Should be on every ad in his district.
I'm going to take this opportunity to tell you my flood devastation story. Quite a few years ago my husband and I bought a home in a known flood zone, near a river, in Northern Cali. It was affordable in an area of rapidly rising property values, and word was there was a once in a hundred year chance. The kids were little, and we truly loved the river where we spent many a hot summer afternoon. Our lender required us to carry flood insurance ( which I have to confess we would not have done unless required; always looking to save a dollar or two).
The first couple of years there was a flood warning or two, then came the real thing. Soon after Christmas, in winter. I spent the last hours before evacuating doing laundry, I mean, as if there weren't going to be washers and dryers where we were going, but it was important at that moment that the kids have clean clothes. The kids and I left for friends in higher ground in my little car before dark; my husband stayed, his truck could carry him through higher water. But he joined us before dawn. It's bad he said.
It was about a week till we could get back to see. A restless, information-hungry week. The water had receded, but it was clear that it had been above the ceiling. The fridge had toppled and spilled open, the smell of spoiled food and mud was overwhelming. The mud was slippery, every step had to be considered. I noticed there were about 5 different varieties of mud, who knew? We had absolutely no idea of what to do next. The Red Cross set up a coffee and sandwich truck nearby, the neighbors congregated, cried, hugged.
Maybe it was a month or so - time seemed different - that we decided to buy a used, zero bedroom trailer to live in on the driveway. We had met with the insurance adjustor and FEMA. Phone service was restored, and then I got a call from a not -flood- impacted neighbor who worked on local housing issues. She said a group of volunteers was organizing to come help with recovery.
We set about getting a draftsman to draw up plans to elevate our house. We hired a house-raising outfit to lift the house above flood, coordinating with the county. This is done using hydraulic jacks to lift the structure, little by little, wood blocks temporarily supporting it.
Then the volunteers arrived. A band of traveling angels. They came, mostly from Canada and some from Michigan, each group staying for 3 weeks. Most were retirees, some used vacation time to come help our neighbors and us. And when I say retiree, don't get the idea that they were old and worn out. Many had been in the construction trades, and were super-skilled and energetic. It's a sight I frequently call up, even now years later, when I'm feeling low - these guys, strangers, climbing, sometimes swinging, from rafters, figuring out, working on rebuilding our home.
They were from a church. I think it was called Dutch Reformed. The thing is: they never, ever, even once pressed their religion on us. Never urged us to attend make-shift church services, but did invite us to dinners at the disused resort where they were staying. My husband was a militant atheist ( I used to tell him he was mad at at the god who didn't exist ) and a pretty angry guy, especially around religion, (lots of distant relatives gone in the Holocaust), and I was nervous that he might lash out at religionists. But that never happened. The volunteers, our family and neighbors always had lunch together over the summer, frequently had barbecues, and always had fun. One man did the Heimlich on our 3 year old son who had an orange section caught his throat.
The women and I worked on the interior of the house, scrubbing, fixing what we could, removing redwood paneling in the living room, which was returned to place after insulation, talking about recipes, breast cancer and whatever. Often laughing. I would not have imagined laughing in a flooded house possible, but these volunteers made it so.
The insurance settlement paid for the draftsman, the house lifting, the foundation, the lumber and other rebuilding materials, the plumbing and electrical work and contents. Without the volunteers, the Christians, who came to our aide, the money would not have paid for getting the house above flood.
We stayed in touch with some volunteers, some came later to visit again and to see the place once we were all settled again. I still have photos we took of us together on my walls.
And finally, while we were living in the tiny trailer, and winter returned, the kids and I were on our way to buy a tv, seeing that outdoor time was going to be winter-limited. On the way we saw a hand painted sign: Horse and saddle for sale $500. So we stopped. Ended up instead of buying a tv, bought a broke down old horse, and between my daughter and me, we cleaned stalls at the ranch where the horse lived to pay board. And that started a whole new interest and love, maintained to this day. That little broke down horse nearly killed me, running off with me on board, but my daughter leaned about bravery, taking command of a large animal with a different mind, and working hard for what you love.
My whole heart goes out to Florida. I understand that many did not have flood insurance. Whole communities were wiped out, not just one river valley, the devastation worse than what we faced. Flood insurance and Christian volunteers quite literally saved us. I do pray for them, and donate.
PS There have been many "100 year" floods since then, some while we still lived there. None have impacted the dwelling space. We paid $140,000 k for the place. It recently sold for $650,000k.
Alondra, thank you for telling us this. So easy to focus on the Bad Stuff, and meanwhile, many more people than we imagine are quietly doing the Lord's work, whether they believe in Him or not. As Mr. Rogers said, "Look for the helpers." Let's try to be one of them.
This is a beautiful story you wrote: angels disguised as trades volunteers. Thank you for sharing it. So glad you survived that ordeal--floods are no laughing matter.
And Florida will, too. So long as we pull together."
Yes, both will be sort of be back in the near future. But inevitably, both will nonetheless be no less than partially and [by human time comprehension] permanently submerged again by the end of this century although probably much, much sooner. You know, those melting ice caps and things. You know, the human-induced and profoundly more rapid than only recently predicted warming that MAGA persistently denies.
Such is humanity. The urge to aid and share. The unshakeable [and in this case the abjectly political] desire to ignore.
Oct 1, 2022·edited Oct 1, 2022Liked by Jonathan V. Last
I already am a subscriber to Matt...he is awesome, and I agree with him, the comment section on WA PO on a piece about this was disgusting, I can't believe how mean some people have become
Judd legum seems to be awesome too
Not into wrestling...lol...never got it, or boxing for that matter
The problem with what DeSantis does is that now his people need help (both government aid and donations) and b/c he’s been such a jerk I am sure people are less inclined to donate.
Today I drove past the Lutheran church who had updated their readerboard from "Pray for Ukraine," to "Please forgive somebody who probably doesn't deserve it." I love that so much I may even stop wishing to pack everybody in Florida into the nearest Falcon Heavy....
Yes, "New Orleans came back." But how many times are we going to let people rebuild a city that's below sea level -- and subsidize them to do it -- before we tell ourselves and them, that sorry, but next time they're going to have to rebuild on higher ground?
The same goes, and then some, for the vast swathes of coastal Florida that we KNOW are going to be underwater within a generation or two. Yes, today is the day to send them food and clothes and water. But tomorrow is the day to halt development in land that we know is going to flood, incentivize people to move away -- with positive incentives if possible, negative incentives if necessary -- and turn those areas back into wetlands in the hope of saving the rest of the state. And that goes for everywhere along the coast that is going to be overtaken by sea level rise.
This 👆.
I understand the “there but for the Grace of God go I” concept. None of us is immune from a catastrophe befalling us. Having said that, there are places that are more hospitable to human settlement and there are places that are less hospitable. Coastal Florida is the latter. So are the coasts of the Carolinas, Georgia, Alabama, Louisiana and Mississippi. The desert southwest, where they will eventually run out of water, and large parts of California, where they experience repeated wildfires and mudslides, also fall into this category as well.
FEMA should be reserved for unforeseen emergencies. Hurricanes on the southeast coast do not fall into this category. Neither do wildfires in CA. These are known and highly probable events.
Basically, all the areas where the Boomers want to retire are highly susceptible to knowable catastrophes. And my belief is that we shouldn’t subsidize their poor choices. They can retire in the Midwest and northeast, where the winters suck but there is plenty of water and only a very small chance of hurricanes or wildfires.
You would think insurance companies would just refuse to issue policies to folks living in these high risk areas.
I saw on national news yesterday a man saying he had to drop his flood insurance because he could no longer afford it. His condo is standing but looks uninhabitable. What can people like this do?
A guy I know has a pro wrestling podcast. You can check it out at https://m.youtube.com/channel/UCB-W9PYrFv_Nae9aq8XoF3g
See https://www.tallahassee.com/story/news/2022/09/30/marco-rubio-rick-scott-urge-senate-leaders-money-rebuild-state-hurricane-ian/8138004001/. But the article goes on to say: "Democrats said passing the bill was important to helping victims of recent natural disasters in the U.S., including Hurricane Ian, as it provides a Federal Emergency Management Agency disaster fund with a year’s worth of money up front rather than for two-and-a-half months. Florida Democratic Party Chair Manny Diaz blasted Florida Republican House members — all of whom voted against the stopgap spending measure to help storm victims — for not supporting Floridians." Scott voted AGAINST it; Rubio didn't bother showing up for the vote!
Should be headlines in all Dem ads: FLORIDA REPUBLICANS VOTED AGAINST AID FOR FLORIDIANS!
WRT legal bribery:
All of this dark money and lobbying firm stuff needs to go away. PACs need to go away. But I seriously doubt that there is even a 0.1% chance of that happening. The only way to make a lot of this stuff go away is through a fundamental change in the system.
If money is speech (and I disagree with that) then the people who are "speaking" need to be public with their speech. If you are unwilling to be publicly tied to what you "say" then that indicates a problem. The elimination of avatars/screen names etc--the elimination of anonymity would probably do a fair bit to quell some of the stupider and more extreme speech.
Sure, there are people who would still say the things they say--but I reckon they would be fairly few in number (in comparison to what we have now). Sure, the people with connections, power, and wealth would still spout garbage (looking at Tucker et al in this case).
Most of this money takes the form of campaign donations--either to individuals or PACs or directly to political parties. Limiting campaigns in duration and cost would reduce the need for those donations. Barring candidates from soliciting funds would probably help, given how much time they spend working for those donations vice doing their actual jobs.
Geez, R. Have you been sneakin' around inside my head writin' down all my thoughts on money / politics???? ;-)
My actual choice about this whole mess is something that I have mentioned a couple of times... sortition.
Say goodbye to elections (for the most part) and the need to finance them. Say goodbye (for the most part) to political parties.
Of course, a lot of people would lose their jobs (lobbyists, political consultants, spin doctors, PAC administrators). a lot of graft would disappear. and the political class would be largely left high and dry. So chances of that are exactly zero--especially as you would have to amend the Constitution to get there.
Still, its a dream I have.
https://harvardpolitics.com/sortition-in-america/
I understand the need for solidarity among all parts of the US, but at what point does living along the Gulf coast or in California's earthquake or wildfire zones NEED to become exclusively at one's own risk?
Earthquakes may not be frequent enough to be suited to detailed governmental procedures, but hurricanes are, and wildfires are becoming so. The main point being: how many times should the government support rebuilding homes in the same place after they've been destroyed by natural disasters? No more than once a decade seems prudent.
I know everyone loves to talk about earthquakes. But on a sheer quantitative basis, the only massive earthquake with damage occurred in 1906. Whereas destructive hurricanes seem to happen yearly along the East and Gulf Coasts - see Florida especially. Not to mention Tornado Alley where quite a number of lives are destroyed/ruined on a weekly basis. And yes, building in fire zones need to be more strictly controlled, but less talked about are the wildfires this past year in Nevada, Colorado and Arizona, and I remember a few in other states (3 MILLION acres burned in Alaska in 2022) as well.
You evidently paid no attention to the 1989 Loma Prieta or 1994 Northridge earthquakes.
Deadly earthquakes are quite rare, but not as rare as you seem to believe.
Agreed, though, that wind storms are more frequent and cause more deaths and destruction.
I lived through both of them. And they were the last big quakes in So Cal, indeed in the entire state. Again - rare, very rare compared with the number of hurricanes that repeatedly hit the Gulf Coast states and Florida. I don't know if anybody's counted up how much money (and lives) have been lost in a single decade of hurricanes, but it far exceeds the deaths and damage from quakes out here. Ian wasn't a 500 year event, much as DeSantis would like it to be. Florida and that entire area repeatedly experiences hurricanes just as deadly. And unlike Florida, CA has learned how to build to keep deaths and damage as low as possible given our current technology. From what I can tell, Florida just keeps building in the same places with the same disregard for their pretty regular hurricanes.
Yeah, earthquakes don't appear to be that bad on a comparative basis.
The tornados aren't that bad either in terms of total damage and devastation to a region. A tornado comes though and in almost all cases the state can handle the damage. You also have most people fully insured for the damage, compared to the lack of flood insurance in much of hurricane prone areas. The real question comes down to how often the Federal Government is likely to have to pay to rebuild things.
The other question is how often do the Feds have to pick up the tab for a state that has no income tax. Though I have read comments on other boards that say the fees the cities, states levy are actually higher than any income tax they had to pay in other states. Not to mention that fees often hit the poor and middle class, not the rich. Florida should have a hurricane tax to pay for all those roads, etc.
I don't have any information to tell me that the zero income tax angle is bad on this, but from a gut reaction, why do I care how a state raises money? I mean, I get that there can be all kinds of differences between income, property, and sales taxes as they impact different economic strata; I just don't immediately see what that has to do with the level of federal help they need or get.
I donated. Thx for the recommendation.
Halloween Alert: Everyone should dress as a wrestler this year.
It's absolutely right to help the citizens of Florida get through this mess ... while at the same time skewering Governor DeSantis for a two-facedness so cruel as to warrant renaming "hypocrisy" to "desantisitis."
While we should absolutely send aid without any delay, it's perfectly reasonable to question whether the inhumane performance artists in the GOP who took advantage of previous disasters to score points have learned why that's not a good way to live. If you remove all consequences of "owning the libs," you're going to wind up with a lot more of it, and a lot of people who don't really see the point. And that's the sort of thing that'll *really* curdle the milk of human kindness.
I’m thinking that maybe Biden declare, repeatedly, that all federal aid to Florida is ‘less$12M’. He should hammer home the point to FL voters that the governor is squandering their money.
This project is really too good; every Saturday I have to remind myself of the recommendation you made a few months back of a column on how to keep one's email box from being overwhelmed with things one wants to read and becoming frustrated with having too much to read and not enough time to appreciate it all. I have to limit myself to reading pieces from Labash and Legum when they are recommended by someone else.
With regard to this little weekend project of JVL's and that recommendation about email in one's inbox, I read it, too. And when I see an edition of said project such as today, it almost comes as a relief, since it was responsible for my subscriptions quite some time ago to two of the three offerings today, thus reducing the temptation factor to hit 'subscribe' by a dramatic 66.6%.
I've been fortunate the same way from time to time.
We're talking about human beings. the kind Ron and Greg tried to dump on the vice president's porch like they were bags of flaming shit. The kind they shipped under false pretenses to Martha's vineyard, dumped and ran away from.
As a Florida resident I'm watching how DeSantis handles this very closely. Especially looking for any graft.
Well, his wife now has a "charity" to help Florida victims. Hope someone's keeping an eye or two on it. BTW, good old Florida boy Gaetz voted against increasing disaster aid. Should be on every ad in his district.
I'm going to take this opportunity to tell you my flood devastation story. Quite a few years ago my husband and I bought a home in a known flood zone, near a river, in Northern Cali. It was affordable in an area of rapidly rising property values, and word was there was a once in a hundred year chance. The kids were little, and we truly loved the river where we spent many a hot summer afternoon. Our lender required us to carry flood insurance ( which I have to confess we would not have done unless required; always looking to save a dollar or two).
The first couple of years there was a flood warning or two, then came the real thing. Soon after Christmas, in winter. I spent the last hours before evacuating doing laundry, I mean, as if there weren't going to be washers and dryers where we were going, but it was important at that moment that the kids have clean clothes. The kids and I left for friends in higher ground in my little car before dark; my husband stayed, his truck could carry him through higher water. But he joined us before dawn. It's bad he said.
It was about a week till we could get back to see. A restless, information-hungry week. The water had receded, but it was clear that it had been above the ceiling. The fridge had toppled and spilled open, the smell of spoiled food and mud was overwhelming. The mud was slippery, every step had to be considered. I noticed there were about 5 different varieties of mud, who knew? We had absolutely no idea of what to do next. The Red Cross set up a coffee and sandwich truck nearby, the neighbors congregated, cried, hugged.
Maybe it was a month or so - time seemed different - that we decided to buy a used, zero bedroom trailer to live in on the driveway. We had met with the insurance adjustor and FEMA. Phone service was restored, and then I got a call from a not -flood- impacted neighbor who worked on local housing issues. She said a group of volunteers was organizing to come help with recovery.
We set about getting a draftsman to draw up plans to elevate our house. We hired a house-raising outfit to lift the house above flood, coordinating with the county. This is done using hydraulic jacks to lift the structure, little by little, wood blocks temporarily supporting it.
Then the volunteers arrived. A band of traveling angels. They came, mostly from Canada and some from Michigan, each group staying for 3 weeks. Most were retirees, some used vacation time to come help our neighbors and us. And when I say retiree, don't get the idea that they were old and worn out. Many had been in the construction trades, and were super-skilled and energetic. It's a sight I frequently call up, even now years later, when I'm feeling low - these guys, strangers, climbing, sometimes swinging, from rafters, figuring out, working on rebuilding our home.
They were from a church. I think it was called Dutch Reformed. The thing is: they never, ever, even once pressed their religion on us. Never urged us to attend make-shift church services, but did invite us to dinners at the disused resort where they were staying. My husband was a militant atheist ( I used to tell him he was mad at at the god who didn't exist ) and a pretty angry guy, especially around religion, (lots of distant relatives gone in the Holocaust), and I was nervous that he might lash out at religionists. But that never happened. The volunteers, our family and neighbors always had lunch together over the summer, frequently had barbecues, and always had fun. One man did the Heimlich on our 3 year old son who had an orange section caught his throat.
The women and I worked on the interior of the house, scrubbing, fixing what we could, removing redwood paneling in the living room, which was returned to place after insulation, talking about recipes, breast cancer and whatever. Often laughing. I would not have imagined laughing in a flooded house possible, but these volunteers made it so.
The insurance settlement paid for the draftsman, the house lifting, the foundation, the lumber and other rebuilding materials, the plumbing and electrical work and contents. Without the volunteers, the Christians, who came to our aide, the money would not have paid for getting the house above flood.
We stayed in touch with some volunteers, some came later to visit again and to see the place once we were all settled again. I still have photos we took of us together on my walls.
And finally, while we were living in the tiny trailer, and winter returned, the kids and I were on our way to buy a tv, seeing that outdoor time was going to be winter-limited. On the way we saw a hand painted sign: Horse and saddle for sale $500. So we stopped. Ended up instead of buying a tv, bought a broke down old horse, and between my daughter and me, we cleaned stalls at the ranch where the horse lived to pay board. And that started a whole new interest and love, maintained to this day. That little broke down horse nearly killed me, running off with me on board, but my daughter leaned about bravery, taking command of a large animal with a different mind, and working hard for what you love.
My whole heart goes out to Florida. I understand that many did not have flood insurance. Whole communities were wiped out, not just one river valley, the devastation worse than what we faced. Flood insurance and Christian volunteers quite literally saved us. I do pray for them, and donate.
PS There have been many "100 year" floods since then, some while we still lived there. None have impacted the dwelling space. We paid $140,000 k for the place. It recently sold for $650,000k.
Thank you for sharing your story Alondra. It looks like these wonderful angels were truly what Christianity is.
Alondra, thank you for telling us this. So easy to focus on the Bad Stuff, and meanwhile, many more people than we imagine are quietly doing the Lord's work, whether they believe in Him or not. As Mr. Rogers said, "Look for the helpers." Let's try to be one of them.
Thank you for sharing; you're a good writer. (And when you met the horse, I started crying...)
This is a beautiful story you wrote: angels disguised as trades volunteers. Thank you for sharing it. So glad you survived that ordeal--floods are no laughing matter.
"But New Orleans came back.
And Florida will, too. So long as we pull together."
Yes, both will be sort of be back in the near future. But inevitably, both will nonetheless be no less than partially and [by human time comprehension] permanently submerged again by the end of this century although probably much, much sooner. You know, those melting ice caps and things. You know, the human-induced and profoundly more rapid than only recently predicted warming that MAGA persistently denies.
Such is humanity. The urge to aid and share. The unshakeable [and in this case the abjectly political] desire to ignore.
PS Schlapp said that "all lives matter,"
Translation: All white lives matter. The most.
I already am a subscriber to Matt...he is awesome, and I agree with him, the comment section on WA PO on a piece about this was disgusting, I can't believe how mean some people have become
Judd legum seems to be awesome too
Not into wrestling...lol...never got it, or boxing for that matter