First off, let me say thank you to everyone who wrote in wanting to know if my wife and I were okay after Hurricane Charley came through. We were VERY lucky in Lake County, as it passed to the east of us and went through Downtown Orlando instead. If it had not turned more east before it hit landfall and actually did come through Tampa like it was supposed to initially, we would have been hit hard here in Lake County.

Of course, all of the preparation did motivate my dad and I to make plywood hurricane panels for our new home, which we’ve stored and can pull out whenever we need to in the future.

However there were many families who didn’t have much protection on their homes, nor did they think that they had to.

From what my dad has told me in the past, Hurricane Donna was the last major storm to hit Central Florida. This means that most people who experienced that storm are most likely no longer in the area, or that those here now weren’t here when it came through.

What that leads up to is complacency, folks. While at our large warehouse-type home improvement store plywood was flying off the shelves, but I’m not sure where it went. I know I was the only person, in two days of driving locally that had actually boarded up their windows. After Charley, that won’t happen again to be sure.

But what is the saddest to me is the time it took for utilities to come back on for so many residents of Central Florida and those Southwest Florida. I know that I heard of people who still did not have power or water almost two weeks after the storm had passed through. In addition, there are some neighborhoods in Central Florida right now that have waste flooding their homes due to power outages at sewer pumping stations.

While I understand that it takes time for utility companies to work, it’s hard enough to live for one week without power or water, let alone two. I really wish there was some way that the utility companies could get more out-of-state assistance from other companies in the event of such emergencies. An emergency energy coalition, if you will.

The good news is that things are starting to come back to normal for many, but for others it’s going to be a little while longer.

The amazing part of this situation is the resilience of people coming together in a crisis. But, we’ll have to wait until next week for that.

Thanks for stopping on by, and I’ll see you next week!

If you’d like to help out in this or other disasters, please contact your local Red Cross or United Way and ask them what they need.