Off the Cuff / My Other Journal

"Where do I begin..."

"Where do I begin to tell the story of how ...." In times like these, some old song attaches itself to my mind and annoys me to no end. Also in times like these, I revert to my youth and that's why I went and bought a paperback copy of Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier. Probably I won't read it, though probably my husband will, but it feels good to possess and gaze into an old friend of a book that had mesmerized me in my teens during the fifties.

Why do I say "in times like these"? "Times like these" first started with the hurricane season. It still didn't feel too bad until hurricane Wilma threatened to come charging on us. Before Wilma we only felt the suspense with each developing storm and commiserated with its victims. For Wilma, I made all the preparations and got ready to hunker down; however, my husband insisted he wouldn't stay through another hurricane. I wish we had. It would have been easier.

All the flights from Palm Beaches were filled, and since my son and his wife were here and were about to drive back to Gainsville where their home is, we accepted their offer to leave us in Orlando airport to take a flight to Chicago or New York where our families are. I don't know how it came to that, but during the ride, we ended accepting to go to Gainsville with them to wait out the hurricane.

My son and his wife are about to move to Orlando. So everything in their home is packed or is in the process of getting packed. Since we didn't want to add to their misery, we said we'd stay in a hotel, although they insisted we stay with them. We went to a hotel and got a room but the next day the hotel people told us we had to leave because the room was only for one night. We called practically all the hotels in Gainsville. Nobody had room since Florida Gators had their annual family week and every place was jampacked. So, our son and daughter in-law came and took us to their home. They were very gracious and they made us feel very welcome.

What got to me was worrying about what happened at home and getting no news of it from the local news media.

I know our town officials are not the sharpest tools in the governing shed, but their impotence never fails to shock me. First, during and after the hurricanes, why do they send out notices to the local TV news when they know practically nobody has access to TV since the cables are down and the electricity is out?

Second, for those of us who evacuated, why don't they have a way of telling us what to expect? For example, during the hurricanes each town has a different curfew that those returning know nothing about. They could at least maintain a webpage to update the residents. In this day and age that shouldn't be so difficult. There are computers with several hours of batteries or they could maintain a computer or two on a generator, and not all wireless towers fall down either.

If they had a webpage serving the residents they could let us know if the ground water is decent, if the streets are flooded, if they are impassable, or if the residents had to boil water or not.

They could also let us know that there are gaslines and practically no gas down south. If we knew that, we'd have filled the tank of our rented car before we came to Fort Drum Service Station on the turnpike and we wouldn't have added to the shockingly long lines.

Not that they don't have a webpage. They do and amazingly so. That webpage, however, only serves to attract tourists and to make sure the incumbents look good for the next election. What a pity!