It is now 3 weeks since Hurricane Ian made landfall and recovery activities continue. This is a huge response and .gov, .org, and .com have all been working together. Red Cross and partners listed below.
Morning Meeting - going out to do good.
Looking at Hurricane Ian initial fatality profile, it is clear that the burden of risk is skewed to the older population.
One might jump to the conclusion that this has to do with the age distribution of Florida. But that would not be the case.
When we look at Katrina, the same result with >2/3 deaths in the older community, which segment was only 16% of the population.
Cause of death was primarily drowning (60%) followed by inaccessible or delayed medical services (12%).
Clearly flooding based surge was the predicted and actual killer.
Media Reports and Lee County Issue:
This is above my pay grade but…just reporting anecdotally from my sister.
There have been a few criticisms of Lee County for the delay in evacuation notices. My sister lives in Bonita Springs, just south of Ft. Myers in Lee County, and she was upset at the WSJ and other articles. She says from someone on the ground the radio, TV, and WEA messages were incessant. Warnings about surge, requests to evacuate… To the point they had to shut off their ringers. She feels the reporting does a disservice to the outpouring of love and assistance they received, and specifically mentioned the line men convoys from across the country that restored power in record time. And the feeding vehicles visible in every hard hit community. In her opinion, folks that did not evacuate decided to ride out the storm, they had plenty of warning.
Linemen deploying to repair issues from hurricane Ian.
Recovery Status - By the numbers
As sheltering decreases, we transition our posture from response to recovery.
Response phase tailing off: There are currently about**:**
- 830 folks still in 9 Red Cross Shelters. We have shelter transition teams that are working with these folks on temporary housing and other alternatives.
Red Cross shifts on disaster assignments are 2 weeks for mainland, and 3 weeks for islands and territories. While many volunteers elect to extend, we are now well into the second wave of responders. So far about:
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2,400 trained Red Cross disaster responders have been deployed on Hurricane Ian. We had dozens of folks from Texas join the response, and several have now returned. Precise numbers for boots on the ground are a bit difficult to obtain, but as of this weekend it looks like more than 850 trained Red Crossers.
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200,000 Detailed Damage Door-to-door assessments are planned.
1.4M Meals & Snacks - Shelf stable / provided by Southern Baptist Convention Disaster Relief Kitchens
120 Emergency Response Vehicles delivering mobile meals or supplies
352K Disaster Emergency Supplies & Comfort kits
Cruz Roja Mexicana assisting with Disaster Emergency Supply distribution site
Many partners including Southern Baptist Convention Disaster Relief, Save the Children, NAACP, Cruz Roja Mexicana, are very engaged.
Many businesses are contributing.
Improving Preparedness for Disasters
Outside of any specific response - Salvation Army and Red Cross each received new grants of $40M targeted towards better disaster preparation. These grants from Lilly Foundation recognize the larger number and larger scale of disasters we have been seeing. Bravo Zulu Salvation Army! To learn more: https://www.redcross.org/about-us/news-and-events/press-release/2022/the-american-red-cross-and-the-salvation-army-each-receive-40-million.html
Personal Impact
Cousin Mike on Sanibel Island
My cousin Mike had his home close to the bridge on Sanibel Island - he wisely stayed with family in Wisconsin while the storm progressed. He sends this photo after a boat ride & hot hike to visit the remains of his home.
Just one of many stories of Floridians who we should keep in our hearts and prayers as they face this challenge.
Thank you for being our good partner in disaster response since 1935!
Kevin @KF5FUZ