The below was posted by Albert Tieche on Facebook. With his permission I am reposting here. This is not only a well-written story of one's frustrating experience while trying to do good, but explores how modern government discourages risk taking, thwarts efforts of people to be self sufficient and take initiative, even in times of crisis. It ask, what is the proper roll of government? Rod
Lots of help needed in the Keys but we got turned away. Here is what happened:
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| Albert U. Tieche |
by Albert U Tieche - Don and I were turned back at the roadblock going into the Keys on
Thursday afternoon, Sept 14. It was very disappointing because we were
well prepared. We had 150 gallons of gas in the boat tanks with a
transfer pump built in, 60 gallons of water, 250 lbs of ice in a giant
cooler, enough food for several weeks, 2 gas-powered generators, a chain
saw, tow chains, lots of tools, tubeless tire patching kit, portable
air compressor, personal protective equipment and a SatPhone. We had a
portable toilet with chemicals plus sleeping quarters in the boat we
were towing. We were also prepared to legally protect ourselves and our
property if that situation arose.
We had acquired detailed
satellite photos of the conditions at Don's house on Cudjoe Key and his
immediate neighbors' houses. Don's place is on stilts as are his
neighbors. That helped. His place had some damage but it was minimal due
to his good prep work last week. Nothing structural, so the house was
livable. Some of his neighbors had more serious damage. All of them had
4' of seawater in their ground level areas. That water damage would have
to be remediated. All had damaged or downed trees.
We knew from
the good sat photos that one of Don's neighbors, who had been camped at
the roadblock for a while, had driven a sedan the 100 miles from the
roadblock all the way to Cudjoe Key. We could see his car in his
driveway in Wednesday's sat photos. It was not there on Tuesday. So we
knew US 1 was passable, just as the news reports said it was.
However, it turned out that the neighbor had actually defeated the
police roadblock in a way we could not replicate. We learned that piece
of info right AFTER we were turned away. (ATT restored cell service to
their customers on Cudjoe Key on Thursday afternoon. The neighbors began
to get word out to us because one of them had an ATT cell phone.)
It is an unfortunate situation. We could have helped the people who
rode the storm out in that neighborhood and others, too. We were very
well prepared and well provisioned. We stayed overnight in Ft.
Lauderdale with friends who also have a house on Cudjoe Key.
This morning, Friday, the emergency management people told us by phone
that they will not allow
any Lower Keys homeowners to return until the
911 system is restored and the medical facilities are functional. They
said they cannot guarantee everyone's safety until that happens. Only
First Responders are currently allowed in. (And God bless the First
Responders!)
It appears the Emergency Management people are
moving the roadblock further into the Keys every few days as electric
service is restored to the Keys piece by piece from the mainland. But,
from Big Pine Key to Key West is where the worst damage was done. And
Cudjoe is in the middle of that. News reports say it could be as much as
a month before electricity is restored to Cudjoe. I don't see how EMS
can plausibly keep homeowners out that long. Mold growth will get
started within a week in flooded houses that have not been quickly "torn
out" and sprayed with the proper chemicals. That's the voice of
experience.
Did I mention that Don and I both have personal
experience at flood remediation? And that we have both been safety
trainers and project planners in our professional lives? Did I mention
that I have done Disaster Preparedness and Recovery training for
companies and local governments? But, I digress.
Of course, we
were not asking for anyone to guarantee our safety. We were prepared. I
do understand that if authorities had allowed just anyone to go in,
there might have been people who went in totally unprepared, got in some
sort of physical distress, and then needed help. Non-resident gawkers
might have gone in to "see the damage" and created problems. If that did
happen, the press, that has been allowed in all along, and are
reporting non-stop, would have immediately blamed "officials" for any
hardships that befell any unprepared person who went in. That's what the
press tends to do. They usually blame the government, not the
individual. Officials know that and fear that criticism. Rightfully so.
It is unfortunate that officials are not willing to make any
distinctions between fully prepared, able bodied people who can help the
situation and unprepared individuals who may well cause more problems
than they solve. I understand that it would be difficult for officials
to make such judgements for each case. But, just because it's difficult
doesn't mean you can't do it. In our case, our provisions and equipment
were easily viewed at the roadblock, But the cop was not the least bit
interested in our level of preparation and provision.
Having
been denied access by road, we have developed a workable plan to make
the run to Cudjoe by boat from the area of the roadblock-maybe 50 miles
by water. Every house in Don's neighborhood is on a canal with access to
both the Atlantic and the Gulf. All have small private docks. Many of
the homeowners have boats that can make that run. I don't see how the
Coast Guard could stop a homeowner from boating in and docking at their
own docks. If the roadblock goes on for weeks, that may be the only way
to get in and start repairs and clean up.
UPDATE SATURDAY MORNING: Homeowners will be allowed back in to Cudjoe Key on Sunday morning, Sept. 17.
It comes down to a difference in how one sees the role of government:
I believe in freedom of the individual and that government should not
prohibit property owners from taking care of their property in a
situation like this, even though there are risks to the individuals.
Local governments properly are charged with building and maintaining
infrastructure and keeping the peace. And our local governments do that
pretty darn well, even in major disasters.
But, modern
government officials seem to now behave as if their job is to guarantee
the safety and well being of all individuals at all times, even if that
means denying property owners the right to protect and repair their
property for an extended period of time. That is beyond what government
should be allowed to do.
I cannot imagine government officials
in the 1800's standing at the gateway to the west and telling people in
wagon trains that they are prohibited from going further west because
the government "cannot insure their safety" on the trip. The thought is
comical.
With this particular disaster, there is room to
improve. Keeping homeowners from doing repairs to mitigate damage for
extended periods of time is not a proper role of government. Well
prepared homeowners should have already been allowed back in. As someone
volunteering to assist a homeowner, I would have been willing to
provide ID and sign a liability waiver on the way in.
These two
competing views of the proper role of government undergird much of the
division in our modern culture. Some think governmental power is
basically unlimited if they have good intentions. Others think
governments must be limited and that they overstepped their bounds in
this situation. Governments often seem to regard citizens as helpless
creatures. The citizen response to Hurricane Harvey in Houston
demonstrated the good things that citizens can do very quickly. They
came from all over and saved people and property. The citizens did very
well. But, I think common sense got cast aside by authorities in the
aftermath of Irma in the Keys. It was easy to "close the Keys" because
there is only one road in or out for over 100 miles. So they did. And
they kept well prepared homeowners out because it was easier than making
judgement calls on who was prepared to go in and who was not.
The decisions made by Emergency Management about homeowner access to the
Keys in the aftermath of Irma need to be reviewed and critiqued in the
interest of continuous improvement. They have done a lot of things
right. But they made some bad decisions, too.
Albert Tieche is a Project Manager at Tieche Training and Development and a former
Administrator of Elections for Davidson County, Tennessee. He lives in Nashville.
