World headquarters for Cyberista is currently under siege by the beginning of Hurricane Jeanne. Amazingly, the power is still on.
During Hurricane Frances (first week of September), power was knocked out after the first 10 minutes of sustained 35mph winds. The difference between then and now is simple:
Hurricane Frances left no non-native trees behind. All these trees are responsible for knocking over power lines. Power lines are back up without trees to knock them over.
Hurricane Frances was an awesome experience except for power loss. Hurricane Jeanne is orders of magnitude cooler because we can watch football and eat all day. We opted for the "fsck putting up shutters" approach for the second time so we can enjoy watching the storm as well.
Such storms are benign when things are done right the first time. Everyone that loses power should form a class action lawsuit against Florida Power & Light because all power lines should be underground and the short-sighted power company has known this for at least 30 years.
The whole state of Florida needs to be re-engineered to absorb these storms. Florida doesn't need to worry about rain from hurricanes because rain isn't a problem until the storms move into the Deed South. Florida just needs to worry about wind. Power lines and traffic signals should be operational through every disaster short of an asteroid strike.
Watching the police declare martial law is disturbing at best. They should never be in a position to do such things. They emphasize how much your life is going to suck when they beat the crap out of you and throw you in the unair-conditioned county jail. The police might have a valid argument that such declarations are not about subjugation IF they did ANYTHING to assist the general public after the hurricane.
Just a crazy idea in the "How to Assist The General Public" category: Direct fscking traffic when there are no traffic lights for the next two weeks.
If we're going to be on our own because government is a useless self-interested entity, let's at least force them to build stuff right the first time.
