After Hurricane Helene in late September, there were mounds of storm debris, particularly on the barrier islands in Pinellas County, which is the peninsula between Tampa Bay and the Gulf. It took the brunt of the wind and surge as Helene passed by before making landfall to the north.
Much of that debris from Helene was still laying in the barrier island communities as Hurricane Milton approached — the winds from which would have turned that debris in flying missiles, endangering people and causing more damage. Delays in the usual post-storm cleanup process, resulting in that dangerous accumulation of debris in the barrier island communities was a direct result of FEMA’s focus on ‘equity’ instead of doing their job.
Over the past few decades, the barrier island communities have become some of the most affluent in the county. After such storms, it’s usual for residents there to hire private contractors to haul away debris, rather than wait for government to get it done, which is inevitably delayed by bureaucratic inefficiency.
But FEMA didn’t think that was fair to those in inland communities who couldn’t afford to hire private contractors. So they ordered the County to close its landfill facilities to private contractors.
FEMA emergency sites wouldn’t accept them either — unless a FEMA official was present when the debris was collected to document where it came from… as in, from which FEMA-approved neighborhood.
Some contractors with loads of debris were denied access to the county landfill (per FEMA order to the County) and were instead referred to FEMA sites, who also denied access, where they were told (by FEMA bureaucrats) to put the debris back in the yard where they picked it up — that FEMA would get to it “eventually”.
FEMA would then allocate which neighborhoods would receive emergency funds for cleanup — which could take up to a year. The result of that bureaucratic ‘equity’ nonsense was mounds of uncollected debris in the barrier island communities as Milton approached.
FEMA claimed they closed the FEMA emergency landfills to prevent dumping of non-storm related debris. But that doesn’t explain closing the county landfills where non-storm related debris is commonly dumped. The only explanation was FEMA’s goal of ‘equity’.
Well our great Governor, and former Navy Seal, Ron DeSantis said ‘We’ll see about that ! ‘
DeSantis ordered the State Department of Transportation to dispatch trucks and front-end loaders from throughout the state to Pinellas to clean up debris from the barrier islands where it posed the most danger — which they did working 24 hour shifts, escorted by State Troopers to deal with any interference from FEMA bureaucrats.
However, despite the Governor’s directive that the county landfills be available 24/7 for debris disposal, the Pinellas landfills were locked and unattended at night — according to FEMA’s order. So, under the authority of Governor DeSantis, the troopers hooked up one of their own pick-up trucks to the locked landfill gate and pulled it open so debris hauling could continue.
That is how we deal with federal ‘equity’ bureaucracy here in Florida.
As it says on my license plate ‘Don’t Tread on Florida’.