The Rembis Report and Other Fascinating Topics - Volume LXVIII

Hurricane Ian - Aftermath

By now you may be wondering what secret mission I have been on. At the time of my last posting, I was not sure that I would be able to go, but I did, and I am visiting the main impact zone of Hurricane Ian in Fort Myers, Florida.

When I began working for the Florida Fish and Wildlife Commission (FWC) six years ago, I joined the Disaster Response Team, who are designated to assist when called upon wherever disaster strikes. This is the first time I have been deployed. I am part of the cook team serving meals to the law enforcement who are conducting search, rescue, and recovery operations.

Driving down from Clearwater, even just twenty miles south, there was significantly more storm damage with every mile. St. Petersburg’s trees dropped much larger limbs than those in my neighborhood. Across the Skyway Bridge in Manatee County, there were downed trees. In Sarasota there was significantly more timber lining the interstate. Further south, trees were snapped in half and Palms had lost all of their fronds. Palms, however, are stubborn and resilient. They were already sprouting new growth.

Coming into Fort Myers, trees and debris from everything were piled alongside the roads, pushed into piles by earth-moving equipment, awaiting pickup. One of the first places we went was to a neighborhood to drop off supplies to one of our employees whose home had flooded. Every house on that street, except one that sat about five feet higher than the rest, had all of their belongings dumped on the curb. I stood beside a dresser that had been soaked. The waterline stopped at my chest. I spoke with a man who was bringing his sectional sofa to the street. He towed it on a dolly while his wife sat on the sofa for ballast. They acted cheerful for people who lost so much. Maybe the lady was happy that she would soon get new furniture. That is one way to cope.

His street had become a lake during the storm surge, and he helped rescue his neighbors who had been pushed into their attic crawlspace from rising waters. He told me the river I was looking at behind his neighbor's home across the street was usually a creek that could not be seen from where we stood. It was now diminished to about four feet deep and thirty feet across and will not recede to a simple creek again for quite a while.

After that, we reported to base camp at Hammond Stadium, where the Minnesota Twins convene for spring training. We would be tasked, as members of a crew of six, with preparing breakfasts and dinners for 50 to 125 personnel every day. Our days would start at 4 AM and run steadily until around 9 PM.

Breakfasts were basic, but we managed to enhance the customary menu of eggs, bacon, and sausage, with pancakes or French toast. Lunches and many foods were delivered by an assortment of donors. A local vegan restaurant gave us lunch the day we arrived. For the rest of the week, the World Central Kitchen provided large silver trays of food, mostly healthy vegetables with rice or pasta. Publix dropped off sandwiches. So did Chick-fil-A. One of our crew, who had been on at least twenty deployments in as many years, told me that Chick-fil-A always supported rescue efforts and was usually the first food vendor to show up, even after Hurricane Katrina.

Sam's Club gave us a huge cash donation so we could shop for whatever we needed. Another donor gave us a bunch of steaks. A local man who worked for Florida Power and Light brought us already cooked brisket and pulled pork, along with an assortment of snacks, just because he wanted to. He was sympathetic and thankful to the search and rescue teams, as he had witnessed their good deeds on storm detail for the last thirty years.

Dinner was the big meal of the day. We generally worked with what we had and then took a short shopping trip to pick up whatever items we needed to round out the menu. We took turns preparing our specialties and favorite. The hardworking men and women coming in from the field were appreciative and happy to have something home cooked. Shepherd's Pie was a big hit. So were the steaks, hamburgers, and hot dogs. We did mojo chicken with a big salad bar and hosted a taco night. I prepared fifteen gallons of chili and was honored by the accolades that poured in. Not to brag (but I must), it was described as awesome, phenomenal, outrageous, fantastic, and Oh My God, that's good! It was nice to feed people my chili recipe who seemed to enjoy it even more than I do.

Of course, with six cooks in the kitchen, disagreements about how to cook things will sometimes arise. But everyone was professional enough to respect every opinion.

My expertise is in midwestern fare, and my true specialty is eggs. Light, fluffy, scrambled eggs, fried eggs (over medium, over hard, over light, sunny-side-up), poached eggs, coddled eggs, Eggs Benedict, hard-boiled eggs, soft-boiled eggs, even omelets - trust me - I know eggs.

I learned how to cook in the commercial foods department of Chadsey High School in Detroit. I took that knowledge with me to all of the restaurants I worked at in the 1980's. Eventually, I became a breakfast cook, where I perfected my scrambled eggs. The ingredients are simply eggs, cream, and butter. If the diner wishes for salt and pepper, they may add it themself.

I learned more about Southern cooking this week than I ever thought I would. The Southern food pyramid seems to consist of salt, pepper, sweet tea, grits, pig lard, and cheddar cheese, which may make an appearance in any dish at any time.

Camp styled Southern scrambled eggs consist of hearty doses of salt and pepper and are cooked until there is nothing light nor fluffy about them. Cheddar cheese also makes an appearance. While I found their recipes and methods for eggs to be abominable, diners enjoyed them, so, no judgement. I accept that. That recipe is not for me, but I accept it.

However, for fun in the kitchen and happy diners, our crew could not be beat. We were told that this was the first deployment many police officers had seen where there was a dedicated cook trailer and staff to feed them. The camp also had shower trailers and air-conditioned units with sixteen bunk beds in each one. These were also firsts. In the past, I was told, rescue crews slept in their trucks, or tents, and showered with a water bottle. As a result, morale was ranked higher than it had ever been. Everyone who had been on hurricane duty in the past said so.

Many of the police officers I met had been on multiple deployments and told me that Hurricane Ian was one of the worst they had seen.

To drive that message home the command post decided that we, the new members of the cook team, who had not seen severe storm damage before, be taken on a tour of the some of the hardest hit, now accessible areas. So, we were given the unique privilege of an up close and personal view of Fort Myers Beach, which was touched twice by the 50-mile-wide eyewall.

When the center of circulation in a Category 4 hurricane hits something, it pounds away with winds around 150 MPH for a while, and then it just stops. The eye of the hurricane is calm. That peace will last anywhere from thirty to sixty minutes before those same winds blast right back at full force from the opposite direction.

That is what causes destruction like this.

This house was pushed off its foundation, maybe even across the street. It is truly incredible. All I can say is that everything flew everywhere. Pictures you see on TV do not give you the scope you get in person. You may have heard that before, and I attest, it is true.

However, I took these photos and almost a hundred more, along with a couple of short videos. CLICK THIS LINK Hurricane Ian - Fort Myers Beach | Flickr to see them. While the pictures may not be able to convey the absolute devastation, they will give you a closer look. They are large format photos, so you may download them and zoom in to see the detail.

You might wonder, what exactly happens after a hurricane? What is law enforcement doing? The big thing is rescue. They search for people who may be trapped. They search for bodies and account for as many missing people as possible. They keep the peace, and they do the jobs that nobody else is trained to do.

I heard officers after dinner, talking over the day's events. There were arrests for everything from looting by kayak to neighbors shooting at each other. Boat theft, poaching oversized and out of season fish, by people who thought police were too busy doing something else. Besides FWC officers, there are officers from other municipalities all over the state (I even saw a Clearwater police car), plus the Florida Highway Patrol and the Florida National Guard are here. There are night patrols, too. With so many people hunkering down in their homes without power, and maybe running low on food, they get desperate.

One officer said that "We are always nine meals away from absolute chaos."

"What do you mean?" I asked.

"After three days of not eating, or eating the same old, stale stuff, people lose it. Trapped because the roads are closed, they can't get gas. They don't think straight, and they start to turn on each other and steal. People get dangerous when they get desperate, and they don't even know they are doing it."

Seeing all that, it humbles me to know that I am so lucky to have food every day. When the hurricane blew past me a couple weeks ago and I told you about how glad I was that it missed us, I also mentioned the flooded-out people of Pakistan. They are still recovering as one-third of the country is still underwater. The Pakistan Army, Pakistan Navy and Pakistan Air Force are all actively participating in flood rescue and relief operations.

While the storms and recovery efforts are different, the humanitarian response is the same. Trained personnel are stepping up and handling these situations with grace and dignity, and they need all the help they can get, to help those who really need it.

Please support your local law enforcement and military. This is why. So, they can be there when you need them.

Thanks for reading.

If you are new to the Rembis Report and would like to read any of the previous issues, PLEASE CLICK HERE to access the archives. To read it from the beginning, PLEASE GET A COPY of The Rembis Report: An Observation.