Posted on the conservative tree house on October 15, 2022 | sundance
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis has spent the past several days in/around the western impact zone of Hurricane Ian, the areas hardest hit.
Restoration and recovery work continues overcoming serious obstacles with infrastructure destruction particularly around Fort Myers Beach, Sanibel Island, Captiva Island, Cape Coral, Pine Island and up toward the Boca Grande pass. These western coastal areas were impacted by sustained 150+ MPH winds for multiple hours as slow-moving Ian crept inland; hence the scale of the destruction.
The power infrastructure is slowly returning to Fort Myers Beach, however, most of the properties are a total loss and/or so heavily damaged power restoration to the structure is unsafe. The work on Sanibel Island is reconstructing the physical power transit system, which will take a long time. According to state officials, approximately 80% of the mainline power grid on Pine Island is now rebuilt; however, many homes are heavily damaged (like FMB) so lines to structures will take longer.
Governor Ron DeSantis gives an update from Burnt Store Marina, which is located between Cape Coral and Punta Gorda on the west. WATCH:
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Governor Ron DeSantis also announced an official request to The Dept of Commerce and NOAA to declare a federal fisheries disaster which would provide relief to families and businesses impacted by the loss of economic activity in the fishery sector.
Thirty years later, the world continues to thrive. The climate zealots claimed we had about 10 years left on this Earth. Limbaugh calls out Gore for blaming global warming on capitalism and fear-mongering in this two-part debate. Also noteworthy is how two sides of the spectrum were able to hold a civil debate on a hot topic.
Posted originally on the conservative tree house on October 13, 2022 | Sundance
MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell travelled to Fort Myers to join with Samaritans Purse in the Hurricane Ian recovery effort. Mr. Lindell went door to door in various neighborhoods passing out pillows and blankets along with prayers and well wishes for the community. {Direct Rumble Link}
Mr. Lindell appeared with Steve Bannon to discuss the recovery effort. WATCH:
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“The damage is incredible—these people need our prayers and our support,” said Samaritan’s Purse President Franklin Graham. “We’re going to need an army of volunteers. Prayerfully consider joining us to help in Jesus’ Name.” [ Website Here ]
To give an idea of what happened to the coastal area, there is some pretty incredible drone footage of the damage done to Fort Myers beach and Sanibel/Captiva. Below:
Fort Myers Beach. It looks like the aftermath of a massive Tsunami:
The French, especially in Paris, are starting to feel the effects of the gas shortage. There are reports of cars queued for miles outside gas stations. Some have reported waiting for over an hour, only to find that there was no petrol left to fuel their vehicle.
Workers at TotalEnergies and Esso-ExxonMobil in France are on strike at the moment as well. This has led to three out of six refineries shutting down as production has been cut by 60% to 740,000 bpd. Over a third of TotalEnergies’ 3,500 stations are low on petrol. Workers are seeking a 10% salary increase as they feel the oil companies are reaping in profits amid this crisis.
President Emmanuel Macron has urged the people to avoid panicking. Some believe that this situation is only a glimpse of what will come in the winter when reserves plummet and demand soars. There is currently enough fuel for about 90 days.
The climate zealots of the Yellow Vest movement are prominent in France. The group protested for 60 consecutive weeks in 2018 and is extremely anti-Macron. They even stormed the Arc de Triomphe in central Paris. With Macron reelected and fuel woes rising, expect this movement to gain some momentum – with more support than the last go-around.
Posted Originally on the conservative tree house on October 11, 2022 | Sundance
No one imagined this was feasible. Every expert put the timeline for repair at around a year. However, the git r’ done crews and the Florida Dept of Transportation have accomplished a massive feat of reconstruction in phenomenal time. Major kudos to Florida Governor Ron DeSantis and the construction crews who worked every hour of every day, day and night, for two straight weeks and have created/built a temporary bridge to Sanibel Island. [Videos below]
Trust me, having seen the aftermath, this is absolutely remarkable. The causeway is made up of three bridge spans (A, B, and C) and three spoil islands.
The rapid response construction crews just kept bringing truck after truck of everything imaginable including rocks, concrete slabs, gravel, sand and more to fill in the missing parts of the roadway and spoil islands. Then they surfaced the road and are now working on paving it in record time. Today restoration emergency crews drove across the bridges, and they anticipate opening the causeway to residents of Sanibel for civilian use on October 21st. WATCH:
Today the construction crews moved aside to allow, over 200 bucket trucks, 150 electric line and pickup trucks (LCEC, FP&L, Duke Energy) towing 50 trailers and two tractor-trailers carrying first responders to the island.
Additionally, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis was on the Fort Myers side of the bridge to celebrate the accomplishment at a press conference. WATCH:
FORT MYERS, Fla. — Today, Governor Ron DeSantis announced that temporary repairs to the Sanibel Causeway will allow a one-time convoy of power restoration equipment, supplies, and crews to access Sanibel Island and continue restoration efforts. Once crews are on the island, the Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT) will resume repairs to restore access to the island for residents, which is expected to be complete by the end of this month.
The temporary repairs to the bridge will allow over 200 bucket trucks, 150 line and pickup trucks towing 50 trailers and 2 tractor trailers to move onto the island, along with additional first responders to cross the bridge and aid in recovery efforts while final road repairs are underway. This includes crews from across the state, Lee County Electric Cooperative (LCEC), Florida Power and Light and members of the Florida Electric Cooperative Association.
Last week, at Governor DeSantis’ direction, barges began to deploy to move equipment and supplies to Sanibel Island to restore power and ensure wraparound services like running water are available as quickly as possible. Barges continue to move daily to transport equipment, personnel, and supplies to support recovery operations.
Efforts to restore power to Pine Island are also underway. Last week, the Governor announced that FDOT had established a temporary bridge to Pine Island in less than three days, allowing power restoration crews to access the island and begin repairs. Led by Duke Energy and LCEC, crews have begun to clear debris, lay new lines and replace power poles. By Thursday, LCEC expects to have power restored to one quarter of Pine Island, including the Island’s center, water treatment plant substation and to centrally located grocery stores. Power is expected to be restored to one third of the island and the Matlacha area by next week. (LINK)
Damage on September 30th:
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Repairs as of 10/10/22:
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Trucks arriving 10/11/22:
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Governor DeSantis said leaders started brainstorming different ways more trucks and equipment could be brought to the island other than helicopters and barges. But in the end, different ideas weren’t necessary because the temporary causeway repairs will allow a one-time convoy to cross onto the island.
During a news conference Tuesday in Fort Myers, trucks were seen slowly driving across the bridge — beginning the journey to the island on the Sanibel Causeway.
“Ahead of schedule, it was supposed to be 3 o’clock today they thought they’d get it,” the governor said. “But we’re happy that is something that is being done.”
DeSantis explains the convoy now able to travel on Sanibel Island is a large group, including:
200 bucket trucks
150 line and pickup trucks towing 50 trailers
Two tractor trailers
First responders
This also includes crews from across the state, Lee County Electric Cooperative (LCEC), Florida Power and Light and members of the Florida Electric Cooperative Association.
After crews reach the island, the Florida Department of Transportation will be able to continue with repairs to restore access to the island for residents.
This isn’t the first time relief made its way to the island. DeSantis said barges were deployed last week to move equipment and supplies to the area to restore power and running water. The governor’s office says barges continue to move daily to transport equipment, personnel and supplies. [Media Link]
TALLAHASSEE, Fla.— Today, Governor Ron DeSantis visited Fort Myers to give updates on recovery efforts and announce that temporary repairs to the Sanibel Causeway will allow a one-time convoy of power restoration equipment, supplies and crews temporary access to Sanibel Island for power restoration efforts. Once crews are on the island, the Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT) will resume repairs to restore access to the island for residents, which is expected to be complete by the end of this month. Full remarks can be found here.
There are currently 19,362 reported power outages. In Lee and Collier counties, there are only 1,000 accounts on the mainland that remain without power that can receive it. More than 42,000 linemen have already restored power to over 2.6 million accounts across the state, representing over 99% of accounts restored since the peak.
First Lady Casey DeSantis announced that the Florida Disaster Fund has raised nearly $40 million since activation. To read more info, click here. To contribute, please visit www.FloridaDisasterFund.org or text DISASTER to 20222. (read more)
Watch the short video below to see what is happening to restore power on Pine Island:
Posted originally on the conservative tree house on October 10, 2022 | Sundance
Thank you for all the prayers and support over the past two weeks. Your prayers and encouragement have lifted many, including myself. The physical and emotional strain has been challenging; but we are okay and getting a little better each tomorrow.
Power was just restored to casa del Sundance, and thankfully the electrical restoration did not encounter damaged internal wiring as reconnection was accomplished. Many others are not as fortunate. When the power comes back on it is always a mixed blessing. Thankfulness is accompanied by a sense of guilt in knowing there are so many still without basic utility services.
According to the LCEC utility company 42,906 homes are still without power. There is zero restoration on the barrier islands (7,400 homes on Pine Island and 10,946 on Sanibel). Major infrastructure repair work is underway on the islands as the effort to remove debris continues. Fort Myers Beach, Sanibel and Pine Island will be rebuilding for a long time.
Water restoration services are still underway throughout the county and boil water notices still present for many areas. There is joy in the simplicity of taking a hot shower in your own home and having the ability to wash clothes changes the outlook on a task many consider a chore. My prayers continue for those who have a long way before that simple joy returns.
There are no words adequate enough to express appreciation for those volunteers who organized field hygiene stations, portable showers, cooling tents, and even laundry services in community parks and neighborhood parking lots. Trust me, this is an underappreciated and valuable resource needed during emergency operations. Related to this, please remind yourself to include topical antiseptics and skin creams in your own hurricane or emergency kits.
It is also appropriate to give a huge shout of appreciation to the small engine mechanics who keep all the generators, power saws, winches, tools and chainsaws buzzing. One small piece of equipment that stops working can have a major cascading impact. Those who use Lava soap nightly, and undress in the utility room so they don’t drag the smell of diesel and gasoline inside, are another underappreciated crew.
Coincidentally, I had the good fortune to run into the deployment teams who establish internet services for emergency operations. These are the cool cats who quickly deploy satellite systems, including Starlink, to get the emergency communications networks up and running. They have a seriously important job, and they are extremely good at it. That Starlink system is pretty spiffy.
Residents are being allowed back onto Fort Myers Beach now. That’s a good thing. That likely means the search crews are optimistic every structure has been searched and cleared. A survivor was found alive last Thursday under the rubble, eight days after the storm. FMB Residents are being allowed to look for belongings and retrieve personal items, but they will not be staying there. There are zero utility services.
Pine Islanders are picking up the pieces and preparing for the long-haul of restoration. Sanibel will likely begin the same once access to the island is reestablished. Prayerfully and stunningly, an interim roadway system may even be completed this month.
After a full day of sleep yesterday, I will be returning to more regularly scheduled postings now on events leading up to the midterm election. There’s still a lot of work to be done in/around my community, but the immediateemergency aspect is in the rear view.
I have missed you, our Treehouse family, and I am looking forward to our conversations again. Thanks to the site admins Ad rem, Stella, WeeWeed and Menagerie for keeping everything afloat.
Above all, my deepest and most sincere appreciation to YOU. I am thankful for the opportunity to deserve your support and fellowship.
Posted originally on the conservative tree house on October 8, 2022 | Sundance
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis was in the devastated town of Fort Myers Beach today to deliver an update on the aftermath from Hurrican Ian. Incredibly we are ten days post storm while search teams are still conducting operations to locate and recover bodies. The collapsed and unstable buildings are very challenging and rescue workers are almost always kept out of unstable buildings. {Direct Rumble Link}
Fort Myers beach is about 7 miles long (+/-) and about a half to three-quarters of a mile wide (average), a large percentage of the compacted homes have still not been searched. It’s not the distance of the damage taking time to search, it’s the actual scale of the damage in this zone. So many structures collapsed and flooded with storm surge. WATCH (remarks begin at 7:15 of video):
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[Florida Gov] TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — Today, Governor Ron DeSantis traveled to Fort Myers Beach to give updates on recovery efforts in areas that have been impacted by Hurricane Ian. Floridians continue to show resiliency through communities coming together to help each other. Full remarks can be found here.
Governor DeSantis was joined by local officials to announce that access has been cleared for residents to return to Fort Myers Beach. Portable showers and restrooms were brought in for residents to use while the clean their homes. Governor DeSantis was also joined by Eric Silagy, CEO of Florida Power and Light (FPL) to give an update on the progress they have made in restoring power to their customers.FPL has already restored power to 99% of the households they cover in Lee County and Southwest Florida that can receive power.
On Wednesday, Governor DeSantis announced that bridge repairs were completed in record time to restore access to Pine Island. The Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT) has teams working around the clock on the Sanibel Causeway, the last barrier island to restore access to, and work is expected to finish by the end of the month.
Additionally, Governor DeSantis highlighted local efforts to aid residents in debris clean up and reiterated FDOT and the Division of Emergency Management’s commitment to help with additional resources as needed. Panama City Mayor Greg Brudnicki and his team will be traveling to the impacted areas to help oversee cleanup and recovery. Just four years ago, his community was hit by Hurricane Michael and Mayor Brudnicki will be providing his knowledge to help southwest Florida navigate their community rebuild.
There are currently 69,009 reported power outages. More than 42,000 linemen have already restored power to over 2.6 million accounts across the state, representing over 97% of accounts restored since the peak. There are currently 11 fueling depot stations open statewide, and mobile fuel trucks have been deployed to Arcadia and Dunbar to support residents without access to fuel.
First Lady Casey DeSantis announced that the Florida Disaster Fund has raised nearly $40 million since activation. To read more info, click here. To contribute, please visit www.FloridaDisasterFund.org or text DISASTER to 20222.
Additionally, the First Lady has worked with the State Disaster Recovery Mental Health Coordinator, Sara Newhouse, to compile a webpage of resources to help first responders navigate resources for mental health needs post hurricane. To visit the site, click here. Mental health resources for individuals and communities are available at MyFLFamilies.com/HurricaneIan. Floridians’ health and well-being are a top priority, and the Department of Children and Families is reminding individuals that they are not alone. All Floridians impacted by Hurricane Ian can find someone to talk to today through the Disaster Distress Helpline by calling 800-985-5990.
Additional programs that have been put into place to aid communities include the activation of the Florida Small Business Emergency Bridge Loan Program, the initiation of the Army Corps of Engineers’ Operation Blue Roof, and FDOT’s diligent work to construct temporary bridges into areas that are cut off from motorists. First Lady Casey DeSantis, Volunteer Florida and Tervis have created a design with Florida imagery for a new tumbler product. With every sale of this tumbler, all proceeds will go to the Florida Disaster Fund. Products are available for purchase on the Tervis website HERE and will soon be available in stores for purchase.
State response efforts include:
Search and Rescue
There have been 2,500 rescues made to date.
There are more than 1,000 team members performing search and rescue.
DCF has created a First Responder Support Line (407-823-1657) that all first responders throughout the impacted areas can contact. This line combines current resources into a single point of contact that will connect first responders with mental health professionals.
The Missouri Task Force 1 Disaster Situational Assessment and Reconnaissance (DSAR) Team is deploying to Florida through the Emergency Management Assistance Compact to support urban search and rescue efforts and incident assessment.
A Florida Unmanned Aircraft System (UAS) Team deployed to Central Florida to support state USAR Task Forces and incident assessment.
Task Force engineering resources have also been deployed to assist with route clearance in Pine Island and Charlotte County. The FLNG has cleared 51.5 miles to date in the impacted area. Guardsmen continue to assist law enforcement with roving patrols, security, traffic control and curfew enforcement missions.
Following Governor DeSantis’ authorization, Joint Task Force Florida has 4,351 personnel activated and is executing missions in response to Hurricane Ian. The Florida National Guard has supported a total of 246 missions.
Posted originally on the conservative tree house on October 8, 2022 | Sundance
There is a particular texture and smell familiar to those who have trekked through saltwater marshes. In ordinary times the moment when the greyish matter takes custody of your shoe, you quickly ponder whether to stick your hand into it or just buy another pair of sandals and move on… often it’s the latter.
The sand, sediment, dirt and decomposing nature -to include fish bits and wildlife food sources- creates a blended muck and grows slowly over years. The moist muck does not like to be disturbed. It has a very particular smell when it is disturbed, until it dries, almost like a natural defense mechanism. Hurricane Ian disturbed the backwater shoreline inland and introduced that sludge mix to places it was never before, like inside buildings. Thankfully it is drying out now.
The officials in charge of Fort Myers Beach have determined that almost every structure on the island is unsafe after the storm pushed a massive surge of water onto the island while the wind destroyed the buildings. Residents are being carefully managed and kept away from areas where search crews are still looking through rubble.
A plan for a limited number of residents to be bussed into one part of the area to look for belongings has been released [link]. Beach officials are calling it, “debris management and the effort to locate our friends and loved ones.” It is now a full ten days later, and no one wants to use the real words, ‘dead people.’ I think about Ms Veronica being so clear and true in her point a few days ago, “there are dead people and there are survivors.”
Further north and to the west on Pine Island there are lots of survivors. With the temporary road giving access, there are lots of people picking up bits, fragments, and other important stuff that holds their memories; each bit revisited in the handling of it, many bits thought about tenderly for the first time in decades. Fragmented bits hold memories, and those memories are exactly what make up the invisible links of our lives.
Living is what we do right now, but life is in the memories. I have my own cigar box full of bits that I have thought about recently, and now as we watch how each individual person picks up their bits amid the chaos, I have greater context for why they matter.
Memories matter.
A recently widowed Ms. Grace was describing life after her husband died when she said, “my husband George was here” and immediately -despite all the chaos around her- she reached for one bit to prove it. Memories matter. Yes, those bits matter.
On a practical level the ability to retrieve the mementos of life is a big part of why clearing the way, what the officials call “cut and toss”, is important. Pine Island is accessible now and generally vehicle transit to within walking distance of most bits is possible. However, after a day of retrieval the long-haul perspective sinks in.
The whisper of ‘daunting‘ wants everyone to look at the scale of the challenge. We have new phrases like Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) to explain what the daunting dance does to the psyche. However, the wise rebuilders are looking only at the two feet in front of them. Move that pile today and it will not be there tomorrow. So, I shall move that pile… for tomorrow. And for the many more tomorrows to come, we are blessed and thankful.
For a great representation of who/how Pine Islanders are, as well as the resourcefulness of those who are attached to the community, this local video story is one example amid hundreds that are identical. WATCH:
Posted originally on the conservative tree house on October 7, 2022 | Ad rem
I just received the following message from Sundance…
“Camped on Pine Island. No electricity, water, or internet, and limited cell service. Hopefully, I’ll be able to provide an update tomorrow.”
The following photo and video show the utter devastation that occurred on Pine Island. The only bridge to the island was heavily damaged, so earlier it could only be reached by boat or air. Out of respect for those who may be involved, I’ll let Sundance describe what he’s seen take place throughout this past day….in his own words. They decided to take a pass on the last boat out.
I do, however, take great comfort in knowing that a caring God is watching over him and his team.
Aerial View of Hurricane Ian damage on Pine Island and Matlacha taken today…
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