From the South Florida Sun-Sentinel

The imperfect storm

Despite all the damage and destruction it caused, Hurricane Wilma gave us a much-needed blast of perspective.

by Dan Sweeney

November 2 2005

I lost power sometime Monday afternoon, hours after Hurricane Wilma had had her way with South Florida. As of Saturday, I was still cooking rotting steaks on a broken gas grill I had converted to other means -- namely, by disconnecting the gas tank and filling the shell with wood or coal, depending on what resources I had at the time.

We hunkered down the tail end of Monday and all day Tuesday, just throwing on the grill what meat we had. It was only on Wednesday, after Jeb Bush turned into a complete jerk at a press conference, that I realized how bad the situation had gotten.

The governor was snide and mean as he declared a moratorium on any criticizing of the government's handling of Hurricane Wilma's aftermath. I listened to the press conference on my radio, powered by a 9-volt battery I had won in a staring match at a local Walgreen's. "If this were any other state," Bush declared, "we wouldn't even be having this conversation." Never mind that the press was there to ask the questions that the public is powerless to ask. Bush, when it comes down to it, didn't seem to give a damn.

On Wednesday, I rolled into the local Publix, which was taking credit cards via generator. A man in front of me swung his cart through the meat department and queried, "Where's the meat? Where's the food?"

When the employee behind the barren seafood counter declared that there was no meat forthcoming, the man whined, "What are we supposed to eat?"

He then launched into a political screed, demanding the immediate removal of both Jeb and George W. Bush. Now, you will not find a more serious believer in the immediate removal of all the Bushes from office. I have written the worst nonlibelous words possible about them from the beginning of Dubya's first term in office. I have decried the horror of the Bush administration ever since the first soldier was killed in Iraq.

But so what? None of this really matters at the moment. Whether the most liberal Democrat or the most conservative Republican were in charge, we would still be dealing with massive power outages, long lines at gas stations, dangerously short tempers and bracingly cold showers. Our leaders are not the problem. Our leaders worked to the best of their abilities, and despite what you or I may think, their abilities are many. No, the system worked exactly the way it was supposed to work. But the system is dumb.

A survey of the destruction revealed that, from Miami-Dade to Palm Beach, no one escaped unscathed, as the photos on the previous pages reveal. They may not be much of a comfort, but at least you can see that you're not alone.