Florida’s White-Knuckle Moment

By State Senator Dan Gelber
May 20, 2010

http://www.dangelber.com/blog/view_blog.php?ID=226

As I’m driving back from Key West today and looking over the vistas and businesses that make up this area, it’s painful to fathom the potential impact of the oil spill. Perhaps that is the challenge we are facing. Imagining the unimaginable. Floridians know hurricanes. We can plot coordinates, know how to prepare our homes and families, and have cleaned up the mess left in the wake of some real monsters. A hurricane is a body shot from nature and we know how to brace ourselves for the hit. But an oil spill does not have the forensics of a blunt trauma; it’s more like a cancer. It is subterranean, quiet and unpredictable. Unlike a hurricane, its wake may be more permanent and wounds less likely to heal.

This really is a white-knuckle moment for Floridians. I attended a roundtable earlier this week with an assemblage of government, business and academic leaders. What was truly disturbing was that when they spoke about “preparing,” most were referring to taking inventories of areas that might be impacted by the spill. That’s what you do when you are preparing an insurance claim for items lost in a fire. None seemed to believe there was anything we could do to stop the oil plume, short of keeping track of what it destroys.

While I appreciate how important it is to hope for the best, I come from the school of preparing for the worst. Money for tourism ads is helpful, but I think we need to start putting our arms around what we do the day after the unimaginable happens. Where will the ideas come from; what resources will we need; who will lead. It may be a environmental disaster; but it will be an economic crisis.

Governor Crist needs to begin that process now. Today I spoke to Governor Crist and asked him to create the organization within the Executive Branch and outside government that will figure out the best approach and smartest answers to how Florida responds and moves forward. It needs to have relevant agencies represented, but it also needs the business community, local citizens, and academics at the table. And it needs to be open and transparent. The legislature should be involved, but it is too political, too partisan, too cumbersome and too prone to regional favoritism to lead. That is why you have a Governor. In the wake of Hurricane Andrew, there were real issues relating to how we’d rebuild South Florida. It took Miami Dade months and years to organize itself and, in the process, our residents felt more pain and critical resources were wasted.

So, while I hope this cancer leaves us alone, I think we need to prepare for what we do if it finds our shores.