Capital embarrassment: Complainers and whiners

What an embarrassment it’s been for Tallahassee in recovering from Hurricane Hermine.

I don’t mean the response of local government, which has been superb. I mean the complaining by residents about local government’s response.

For so many people, Hurricane Hermine will be remembered as NOT their finest hour.  They have become unreasonable complainers and unattractive whiners.

Some local residents began complaining Friday morning on Facebook, on Twitter, on newspaper comment sections, on anywhere they could. They began complaining literally hours after the hurricane passed. They howled they had no electric power. They blamed city officials for not preparing for a hurricane. They complained the city wasn’t restoring service fast enough.

They invented false conspiracies: Power is being restored to the homes of city officials but not regular folks! City officials are refusing efforts of help from other utility companies!

Of politics, power and press releases

The governor of the state of Florida accused Tallahassee of not acting fast enough, pinning particular blame on Mayor Andrew Gillum. Never in the history of Florida disaster response has a governor taken it upon himself to blast a city for its disaster response.

The complainers have the audacity to claim they are “suffering” without electric power! The lack of electric power at their homes means they have no air-conditioning and can’t watch TV. Maybe they lost a few hundred dollars worth of food in their freezers.

But roads are clear. Restaurants and grocery stores are open. Friends are taking in friends. If you have a medical condition, the hospitals will help you. If you need a cool place, the libraries are open.

The complainers have mistaken the word “suffering” for the word “inconvenienced.”

Gillum: City's storm response 'not perfect'

As I write this, at 3 p.m. Tuesday, my wife and I are among the inconvenienced. We have been without power since Thursday at 8:46 p.m. It has become chic on Facebook to wail about how many hours one has been without power (because “100 hours” sounds so much scarier than “a little less than five days”), so we’ve been without power 115 hours.

We were spared any great damage. About 1,000 branches came down in our yard and we spent six hours Friday cleaning up. We’ve been able to spend nights with a friend whose power was restored Friday afternoon. We’ve had air conditioning, meals and Seminole football.

But our neighborhood was devastated. Trees crashed through a half-dozen homes, and trees smashed several cars. Trees took down electric wires on three streets.

And therein lies the problem: To restore power to individual neighborhoods, crews have to remove a tree, replace electric poles and restring electric wires.

PHOTOS: Recovering from Hurricane Hermine

It can take six to eight hours to remove a tree, then a couple more hours to replace the poles and wiring. It is time-consuming, tedious work that takes as long as it takes. There is no magic switch to flip and have the electricity back on.

Yet, people who have never strung an electric wire in their lives – much less removed an 80-foot tree lying in a person’s living room – have the chutzpah to say, “Electric crews are not moving fast enough!”

You folks ought to be ashamed. You are letting your discomfort get the best of your reasonableness and good manners.

No matter how many times you tell people the truth, some folks won’t believe it. City officials have repeatedly denied the rumors and yet people keep saying them anyway.

Complainers say Tallahassee officials were not prepared. How do you figure? Local government officials met all week before the storm hit, setting up their game plan. Crews from a half-dozen other cities were in town by Thursday afternoon before the storm hit. As soon as high winds left the area, at 4 a.m., Friday, crews from Tallahassee and other cities hit the streets and have worked around the clock since.

Some power online, some still in the dark

Since Hurricane Kate in 1985, Tallahassee officials have made it part of their mission to be prepared for storms. To assert otherwise is wrong.

You can’t prepare for hundreds of trees toppling, unless you are willing to mow down every tree in the city beforehand. A natural disaster is called a natural disaster because that’s what it is: natural. You can’t prevent it.

Complainers say Gillum and other city officials purposely dragged their feet on the response. They say they didn’t accept help that was offered. Why? What would they gain? Elected officials stay elected officials by helping people, not hurting people.

Apparently, City Manager Rick Fernandez and City Electric General Manager Rob McGarrah – the people actually charged with making the decisions critics ascribe to Mayor Gillum – turned down an offer from a private utility company. Because they didn’t need the help. There are only so many workers who can work in a place at one time.

Complainers insist Hermine was a minor storm, especially compared with our last direct hit, Hurricane Kate in 1985. For crying out loud. Hermine hit Tallahassee with winds clocking in at 64 mph. Kate, a major storm while it was in the Gulf of Mexico, wasn’t even a tropical storm when it pushed through Tallahassee.

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In 1985, it took 10 days for power to be restored to 90 percent of residents. This time, it took five days for power to be restored to 90 percent of residents.

And mind you, our population is half again what it was in 1985, and we have probably 10 times the buildings. The city of Tallahassee has attacked storm recovery with vigor and efficiency.

The problem, of course, social media. Everybody now has access to vent their petty complaints in public.

The problem, of course, is the mood of America. We are a nation of people who feel they should never be inconvenienced. We are a nation where everyone feels compelled to play the blame game, rather than admit some problems are just unavoidable.

What is particularly discouraging is some of the loudest complainers on Facebook and Twitter are those who should know better. Former journalists who should know the complexities of public policy and response to natural disasters. College professors should know the majority of public officials genuinely believe in doing the right thing.

Hermine's power impact the worst since Kate

Most galling is the governor of Florida chose to politicize this. And when confronted with evidence his complaints were wrong, he dug in his heels and continued to beat the drum with apples and oranges comparisons. Yes, other parts of the state restored power faster – because they weren’t hit as hard as Tallahassee. Tampa supposedly restored 80,000 customers in hours – but Tampa doesn’t have the trees of Tallahassee; all Tampa had to fix was a little water and wind damage to their equipment.

You can’t say it enough: When trees fall on wires, it takes time to get them off and re-install the wires.  You cannot give absolute estimates of the time it will take. You can only give rough estimates and ask for people to be patient.

The city predicted Friday morning it would take a week to restore most power; it took five days. I think they are doing pretty damn good, even if I still don’t have power. That’s because I am certain everyone involved in restoring power is doing their best and all that can be done is being done.

As should the complainers.

Gerald Ensley is a retired Tallahassee Democrat columnist. He can be contacted at geraldensley21@gmail.com