As I sit on this turbulent plane flying back to Philadelphia, I can't help but to think how lucky I am to live in New Jersey (I know, that sounds funny.) But all kidding aside, the aftermath of hurricane Wilma is a lot worse than most people in the northeast imagine in their minds. The media's coverage of this hurricane doesn't come close to describing the destruction I've witnessed these past few days while driving from Ft. Lauderdale to Key West. Imagine throwing most of your belongings (including major appliances that were once a permanent fixture of your home,) out to the curb to be collected by some government agency.
I don't doubt that hurricane Rita was a bit more devastating than Wilma, but I find the lack of media attention to Wilma to be a bit startling. The media absolutely loves to go crazy over life-threatening events. Consider the New York subway scare that happened last month (Remember, someone was supposed to blow up the subway with a baby carriage.) I witnessed at least a half dozen news trucks parked out front of Penn Station for several days during the scare to do their news casts. They were just sitting there, almost waiting for fire and smoke to come pouring out of Madison Square Garden so they could get the best ratings on the 11 o'clock news. But unlike the subway scare, hurricane Wilma produced actual death and destruction. I don't get it.
I think the Ft. Lauderdale cab driver was quite articulate in his description of the hurricane: 'So much damage my friend, no more trees, no more coconuts'.