Flooding

When it comes to shaping cities and neighborhoods, since the late 1940s, urban developers have catered developments to the invention and expansion of the automobile. Cars allowed people to spread out more and paved the way for urban sprawl. This concept of spreading everything out, in turn can result in “pressure that pushes us into more marginal areas for development than we would otherwise.” That’s according to Christian Wagley, a local environmental advocate and green building consultant. What happens when development occurs in those “more marginal areas”?

Representatives from the Florida State Emergency Response Team conducted a meeting Tuesday for public assistance applicants where SERT and FEMA reps outlined the available assistance and the eligibility standards.

Steve Hyatt, the Public Assistance Officer for the Florida Division of Emergency Management’s Bureau of Recovery, spoke at the Escambia County Emergency Operations Center. There to listen were people representing the local governments and various non-profits that took hits in last month’s storms and flooding.

Dump trucks are making regular trips to and from landfills in Escambia and Santa Rosa Counties, discarding massive amounts of storm-related debris collected from area residences.

Emerald Coast Utilities Authority has about 20 crews out picking up the storm debris. As the flood waters in many areas began to recede, ECUA began their work on May 4 in the Bristol Park subdivision.

Some local nonprofit organizations suffered losses during the recent storm and flooding. Among those is Open Books, a nonprofit bookstore and home to the prison books project. Steven Kell is a volunteer at Open Books who has been involved with the cleanup since last Wednesday.

Watching last week’s great flood from out of town was unsettling. We had been in Pittsburg for a nephew’s college graduation, and on that Tuesday night found ourselves on a plane circling Pensacola.

The pilot said heavy rain over the airport was delaying our arrival, but don’t worry, we have plenty of fuel. 20 minutes later he said there was still a nasty storm cell over the airport and he was waiting for it to move.