Wilma

Shaker Skywind is located in south Florida, and is, quite fortunately and to my great relief, okay, but she needs some help. You see, Skywind and her mother are junkies—West Wing and Commander in Chief junkies. The West Wing was pre-empted last week due to the hurricane, and then the power was out, so they missed an episode of each. I’m hoping perhaps someone has copies on tape or DVD that they would be willing to lend (Skywind will pay for shipping charges). Sure, it’s just a little thing, but in the midst of such upheaval, it’s the little things that help one feel a bit closer back to normal. If you can help out, email me, and I’ll put you in contact. As Skywind notes, “We need our weekly fix of fake Presidents in order to tolerate the real one.”

She also sends along an update on relief efforts:

I’ve been out of touch for a week: it’s been very weird. I just got internet service back about an hour ago, we also lost power and running water, which is a major PITA. But it’s much worse in Immokalee, a very poor farming community just east of here. Many of the residents are migrant farmers here to pick the fall crops, and the crops were destroyed. They live in trailers, and the trailers were destroyed. They’re desperately poor, and yet our governor had the nerve to shake his finger and say “people should have planned better. You had plenty of warning, and you should have had 72 hours worth of supplies in advance, because of course FEMA is going to take a few days to get organized.” Blech. We had volunteers here with hot food trucks and coffee and boxes of food within 24 hours. We had insurance companies with mobile response units. We had scam artists with fake contractors licenses offering to fix people’s roofs. But FEMA trucks couldn’t get here because “the roads were impassable.” Ri-i-i-i-igt.

It’s quite amazing that even though no amount of heartlessness or incompetence manages to surprise me anymore, my capacity for disgust at the same seems to have an endless reserve. I just don’t think no matter how much they screw up, I’ll ever be inured to experiencing anger at them when they do so yet again.

I’m glad you’re okay, Skywind.