Following one of the deadliest hurricanes in Florida history, both candidates for governor should suspend campaigning for 30 days.
Florida needs a bipartisan commission, modeled after the Surfside disaster, to rebuild Southwest Florida and strengthen standards for existing homes and mobile homes in hurricane-prone areas. We must also find a long-term solution to Florida’s broken property insurance problem.
Both candidates must agree to serve the full four-year term of office. We need a governor committed to setting aside partisan squabbles and time-consuming fund-raising junkets in place of doing the job of ensuring that all Floridians are safe and future catastrophic threats to life and property will be minimized before the next storm hits. Given the threat of scientifically-proven global warming, that will reoccur sooner than later. The time for real action is now.
David Weiss, Plantation
Tougher codes needed
I work in real estate and have a background in architecture and construction.
Seeing scenes of Hurricane Ian’s destruction, the question I’ve asked myself over and over since I moved here nine years ago is this: When will Florida update its building codes and laws to make this kind of destruction less possible? Why are there so many mobile home parks and manufactured homes in a state where storms has always blown them away?
Buildings should not collapse like toothpicks. If they do, they should be banned from being constructed. The lack of laws with teeth is shameful. When will the freewheeling capitalists in Tallahassee learn that government is supposed to protect citizens?
Gov. Ron DeSantis and Sen. Marco Rubio voted against federal aid to New York and New Jersey after the mayhem of Sandy. Now they have their hands out to the federal government. They should also both learn from the building codes used in those two states.
Beverly Feingold, Fort Lauderdale
Planet Earth’s future
Ian has been destructive to homes, wildlife and people. The Category 4 storm is listed as No. 9 in strength in the past 50 years and left almost $50 billion in insured losses. Climate change influences have made hurricanes more destructive. Warming sea temperatures have caused increased rain and wind speed. Sea level rise increases flood risk, and storms move more slowly, making damages disastrous.
The fuels we burn and their emissions threaten Florida’s beauty. We must encourage sustainability by urging Congress to pass clean energy legislation and putting a tax on carbon emissions. The future of Earth rides on our actions. Mitigating climate change must be at the top of our agenda.
Anagha Iyer, Miramar
We’re in it together
I’m in Southern California where I attended a climate change summit that addressed wildfires, drought, heat, sea level rise and coastal erosion. I have just read about how Hurricane Ian pummeled my hometown of St. Petersburg, but it was spared far worse scenarios seen further south.
My family is all safe, thank goodness, but I’m sure some of my childhood haunts are forever altered. I find myself thinking we are all in this together. I don’t begrudge one penny of the massive federal emergency management spending that hopefully will find its way to those in need right away. I also hope that the rebuilding will wisely take into account the fact this kind of behemoth storm is destined to become the norm and not the exception, just as climate change had stretched our local wildfire season to encompass the whole year.
Gary M. Stewart, Laguna Beach, Calif.
