BY BILL KALMAN
MIAMI - A swarm of tornadoes with gusts of over 200 miles
per hour cut a deadly swath through central Florida February
23, killing at least 42 people and injuring 250. Thousands of
homes and buildings were destroyed or heavily damaged, and
hundreds of vehicles and boats were overturned. Meteorologists
estimated that between six and 10 twisters touched down from
Tampa Bay on the Gulf coast to Daytona Beach on the Atlantic
coast. Hardest hit were the predominately rural areas south of
Orlando. A total of 34 of Florida's 67 counties are now
eligible for federal disaster relief as a result of the
tornadoes and other storms caused by the El Niņo weather
pattern.
The first response of state authorities in the tornadoes' aftermath was to impose a dusk-to-dawn curfew in the affected areas, keeping people from trying to retrieve anything of value left from the devastation.
They also went into overdrive to get out the word that the area's tourist attractions, principally Disney World, Universal Studios Florida, and Seaworld, were open for business. "It is business as usual in our parks," said Disney spokesman Rick Sylvain. "Some people are either going to be late for work or not here at all, but it's not an appreciable number," he added. Tourism is big business in central Florida, generating some $14.8 billion in income in 1995.
The primary recipients of federal disaster aid will be businesses and capitalist farms in the area. Aid for working people to get on with their lives is another story. President William Clinton made a well-publicized visit to the area several days after the storms. "I'm glad you're okay. Keep your chin up," the president told Peggy Smith, whose camper that she lives in during the winter was destroyed. Smith was still wearing a bandage over a severely bruised eye. "I've had a lot a black eyes in my life," Clinton told her.
Roger Barnes, another resident of the RV park, wasn't impressed with Clinton's visit. "This isn't doing anything for us, this is just for his own publicity," he told the Miami Herald.
The tornadoes came on the heels of very heavy storms, and severely affected agricultural production. Farmers face $100 million in losses from flooded vegetable and strawberry crops. While small farmers will bear the brunt of these costs, capitalist agricultural interests will raise the price of Florida produce at the supermarket. Orange juice futures, for instance, rose to their highest price in three weeks as a result of the heavy wind and rain.
Tornadoes expose housing problems
The impact of the twisters was worsened by the number of
mobile homes in the path of the storms. At least 37 people
died in mobile homes and recreational vehicles (RVs). In
Florida, some 10 per cent of houses statewide are mobile
homes. About 1.4 million people live in 500,000 of these units
around the state.
After Hurricane Andrew in 1992, federal standards for mobile housing were reevaluated by the federal government. One analysis found a mobile home was 21 times more likely to be destroyed than a regular house in a wind storm. "Mobile homes . are the most vulnerable to wind," said Walt Zaleski of the National Weather Service. "It doesn't take much to roll a mobile home over."
But the manufacturers and sellers of mobile homes balked at adding more anchors, fasteners, rafters, and hurricane straps to these units because of costs. The new federal guidelines only apply to new units, however, leaving the majority of those in central Florida vulnerable. "I would urge someone in a manufactured home to act no differently than someone who's in a brick home," said Chrissy Jackson, marketing director for Steiner Communities, which owns 14 mobile home sites around Tampa Bay. "You go into a bathtub and pull a mattress on top of you."
Since mobile homes have become virtually uninsurable against storms since Hurricane Andrew, workers living in trailer parks can expect little help from insurance companies. The Federal Emergency Management Agency estimates that only about one-half of the homeowners who have applied for federal assistance have insurance.
Lack of warning
An article in the New York Times pointed out, "For a state
accustomed to both hurricanes and tornadoes, Florida was
caught by surprise." Unlike states in the Midwest, Florida has
no outdoor siren warning system. Such a system, according to
Florida Division of Emergency Management spokesman Craig
Fugate, "is too expensive." Instead, government officials
suggest that families buy special weather radios that retail
at about $70.
The inequality of government rescue aid to tornado victims was seen in the plight of Possum Hollow, a tiny Black community outside of Wintergarden, Florida. The six mobile homes and two houses in the small trailer park exploded in the storm. For two and a half days no help was dispatched to cut through trees or dig out debris. Just a few hundred feet away, the upscale Country Gardens condominiums were a beehive of rescue activity.
Sam McFarland, the 70-year-old owner of the trailer park, who is Black, said, "So far they haven't done a thing. What limbs were sawed up were sawed by us. What things have been rescued, we rescued them ourselves.. We were the first to be hit and we'll be the last to be recognized."
Orange County emergency management director Bob Lemley retorted, "If a community has fallen through the cracks, that is unfortunate.. [But] if they just sit there without telling anybody. then it seems to me that's their fault, not mine."
Natural crisis becomes a catastrophe
The Florida tornadoes show how a natural crisis becomes a
social catastrophe under capitalism. The El Niņo weather
phenomenon is responsible for deadly droughts, heavy rains,
and gale-force winds around the world. According to the United
Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), this severe
weather will accelerate food supply shortages particularly in
semicolonial countries.
The agency, in their January/February Food Outlook report, listed a "catalog of crises" stretching through Africa, Asia, Latin America, and former Soviet Union countries. The FAO indicates that this weather will compound the problems of malnutrition in Iraq. This is on top of economic sanctions and embargoes. The report added that El Niņo weather will result in "a most desperate food situation" in north Korea.
Janet Post, the Socialist Workers candidate for mayor of Miami in the upcoming election, contrasted the response of the capitalist government to the Florida disaster to the Cuban government's actions when that country was hit by a major storm earlier this month.
"The first priority for the Cuban government was to save lives, restore power, water supplies, and other social necessities for working people," she noted, "not worrying about protecting private profits." Deaths were minimized because authorities quickly evacuated families from the worst- hit areas. And though the storm wreaked havoc with tobacco, banana, and sugarcane production, agricultural producers didn't face the additional threat of loss of income.
"That's because Cuba is a state where workers and peasants, not capitalist bosses, run the country," Post explained. "A fighting labor movement in the United States should demand that the federal government use its resources to immediately build emergency housing for all victims of the tornadoes, and extend financial aid for everyone who stands to lose a penny in income.
"My campaign demands that the federal government restore and extend all social services, launch a jobs program to build decent housing for workers, and guarantee a living income above the costs of production for small farmers. This can be funded through a 100 percent tax on corporate profits. While El Niņo may be a naturally-occurring phenomenon, the capitalist system is something that we can fight against and must replace."
Bill Kalman is a member of United Transportation Union Local 1138.