“Although relatively spared from catastrophic ends, my police department was equipped enough and ordered by Florida state authorities to pretty much assume police duties for the rural city of Bowling Green, Florida.”
I continue to hawk the meteorology reports as well as social media posts pertaining to preparedness for Hurricane Irma and, trailing her, Hurricane Jose. Neither force of nature is invited, but we here in Florida amend plans, adapt to life-altering possibilities, implement survival methods, and recalibrate life in a mostly coastal state prone to weather fluctuations.
It all reminds me of the absolute destruction, havoc, and utter dismay caused by Hurricane Charley in August 2004 and policing the streets before, during, and after.
The ravages of Hurricane Charley compelled thousands to flee their Sunshine State homes and left a $15.4 billion reparation/restoration tab in her wake. For those who hunkered down, she also caused funerals for ten unfortunate souls and indelible scars for survivors intent on rebuilding or relocating.
“Charley initially was expected to hit further north in Tampa and caught many Floridians off-guard due to a sudden change in the storm’s track as it approached the state,” Wikipedia reported. Most definitely, spaghetti models and directional alterations of Mother Nature challenge professional meteorologists and novice storm chasers…but the ultimate playbook is always in her hands and has inexplicable consequences. She neither folds nor bluffs, and her poker face is quite difficult to interpret.
Before, during, and after she plays her sinister hand, public safety roles are shuffled and decked.
Public Safety Climate
As is customary with such surreal disasters, every state’s Emergency Operations Center (EOC) devises a game-plan and a team roster. Although relatively spared from catastrophic ends, my police department was equipped enough and ordered by Florida state authorities to pretty much assume police duties for the rural city of Bowling Green, Florida. In essence, surviving police agencies supplanted the duties of those that did not fare well.
The Bowling Green Police Department (BGPD) was a very small law enforcement outfit—I believe a force of six including its police chief—whose physical police headquarters building was gutted by 147- MPH gusts and drenched by torrents of rain. Bowling Green’s police HQ was rendered uninhabitable, unsalvageable and, ironically, cordoned off with crime-scene tape. In the face of that misery, I suspect the BGPD cops and their families felt as if they lost a loved one. I know I would have felt that way. And that is what made picking up their law enforcement torch that much more enlivening and significantly more career-fulfilling, rounding out many of my years as a street cop.
Courtesy Dave Thornton
My squad and I took the 63-mile trek inland and arrived to abject misery and eeriness. Not a whole lot of geographic distance between our respective jurisdictions…and that was a sobering reminder of how close we, too, came to obliteration.
The current trajectory of Hurricane Irma once again placing BGPD close to potential destruction serves to illustrate this article’s title.
Mostly pieces strewn all about the landscape, everything was still. No life moved about the streets. Like a box of puzzle pieces thrown by a tantruming child, brokenness was everywhere. Starting points were nothing but a fray of largely indecipherable parts. The streets and land mass were strewn with debris and surreal oddities like toilet bowls up in the few still-rooted trees that somehow withstood the fury.
Neighborly
You don’t really think much about having all the comforts and trappings in life right under your nose and the palm of your hands until it’s too late. You kick yourself when it is all taken away by a swift swipe of nature.
Courtesy Dave Thornton
We saw this recently with Hurricane Harvey blasting Houston, Texas and some parts of Louisiana. Although it slowly recedes, the flooding loomed large. Among many states sending public safety personnel and tons of usable items, Florida dispatched hundreds of law enforcement officers from varying agencies. The Florida Fish and Wildlife Commission (FWC) cops took to Texas via caravan, boats in-tow, bolstering water-borne search/rescue and salvage operations.
While in Bowling Green, I recall the looks on faces of hurricane victims holed up in hollowed homes or behind upturned vehicles, their sweaty and soiled facial expressions sobered by the image of uniformed help and resource lifelines.
Courtesy Dave Thornton
Courtesy Dave Thornton
Courtesy Dave Thornton
That was so fulfilling. I wanted nothing more than to be a policeman for the rest of my life. Relieving burdens of others is truly a gift, albeit in awkward deliverance.
In the aftermath of Hurricane Charley in Bowling Green, there wasn’t much left to steal…but we found domestic violence calls spiking and un-neighborly behavior at long gas lines where folks competed for rationed fuel supplies—this after power was incrementally restored to outlying cities near Bowling Green. The city’s few gas stations were flattened also, so anything safely contained in the subterranean tanks was inaccessible. Too much structural damage, hence too much danger.
Human behavior during treacherous times is not unusual for cops, but it surely seems overboard when nature has a hand in the mix. Nevertheless, many sworn to self-sacrifice exemplify their oaths via actions during times of strife and chaos. To save a frightened, stranded animal somehow rejuvenates the aches of the heart. Grasping tired hands so close to surrender is an elating experience from which unplanned tears bind out-of-the-blue friendships.
Lest we forget public safety officers meeting other public safety officers and their somber supporters meekly extending gratitude with their eyes—all but one police vehicle was decimated in Bowling Green PD’s fleet of five. I suspect Hurricane Charley tossed around cars in Bowling Green like Godzilla flung around buses in Tokyo.
Unlike the animalistic destruction of Baltimore police cars during that city’s recent riots, Bowling Green’s crushed police cruisers were erased by the hands of nature. No suspect could ever be held accountable for the latter. Restitution from the federal government would be the only solace, the only mortar to rebuild foundations and start anew.
Despite their lives crushed by fast and furious Hurricane Charley, the BGPD cops and their spouses and children all discretely threw together a potluck the night before we were to head back to Tampa and our own families. Vivid in my mind are the nuances surrounding quiet wives and children of cops whose efforts served us dinner; modesty was like gold bullion at that moment. Breaking bread together was poignantly experienced over a few make-shift tables and mismatched chairs. Sweat wafted into the night air. Deodorant was a major commodity. It was all just…natural. Just right.
My squad and I felt wrong for departing. Yet we knew mutual respect was generated for the two weeks we camped on grass outside of a former police station and city hall. Gratefully, rest sessions were enabled by generous and thoughtful donation of a major RV dealership in Tampa. We provided our own police fleet and contingent officers. Sleep and hygiene HQ was a full-size RV provided by the Lazy Days dealership.
Another Round
The unfathomable intensity of Hurricane Irma compelled the DoD to evacuate assets in the Florida Keys. To the tune of 5,000 military members and dependent families, the US Navy is relocating personnel. Respectfully, law enforcement entities assume an abundance of roles during dire circumstances such as those posed by Irma. Like fixtures, cops are there.
One may witness the surreal pictures painted by nature; perhaps not pretty but definitely bewildering. Just like the Aransas Pass, Texas rain-coated cop who, during Hurricane Harvey, found it in his bones to re-erect a wind-toppled United States flag.
How does such a quiet testimony not impact your soul while nature unyieldingly impacts our surroundings?
Self-sacrifice was also exemplified during Hurricane Harvey. Houston police Sergeant Steve Perez perished by drowning in his police cruiser while navigating torrential water flows to get to his assigned zone. His purpose was to search/rescue victims of hurricane flooding. Nature is a formidable opponent with limitless power.
Patriotism, conviction, duty, honor, and bravery all apply all the time, rain or shine.
Without fail, police officers will be there…whether rescuing a hateful heart from the brink of death or plucking a bobbing puppy cut off from its owner or clasping the boney, fragile fingers of a helpless senior citizen, public safety presence extends its hands to those pushed aside by Irma and her tumultuous cousins.
Also without fail is the unheralded embodiment of support: police family members who batten down the hatches at home while their cops crusade in treacherous conditions to preserve lives.
Not to deny the undeniable power of nature, but human nature is similarly relentless. It dawns on me that the Bowling Green PD rebounded and is in full operation today, with six police officers serving. The current trajectory of Hurricane Irma once again placing BGPD close to potential destruction serves to illustrate this article’s title.
