JEFF CAPLAN'S AFTERNOON NEWS

Jeff Caplan’s Minute of News: After the Hurricane

Oct 9, 2024, 7:00 AM | Updated: 12:22 pm

Teams work to clean up piles of debris from Hurricane Helene flooding ahead of the arrival of Hurri...

Teams work to clean up piles of debris from Hurricane Helene flooding ahead of the arrival of Hurricane Milton, in Holmes Beach on Anna Maria Island, Fla., Tuesday, Oct. 8, 2024. (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell)
Credit: ASSOCIATED PRESS

(AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell)

Editor’s note: This is an editorial piece. An editorial, like a news article, is based on fact but also shares opinions. The opinions expressed here are solely those of the author and are not associated with our newsroom.

SALT LAKE CITY — They’re using the stadium where the Tampa Bay Rays play baseball. If Hurricane Milton hits the Tampa Metro and its 3 million people, this is where the emergency workers will bed down. Cots on the baseball diamond. The only problem is Tropicana Field is literally in the direct path of the hurricane. 

Governor Ron Desantis told residents to prepare for the worst.

“We must be prepared for a major, major impact to the west coast of Florida.”

As we watch and wait from afar somewhere on the Florida coast we’re going to see carnage. Splinters of wood that were once homes, yachts slumped over on street corners, biblical flooding, and ironically, people begging for water. 

The hurricane will come and go, but the impact remains

And in a few weeks or months, we’ll move on. The reporters will leave. We’ll eventually forget the name of the hurricane. But I’m just back from a visit to the Jersey Shore where Hurricane Sandy scored a direct hit 12 years ago. The effects are still being felt. You see homeowners jacking their houses up 10 feet in the air on stilts because if they don’t their flood insurance goes up to $40,000 a year. It’s like jacking up a car to change a tire, except it costs 100 grand. If you don’t jack the house up you can never refinance.

If you go to the beach, you can’t see the ocean because they’ve built a 10-foot berm out of sand that blocks the view, and the flooding.  

While I was at the Jersey Shore, I wanted to jump off a dock and into the water. People warned me, “You don’t know what’s down there after Sandy.”  Refrigerators, and cars blown into the water, could be anywhere. They keep discovering stuff. 

The reminders are everywhere a dozen years later. A hurricane changes a community and as Milton takes aim at Florida, wherever it lands, we’re not just preparing for the destruction. Life is going to change in the aftermath for years, decades, even a generation. 

Jeff Caplan is the host of Jeff Caplan’s Afternoon News on KSL NewsRadio. Follow him on Facebook and X. 

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Jeff Caplan’s Minute of News: After the Hurricane