Page 54 - life-in-naples-march-2016

POLITICS and
POTPOURRI
Iby Councilman Bill Barnett
had written in last month’s Life in Naples of
my anticipation of the then upcoming Naples
Daily News Half Marathon which was to
take place on Sunday January 17th. One year of
training from running four miles on a Sunday and
working my way up to an eventual 10 mile run
which I completed this past December, I knew I
was ready. On January 15th I picked up my official
entry form along with my race number. The five
friends who were going to run with me or should
I say they were going to accommodate me because
they were all much faster than I was, were already
giving me encouragement which I really didn’t
need, well maybe I did, but I pretended I didn’t.
Saturday night, the weather forecast was not good
at all, actually it was a little scary for January.
Tornados had decimated some homes just north of
us in the Fort Myers area a few days prior, and as I truck and we went out to assess the damage, which was substantial. Luckily
went to bed that night around 9:30 p.m. I had an
uncomfortable feeling about the pending weather
for Sunday. I dozed off but never fully fell asleep
and around 4:00 a.m. the wind was howling and
the rain was starting to pelt the windows in sheets, and yes it’s the same Code Red that just woke up half of Naples at 2:30 a.m.,
one after another.
My thoughts took me back to October 23rd,
2005 when I was the Mayor and hurricane Wilma
was about to hit us. That October day was a
beautiful sunny day and we had been warning our
citizens to get prepared because by all indications
we were going to get hammered by this impending
hurricane. I knew we were in trouble when the
Weather Channel’s Meteorologist Stephanie
Abrams showed up here. I’m standing on the
Naples Pier asking people to please pack up and
leave, and folks are sitting on the beach applying
sun tan lotion and looking at me and our police
officers that were trying to help like we were on
drugs. Nobody believed us, but the police made
it clear that they were serious and the beachgoers
took it seriously and left. I had made arrangements
for my wife Chris to head out to the Vineyards
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where some friends of ours from North Carolina had
a condo that was high and dry and said we could use.
At the time we had two bulldogs so she packed them
up and headed out there. Fast forward and now it’s
about 9:00 p.m. and I made sure our house was locked
up and secure and I headed down to City Hall where
I planned to spend the night and I did.The City went
on lock down about 10:00 p.m., and our citizens were
warned that there would be no emergency services
because it would be too dangerous for any personnel
to venture out. It was as eerie a feeling as I’ve ever
had, but we had an emergency generator that worked at City Hall and my
phone was working. It rang constantly and the callers throughout the night
were news media from all over the country calling to get updates. The only
thing I could tell them was what I saw from my window which wasn’t much,
and quell rumors that Naples had floated away! We survived and early the next
morning my City Manager came and picked me up in a four-wheel drive city
there were no serious injuries but there was no power and it was going to
be a long time before it would be restored. For the prior six months I had
been working with the director of our technology department Steve Weeks,
They had a new program that had never been tried before called “Code Red”
which really shouldn’t have happened. Anyway we were ready to try it and I
had prerecorded a message that went out to all citizens in the City and some
in the County, we had hoped it would work and it did. Each day for five days
I dialed in to a special number and recorded a message so our residents would
know an up to date status report of all information that I had. It was a blessing
to those who were powerless other than their phones. To this day people come
up to me and say they still remember my messages and thank me. I was just
glad it was successful.
So getting back to the morning of the 17th, of course the Half Marathon
was canceled as it should have been, power was out for many, and again we were
lucky that there were no serious injuries. Of course this was no comparison to
Wilma, but scary just the same! I’ve lived in the City for 43 years and have
never seen weather like this in Naples in January. We need a break!
March 15th is not only Presidential Primary Day, but it is our City Council
election day. Three Mayoral Candidates for the Mayor’s seat and six City
Council candidates for three Council seats. It is important that you get out and
vote! Your vote does count!
I do respond to e-mails at Mayornaples@aol.com
Life in Naples | March 2016