Whether through damaged second homes, volunteering to rebuild lives or simply relating to the stresses placed on emergency responders, Leelanau County is not immune to the effects of two powerful hurricanes that barreled through Florida.
“This one looks like it’s going to be a direct hit,” said Bill Carlson, who with his wife, Jennifer, has a home in Florida.. “Sarasota hasn’t had a direct hit since the 1970s, and they are saying this is the hurricane of a century.”
The Carlsons, who now reside in the Glen Lake area, have a winter home south of Sarasota just about where Hurricane Milton was predicted to land some time last night. They consider themselves lucky in that Hurricane Helene, which flooded adjacent Siesta Key, left their home on the Gulf IntraCoastal Waterway relatively unscathed.
They don’t anticipate the same result from Milton, which at one point reached Category 5 status. A storm surge of 12 to 15 feet has been forecast, which if true would surely flood the Carlson home “We had people go to our place (Tuesday) morning to get things up off the floor … it’s worrisome. A lot of people didn’t lose their homes with Helene, but everything inside was destroyed. If (our home) doesn’t survive this, we’ll think of something else,” Carlson said.
The Carlsons have family in the area as son Asher is a professor at the University of South Florida and his wife, Nickie, works for the county. Jennifer’s sister is an administrator for a rehab facility in nearby Bradenton. “Starting tonight she has to begin sleeping at the facility for the safety of the patients,” Jennifer said.
Emergency Management director Matt Ansorge does not expect that responders from Leelanau will be requested to help victims of severe flooding in Appalachia.
“Michigan typically gets asked later in the process,” Ansorge explained. “They exhaust resources around them before they reach out to Michigan. Not that it hasn’t happened. Many years ago when the hurricane went through New Orleans, quite a few teams went down there.”
News reports state that more than 220 people died and hundreds were unaccounted for after Helene struck the big bend region of Florida and pounded its way into the Appalachian Mountains. Along the way she caused epic flooding, destroyed whole communities and cut off communication and power.
On Helene’s heels is Hurricane Milton, at one time a Category 5 storm.
“Man, (emergency managers) are earning their money right now. Just having their plans in place and keeping their response in line to be eligible for as much federal money that they can recover, keeping all that in place, is no simple task … that’s quite heavy lifting,” Ansorge said.
It’s those times of need when emergency responders are most treasured, although their pay doesn’t budge.
“Typically they aren’t compensated well. They do it for a sense of service. They want to help their community,” Ansorge said.
He reflected upon the straightline winds brought by a sudden thunderstorm that reached 100 mph in 2016 in Glen Arbor.
“Every emergency starts local and ends local. In Glen Arbor, the work started with the township, to the county, to the state and back to the county. And then it went back to Glen Arbor.. That’s a long process, and it all ends local,” Ansorge said.
Nancy and Fred Elmore of Bingham Township are steady volunteers during emergencies throughout the country. On Tuesday Fred was contacted while helping to repair a tornado- damaged home near Kalamazoo through the United Methodist Committees on Relief (UMCOR).
He was working alongside Dave Speicher, also a member of Keswick United Methodist Church. They were sleeping on cots set up in the auditorium of the Prince of Peace Lutheran Church.
Elmore expects that eventually he’ll be traveling to Appalachia to rebuild homes ravaged by the floods of Helene.
“A lot of people tend to fly in right away with water, and they hang around mucking (homes) for awhile. But it takes a long time to put everything back together,” Elmore said.
His advice to people who want to help is to make donations now to recognized organizations such as the American Red Cross, Samaritan’s Purse or UMCOR, then be available when calls go out to resurrect communities.
“If you’re fired up right now, stay fired up because this will take a long time,” he said.
He recalls while on a mission trip to Mayfield, Kentucky, hearing a preacher reflect on the meanness of some storms.
Elmore recited the cleric: “I don’t know what it is, but the poorer you are, the more likely you are to be slapped around by bad weather.’”
