Re: Was Jim now paychecks

I'm sure they will be welcome and, if they've never dealt with a disaster before, educated.

On Monday, September 6, 2004, at 06:47 PM, Kitty wrote:

Sounds like some people get hit twice - the hurricane and the aftermath.
I'm just thinking about all the people who lose so much and then there job
is gone too. The Indiana Red Cross is signing people up now to go down and
help for 2-3 week shifts.

Kitty

----- Original Message -----
From: "james singer" <jsinger@igc.org>
To: <gardenchat@hort.net>
Sent: Monday, September 06, 2004 3:47 PM
Subject: Re: [CHAT] Was Jim now paychecks


Charley came through on, I think, a Saturday. At the nursery, on
Thursday, we moved all the computers to "safe" rooms, which meant there
was nothing for those of us in the bean-counting department to do on
Friday. So they gave us a "hurricane holiday" with pay--because, I
think, we wanted to but policy decisions made it impossible for us to
do so. As you know, on this one, we just wasted a 3-day weekend with
paid holiday.

Ms. Fatma, the Montessori teacher, is on salary. She would get paid if
the whole state blew away.

But this is largely an area of low-paid unskilled and semi-skilled
laborers--people who clean other people's bathrooms or swimming pools,
or mow lawns, work as construction grunts, or are other bottom feeders
attracted by the needs of a large older population. It's a terrible
place to look for a job because the jobs are almost universally
terrible and the pay is universally terrible and without benefits for
the most part.

So when something like this happens, large numbers of people are either
temporarily unemployed or they freelance and join the looters and
scammers. When Charley ripped through Punta Gorda it became clear that
it turned into a race between law enforcement and the scammers who
began working the wrecked neighborhoods, offering to help people file
their insurance claims or repair their roofs or replace their windows.

Florida's always been a state that fosters questionable business
practices, going back at least to the land scams of the 50s and 60s. It
hasn't changed much since then.

On Monday, September 6, 2004, at 04:29 PM, Kitty wrote:

Jim, What happens to the paycheck when all this is going on, if I may
ask?
Not just yours and Ms Fatma's, but a lot of people down there. It
can't be
"business as usual". There must be normal workdays when people can't
get in
to work or their place of work has floated away. You mentioned your
company
working overtime on cleanup for some of your clients earlier and right
now
it's a holiday weekend so you woudn't have been working anyway, but I
can't
help but feel anxious for people about these difficulties.

From all the pictures you've posted and the beautiful plants you've
talked
about, it sounds like paradise, but I just don't think I could deal
with
your hurricane season.

Kitty

----- Original Message -----
From: "james singer" <jsinger@igc.org>
To: <gardenchat@hort.net>
Sent: Monday, September 06, 2004 1:04 PM
Subject: Re: [CHAT] Jim


Feels like I've been under house arrest for the last 3 days. Winds
have
mostly subsided now, with only occasional 20-25 MPH gusts and very
little rain. Nothing here destroyed as near as I can tell. Only a
couple of plants in pots got tipped over but none broken.

Those in the path of the eye weren't so lucky. Lots of damage in that
path. Tampa Bay has some pretty scary storm surge right now. And I
guess it's about to raise hob in the panhandle and Alabama.

Very different storm than Charley. Frances, like Jabba the Hutt,
seemed
to get too big to move. By next Saturday, we'll have a better idea
what
Ivan is going to do.

On Monday, September 6, 2004, at 10:04 AM, Donna wrote:

Jim do you think the size is what is causing the stall and amount of
moisture it is dropping? Thinking it can still be picking up more
moisture from both ends of it as those are still over water bodies?

Are you still ok down there?

Donna

Just saw a graphic on the tube. Frances has a diameter of 366 miles,
so
while it's parked over the state, a considerable amount of her hangs
off both sides.

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Island Jim
Southwest Florida
27.0 N, 82.4 W
Zone 10a
Minimum 30 F [-1 C]

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Island Jim
Southwest Florida
27.0 N, 82.4 W
Zone 10a
Minimum 30 F [-1 C]

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Island Jim
Southwest Florida
27.0 N, 82.4 W
Zone 10a
Minimum 30 F [-1 C]

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