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More Hurricane 2006

• Storm fatigue: Prepared but spared thus far
• Collier in ‘emergency’ mode, Lee ‘prepared’ for Ike
• FEMA relief aids in Tropical Storm Fay yard debris cleanup

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Reprinted from the Nov. 1, 2005 edition

Sometime after the disaster managers shift out of crisis mode, they'll form a list of lessons learned from Hurricane Wilma.

They'll examine their performance and make adjustments for the next time. A lot of what they come up with will be the sort of technical stuff applicable only to them.

But there are lessons the rest of us can take from Wilma as well. Things the professionals already know and that they've been trying to tell us for years but that only really sink in when a possibility becomes reality.

Lessons such as:

• Collier County is not immune from hurricanes. Forty-five years of near-misses and false alarms couldn't help but foster a sense that Collier County, through some fluke of geography or oceanography, was protected from a direct hit. But Wilma proved that a hurricane can rev up in the Gulf of Mexico for an unimpeded run at the Southwest Florida coast.

• Land doesn't necessarily weaken a storm. The notion that an Atlantic storm wouldn't do as much damage in Collier County because the trip across the state would sap its strength gained credence during Andrew, which hit Dade County as a Category 5 storm but was a Category 3 when it entered the Gulf of Mexico. But ask the folks in Broward and Palm Beach counties. A Category 3 on one coast can still be a Category 3 on the opposite coast.

• The Andrew codes worked. After Andrew hit in 1992, destroying pretty much everything in its path through Dade County, municipalities around the state, including Collier County, adopted tougher building codes. Another round of code revisions statewide in 2002 called for even stronger buildings. The surprisingly low amount of structural damage seen around Collier County after Wilma is evidence that the codes are effective. With so much growth over the past decade, much of what you see in Collier County has been built since the Andrew codes were put in place.

• We are an electric society. Wilma allowed plenty of time to prepare. Stocks of food, water and gasoline were available prior to the storm. As a rule, people weren't going hungry or thirsty, they weren't stranded on roofs or pinned in shelters.

The power companies, which operate as government-sanctioned monopolies, owe it to their customers to bring service on line as quickly as possible and to take steps to minimize future storm-related outages. When the dust settles from Wilma, a summit meeting between city and county leaders and power company executives to examine those goals is warranted.

The worst part of Wilma, for most people, was the lack of electricity. In many sections of the county, no power means no running water. Air conditioning, refrigeration and hot showers are luxuries we take for granted. Imagine how much worse Wilma would have been if the ensuing days had been 90 degrees and humid.

• There's no substitute for being prepared. Wilma wasn't a worst case, but it's as close as any of us should ever care to get. In the final analysis, Collier County will be deemed to have weathered a major storm fairly well. That should be taken as an impetus to prepare for the next storm, as opposed to an excuse to slacken off.