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Janae Pierre: Okay, folks, it's Wednesday and you're with us on The Takeaway. I'm Janae Pierre and thanks for spending a little time with us today.
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Janae Pierre: Last Wednesday, Hurricane Ian slammed into Southwest Florida and made landfall near Fort Myers as a category 4 storm, causing severe storm surge and flooding. Early projections of Ian's destruction estimate that the storm has created tens of billions of dollars in damage across Florida. Ian is tied for the fifth strongest Hurricane by wind speed in US history. Its strength puts it alongside other recent hurricanes in the Gulf Coast like Ida and Laura. Although several communities were hit by the hurricane, Fort Myers and Sanibel Island in Lee County were among the hardest hit.
At a press conference on Tuesday, the Lee County Sheriff confirmed 55 deaths in the county, which is more than half of the total deaths in the state. Nearly 180,000 customers are still without power. School is still closed in the county for the rest of the week. Now that storm waters have receded, these communities are looking ahead at recovery. In Lee County, roads were turned into rubble, decades-old trees were uprooted, houses were damaged or destroyed and boats were carried by strong winds and left on Fort Myers Beach. Here's Senator Marco Rubio talking on CNN State of the Union about the damage left by Ian.
Senator Marco Rubio: Some of these Fort Myers Beach, Sanibel, they'll never look the same again. These communities have basically been wiped out.
Janae Pierre: As we've learned in the past, not all communities are equally equipped to deal with devastation after a hurricane. In November 2020 report, FEMA's own advisors admitted that the agency wasn't meeting requirements to provide aid without discriminating based on race and other factors. One of President Biden's first goals was to change that. Early in office, he signed an executive order that mandated federal agencies to create racial equity both in new and existing policies. In the community of Dunbar, a historically Black neighborhood in Fort Myers, about a quarter of its residents live below the federal poverty line, and many are still concerned that they won't get the recovery assistance they need. For more on this, I'm joined now by Florida State Representative Michele Rayner-Goolsby of District 70. Welcome to The Takeaway, representative.
Michele Rayner-Goolsby: Thank you so much, Janae. I'm happy to be here.
Janae Pierre: You have family members in Fort Myers, I'd like to start by asking how they're doing.
Michele Rayner-Goolsby: They are doing okay. They live, some in Dunbar, which is a predominantly Black area, Harlem Heights which is another Black area, which was very hard-hit and in Lehigh Acres. They're doing okay, definitely, they have been without power and those kinds of things but we're really blessed that for all in all they have their life and they're rebuilding.
Janae Pierre: You mentioned going out to Dunbar and Harlem Heights and you delivered supplies in those hard-hit communities. What did you see there and hear from residents when you went there?
Michele Rayner-Goolsby: We went to Harlem Heights on this past Sunday. Then we went to Dunbar as well. We started in Harlem Heights, I have to tell you pictures don't prepare you for what I saw. When we were riding through this area, the pastor I was with who is a lifelong Fort Myers native said, "This is Florida's Katrina." At that time, those residents and it was mostly Black and brown folks and farmworkers, they hadn't seen any electeds, they hadn't seen any state intervention, any state agencies and especially when we got to Dunbar, they were actually waiting on us to deliver items to even start off their relief efforts. It was telling because at one of the locations, my team, a state representative from two hours North got there before the Red Cross in one of these areas. It was complete devastation, people are really trying to figure out how they are going to rebuild.
Janae Pierre: Hurricane Ian impacted many different communities in Southwest Florida. What makes communities like Dunbar and Harlem Heights especially vulnerable to hurricanes?
Michele Rayner-Goolsby: I think that you already have folks in those communities as you stated earlier in Dunbar, you have a quarter of people living below the federal poverty line but also, these are our working class people, these are "our essential workers", these are our teachers, our bus drivers, our city workers, people who may not be able to afford to miss a paycheck, people who need to make sure that their children have childcare and need to make sure their children are able to go to school because they have to work and they have to feed their families.
You're already dealing with folks who are, as many of us are, just really trying to make it. When you have a hurricane that comes in and that does the type of damage that Ian has done and we have a state in which we live in that we have a complete housing affordability problem, we have a home insurance issue or crisis, we have a food insecurity. This just compounds all the things that we're dealing with. When I was talking to people, people didn't even have access to their insulin, and I had to call SEIU, a union and they were able to get folks down there to make sure folks had just basic medicine. We're literally watching people, Black and brown folks in real-time trying to rebuild their life back.
Janae Pierre: These people you spoke with, I'm sure that they're pointing out the gaps between the government's relief efforts based on the community affected in this natural disaster. I'm wondering just why these gaps exist in the first place.
Michele Rayner-Goolsby: Here's the thing, Janae, I have been Black in America for 41 years. I'm a very young 41, just turned 41 last week. I have been Black in America and a Black queer woman in America for all my life. The gaps exist because that's how the system is made to work, for them to exist. We have the ability to close these gaps. This is not a lack of resources question, it is an intentional policy decision that is made by a Republican-led legislature in the state of Florida, and a Republican governor in the state of Florida who's more concerned about running for president while people have lauded his hurricane response, there have been some, I think, rightful criticisms of how he's responding in his campaign gear and how he's posing for photo ops instead of really aiding folks that need help.
I know that I've spoken to other officials who represent parts of Harlem Heights and Dunbar and they were embarrassed and upset that I got there before them. I said, "Listen, you should know your district. I don't know what to tell you," or "Can you introduce me to my constituents?" "No, I cannot." That lets me know that there's an intentional piece here that we're not closing the gaps. We're not focusing on some of the most marginalized and we're not also focusing on just working families. That is what this is about. These are working people who are living their lives, trying to raise their families, trying to make sure that they have what they need. We haven't done that pre-hurricane, it looks like we're not doing that post-hurricane.
Janae Pierre: With all that said, what are some of the ways that we can ensure everyone impacted by natural disasters, especially those who live below the poverty line are receiving equitable assistance in the recovery?
Michele Rayner-Goolsby: There's an organization here in Florida called Smile Trust that is led by Black women that actually is responsive to natural disasters specifically, helping Black and brown communities. There's also an organization called Florida Rising that has disaster efforts that they are actually collecting money. What happens is that they actually give microgrants to organizations on the ground such out and Smile Trust does that as well. Also, folks can reach out to me. I'm on Twitter, Michele, M-I-C-H-E-L-E for FL or they can email me. I think really what that means to the larger question, Janae, there has to be an intentional focus on an equitable recovery, adjust recovery for all of us.
An intentional focus means we know where our working families live, where the most marginalized folks live, we know where folks who live below the federal poverty line are at. There has to be an intentional focus on these communities as well. These communities cannot be an afterthought because you got embarrassed because you represent this district and folks are now noticing the inequitable response. It all comes down to intentionality.
Janae Pierre: FEMA has this history of leaving behind marginalized communities after natural disasters. I'm wondering, will it change this time?
Michele Rayner-Goolsby: I'm hopeful with a Democratic administration. People are sounding the alarm and we're letting them know that this can no longer stand. I'm hopeful there will be a better response but I got to tell you, in the days after Ian, I reached out to someone that had connected me to organizations on the ground. I said to her, I said, "Wow, my office got here before the Red Cross." She said to me, she said, "Michelle, it's really been the community taking care of the community."
Janae Pierre: Just last week, Congress passed a stopgap bill that will provide billions in FEMA recovery funds. Every Florida Republican in Congress voted against this bill. What would you say to those lawmakers now after Hurricane Ian?
Michele Rayner-Goolsby: You started this block off with Marco Rubio and I was in my head thinking, "This is rich because he missed the vote." He couldn't even bother to stick around to actually cast a vote for this. The Florida lawmakers and including one who is from that area who is from Fort Myers who represents Fort Myers proper and Harlem Heights and Dunbar and too is Black, there's no words to say. This is the kind of behavior that we see from Republican leadership in the Republicans in Florida. They talk out of both sides of their mouth. They want to call for recovery and doing all the things.
When you have the ability to make sure recovery can come to your home state, you vote against it because of some allegiance to Donald Trump or a middle finger to Joe Biden when ultimately we are public servants and it seems that those folks seem to be more concerned about being public and not about being a servant. For me, I'm not surprised but it's unconscionable behavior.
Janae Pierre: Representative, you're heading back to Fort Myers to deliver supplies. What challenges do you see in the coming days or weeks of recovery?
Michele Rayner-Goolsby: There are a lot of challenges. Right now, one of the needs that has developed is ice. One, making sure that utilities can get on, but making sure that there's recurring food. Also, one of the other things is that folks need air mattresses. The reason that they need air mattresses, specifically in Harlem Heights because they have their homes are uninhabitable. There was a home that I walked in and you could smell just the raw sewage. If they don't have family members or friends to stay with, or if they can't afford a hotel room, many folks are sleeping outside. What is the rebuilding process going to look like? How are insurance companies going to be fair and make sure that people get what they need to rebuild their home?
How long is that going to take because one, there is a bridge that is being built over to, I believe, Pine Island or Sanibel Island that's being built in a week. That's great. I'm so glad but if they can do that in a week for that island, what can we do for Harlem Heights and in Dunbar?
Janae Pierre: Florida State Representative Michele Rayner-Goolsby of District 70. Thank you so much for joining me on The Takeaway.
Michele Rayner-Goolsby: Thank you so much, Janae. It was good to be with you.
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