Hurricane Ian shows united human spirit: What if we all acted like that daily? | Opinion

As I approached Citrus Elementary School south of Vero Beach, it seemed like a regular Thursday: Yellow school zone lights were flashing.

But it was obvious it was not a normal day.

The campus was empty.

Traffic was light.

It was unusually windy, and I had to watch for debris — mostly palm fronds and small branches — in the middle of the road.

There were unconfirmed reports from out-of-state media claiming hundreds of people had died in Southwest Florida in the wake of Hurricane Ian.

And I was headed over the Alma Lee Loy Bridge to check on the impact of tropical storm-force winds on Vero Beach.

I stopped on the east side of the bridge, put my flashers on and shot a Weather Channel-esque video overlooking white caps in the Indian River Lagoon.

As I sat in my car tweeting it, Vero Beach Police Sgt. Brad Kmetz startled me. He came to my window and asked if I needed help. We had a nice conversation before I headed to Club Drive.

I pulled over there to shoot a muddy Sandfly Lane littered with detritus. As I stood outside my car tweeting, a couple in a pickup asked if they could help.

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Leadership can start on Twitter

Someone else asked if I needed help trying to photograph what City Manager Monte Falls said was a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration buoy that washed up next to an exposed stormwater pipe about 5 feet below the dune at Sexton Plaza.

When I got to my office, I finally had a chance to catch up on the news via Twitter.

There was Gov. Ron DeSantis displaying the kind of humble servant leadership I remember from him when he was first elected. He was near Ground Zero, thanking linemen and other government workers for helping Floridians in a dire time of need.

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Humanity, humility powerful

Even Christina Pushaw, “director of rapid response” for his re-election campaign, tweeted empathetically.

DeSantis and Pushaw, the governor’s former press secretary and pit bull, have troubled even some Republicans with sometimes insensitive, callous tweets and comments in the past about their political enemies.

It’s remarkable how people can change the way they act in trying times like the aftermath of a hurricane.

It’s not a red or blue phenomenon. It’s a human one. History has shown that when faced with a great attack, this one from Mother Nature, we unite, working together to help each other.

Post-Ian — just like in the days after the 2021 Champlain Towers South building collapse that killed almost 100 people in Surfside — leaders like DeSantis and President Joe Biden step up to support each other.

They pledge rescues of and relief for victims and their families. They support first responders and pledge financial aid.

Days or weeks later, things get back to the ugly normal: finger-pointing about this or that; new red and blue talking points. After collaboration at Surfside, politics degraded in all sorts of ways, on all sorts of issues, from the federal level on down.

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Get beyond culture war issues

In local communities, some school board members were accused of being criminals or pedophiles by neighbors complaining about books in school libraries. Arguments began again about books long-ago deemed appropriate, such as “Of Mice and Men,” “1984,” and “To Kill a Mockingbird.” To support complainants, states such as Florida passed laws.

I won’t drone on about the various “culture war” issues politicians and news organizations have spent too many words on at the cost of covering more pervasive and impactful problems in our communities: homelessness, affordable housing, opioid addiction, government spending, inflation, immigration, entitlement reform, etc.

Unfortunately, solutions for those issues are not what the red and blue teams want to talk about and work together to solve.

It shouldn’t take one of the worst hurricanes ever to unite a region, state or nation to help people in need. Ian has been tragic — with most of the damage coming within hours — but we have smaller tragedies every day in every community.

All too rarely do we address the latter.

I'm confident local, state and national leaders will help communities victimized by Ian recover. I pray we can help people whose lives have been permanently altered, then draw from lessons we’ve learned from Ian to prepare for the next Big One.

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The Treasure Coast has been relatively lucky. We’ve never seen anything like Ian, and I hope we never do. While some of us remember the damage of hurricanes Frances and Jeanne in 2004, few were around for David in 1979.

It was nothing compared to Ian.

Let’s not forget our friends on the west coast. Let’s unite as neighbors to plan for the worst here, in case it’s ever our turn.

Until then, let’s build bridges to solve major community problems. Burning bridges now won’t help when we need each other later.

Let's all commit to making humility and humanity part of a regular day, too.

This column reflects the opinion of Laurence Reisman. Contact him via email at larry.reisman@tcpalm.com, phone at 772-978-2223, Facebook.com/larryreisman or Twitter @LaurenceReisman

This article originally appeared on Treasure Coast Newspapers: Hurricane Ian shows we're all in this together; what if? | Opinion