Secretary's Message

Hurricane Wilma Recovery

Employees in southern Florida are starting to recover from Hurricane Wilma. The Category 3 storm tore across the state on October 23. Regional Director Marta Villacorta, Community Corrections Regional Director Joyce Haley, Deputy Regional Director Valerie Rolle and their employees are facing a mammoth task.

DC strike teams and individuals from institutions and probation offices all over the state are assisting fellow employees. Thanks to all of you, public safety was never compromised.

As South Florida cleans up and repairs damage, basic functions such as obtaining cash, filling up with gasoline, making a phone call and finding something for lunch are still unusually complicated.

The whole society suffers from these storms. The Associated Press reported on October 27 that the number of people who lost their jobs because of hurricanes Katrina and Rita has now climbed above the half-million mark, with increases expected in coming weeks from Hurricane Wilma.

Weather experts declared Wilma the strongest hurricane on record due to the extremely low pressure measured in the center. In Broward, the damage was sweeping. Authorities called Wilma the worst storm to hit that county since Hurricane King in 1950. On October 25, the Miami Herald reported south Florida was paralyzed by a storm-inflicted blackout that gripped more than 90 percent of the region.

In addition to Miami-Dade County, also heavily impacted were Palm Beach County, the Florida Keys and portions of Southwest Florida, especially rural Glades and Hendry counties. According to CNN Officials, an estimated 60 percent of homes there were flooded.

Very little went unaffected in the region. Institutions hard hit included Hendry, Glades, Broward and Dade Correctional Institutions. The storm tore off roofs, destroyed at least four staff homes and damaged countless others, downed fences and flooded compounds.

Probation offices were damaged and without power. The air conditioners were blown off the roof at the probation office in Key West and water was waist high in the elevator shaft. On October 26, Miami's mayor said out of 2,600 traffic lights there, just 18 were working.

Some employees left their own damaged homes to report to work at prisons and probation offices only to find roads impassable.

Widespread power outages still exist, but progress is being made. The Miami Herald reported Monday Florida Power & Light estimates that 95 percent of the utility's customers who lost power in Hurricane Wilma will have electricity by Nov. 8.

Keep our fellow citizens and DC family members in your thoughts and prayers in the weeks and months ahead.

James V. Crosby, Jr.
Secretary