Hurricane Andrew and Hurricane Trump, Lessons Learned

California has its San Andreas fault and is prone to earthquakes and the occasional plate shaker.  Kansas is in tornado alley and once a year around holiday time Dorthy is blown away to Oz.  South Florida hangs beckoningly into the Atlantic and dares hurricanes to test their strength.  My first home in Florida was built right after WWII and was of traditional CBS or concrete block and stucco construction.  The roof trusses were built on-site by carpenters who knew how to use a framing square to calculate roof pitch.  The trusses were topped with tongue-in-groove planks nailed to those trusses and topped with tar paper and heavy cement tiles.  Our second home built in 1959 used pre-fab trusses that used gang nails at joints and these were topped with plywood and the usual tarpaper and cement tiles.  

My current home was built by an old-school builder who followed the same roof techniques that we saw back in 1959 albeit with an asphalt shingle top.  The development right next door to mine was not built the same way.  The "builder" had no license but "rented" one from a business in the Bahamas that got a license for Florida.  Their construction was shoddy, they used substandard materials, and they didn't follow code.  Inspectors were either blind or paid to be myopic.

Hurricane Andrew in blue/orange
Hurricane Trump in red
TBD which disaster did the most damage.

South Florida has some of the most stringent building codes in America. They are sometimes used as a model for other states with coastal exposure to hurricanes. Those strict codes were in place in August of 1992 when hurricane Andrew violated all the normal “rules” that previous hurricanes had followed. Hurricane Andrew came in from the east, was a mostly dry hurricane with less than 14 inches of rain, had gusts recorded up to 177mph, killed 44 people in Florida, and left behind a record $25 billion in damage.  My home suffered comparatively minor damage while the previously mentioned nearby development had major failures.

Damage from 1992 Hurricane Andrew
Building codes were not enforced and were inadequate.

Those “stringent” building codes were put to the test and they were found wanting. The codes of 1992 weren’t strong enough to protect South Floridians from Hurricane Andrew. It was also found that many builders and developers didn’t comply with the codes as they were written. Some cut corners to save money and inspectors were lax with their enforcement. The population explosion of the 70s and 80s brought shortcuts in construction. The community of Country Walk had been built with cheap wafer plywood where roofing was held on with staples instead of nails. That development was destroyed while others survived.

Within two years of Hurricane Andrew, the South Florida Building Code was updated to focus on wind resistance and roof integrity. The revised building code was now strictly enforced. Floridians had learned a hard lesson and responded accordingly.

In 2016, America suffered from another foul wind in the form of Donald J. Trump. He blew in from New York as a massive low-pressure system filled with hot air and won the presidency. Like his predecessor Hurricane Andrew, he did not “play by the rules,” he also didn’t follow established principles of decorum, if policies or laws were unwritten, they didn’t exist, and those laws that did exist were mere suggestions because he was president and king of all that he surveyed. This country had never seen the likes of Donald J Trump.

Before Hurricane Donald, people assumed that all persons occupying the Oval Office would be reasonably intelligent humans who would continue with the traditions and the playbook that had been “written” over our 200+ years of existence as a beacon of democracy. But to Hurricane Donald, laws, rules, and traditions were of no consequence as he bragged on January 23, 2016, that he could "stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot somebody" and not "lose any voters." He was above the law.

Above the law

Not since Julius and Ethel Rosenberg has our national security been so damaged as it has been under Hurricane Trump. We will never know why this president wanted to steal classified documents we just know that he never does anything unless there is a profit in the foreseeable future. He was famous for never reading anything longer than a tweet, so those classified documents weren’t for his own edification. Trump regularly made unsecured phone calls that compromised national security. He called his US ambassador to the EU in Kyiv to discuss his desire to move forward with investigations into Joe Biden. Others in the restaurant heard both ends of the conversation and you must imagine Russia was on that party line.

What's his name with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov
and Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak.

Trump regularly confided in foreign “strong men” leaders as he did in 2017 when he passed highly classified intelligence to Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak. That conversation jeopardized a human intelligence source. Trump also used security clearances as either gifts or punishment. Son-in-law Kushner got a top-secret clearance against the advice of his security office, and he took away the security clearance of former CIA Director John Brennan as punishment for his critical remarks.

Image of documents recovered from Mar a Lago
Trump had stolen public records and government property.
There were Top Secret/Sensitive Compartmented Information (need to know)
 documents that are not to be used outside special facilities.

Hurricane Trump has further damaged national security by politicizing the declassification of documents. He ordered the declassification of all documents relating to the FBI’s ongoing investigation into the Trump campaign’s ties to Russia. This would include interviews with sources and the text messages of his perceived personal enemies such as former FBI Director James Comey, former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe, former FBI investigators Peter Strzok and Lisa Page, and Justice Department official Bruce Ohr.

Trump’s personal lawyer and former cybersecurity advisor was none other than the infamous Rudy Giuliani. It was Rudy G. in his capacity as Trump's personal envoy who often butt-dialed reporters and left revealing voice messages. Trump also violated security protocols by tweeting, and thereby instantly declassifying, high-resolution imagery of an Iranian space facility damaged in an “accident.”

Trump's ego was more important than national security.
This hi resolution image from Iran gave up valuable data
and taunted the Iranians.

 

Trump and his family regularly used personal cell phones and email accounts to communicate with government officials. Hurricane Trump has been an intelligence bonanza for foreign intelligence agents as he treats our top secrets as casually as a plate of ketchup-topped French fries delivered air mail to the nearest wall.

Bill of Rights, have some Freedom Fries with ketchup!

Hurricane Andrew started out as a tropical depression off the coast of Africa. Hurricane Trump started out as an abomination in the City of New York before blowing through Washington DC and later moving on to Palm Beach, Florida. Hurricane Andrew caused catastrophic damage across the Bahamas, Florida, and Louisiana. Hurricane Trump caused devastating damage across the entire nation and much of the world.

Just as South Florida revised and began strict enforcement of its building code, perhaps it is time to re-think the laws and powers of the presidency. We should learn from the recent blunders, mistakes, and outright violations of our existing laws and realize that we need to reign in or at least better define what it means to be a proper president in the United States. We can no longer trust that traditions, protocols, and laws that are either vaguely defined or have been left unenforceable, will keep another careless authoritarian from playing fast and loose with our national security and our democracy.

----------------------------

Postscript 1:  Hurricane Andrew was the only hurricane since the 40s I did not witness firsthand as I was out of town on business in Texas.  In what I assumed would be a normal check-in phone call home, Sue told me she was amazed the phones were still working as she was hunkered down in her walk-in closet with four others.  I had not even heard about this hurricane.  Before I was able to leave Texas I called to see what, if anything, they needed.  Everyone was in desperate need of generators and chainsaws.

I made a trip to the local hardware store and bought a small portable generator and a chainsaw.  I was able to check the generator as baggage and the chainsaw was my carry-on.  Yes, pre-911 I was able to walk onto a flight carrying a chainsaw.  Both the generator and the chainsaw were used around my neighborhood which was now barely recognizable.  Much the same as our country is today.

Postscript 2:  I have held federal, state, and local jobs in the government.  All government employees know that the removal or destruction of ANY government property can get you in serious trouble.  It is a simple rule that is easy to understand.  I held a Secret clearance in the Navy that required a simple background check by the FBI and they visited a few neighbors to vouch for my character.  I would venture a guess that there are elected officials who, if it weren't for their elected status, would not pass a background check.  I would include former President Donald Trump in that group.