Focus on Manatee: Gratitude, commitment on full display since Hurricane Irma

Many of us are finally breathing a little easier after the preparation and recovery efforts – both for our families and our businesses – after Hurricane Irma.

As our community continues to move forward, the sentiment I’ve heard most often is one of gratitude. After seeing the catastrophic damage that Floridians to our south, Puerto Rico and many islands in the Caribbean are enduring, we are fortunate that we were spared what those communities will be dealing with for a long time to come.

So many entities came together to help us prepare and recover. At every turn, we saw government, non-profits, churches and businesses, as well as neighbors and co-workers, work together to take care of one another. I am grateful to the 30,000 linemen who left their families to come to Florida to restore power to almost 7 million people.

I applaud the enormous concern, care and hospitality that our county, cities and school district employees extended to residents and visitors alike, particularly in our shelters. The commitment of our first responders and health care personnel was amazing.

The devastation we’ve seen elsewhere with hurricanes Harvey, Irma and Maria tells us our challenges could have been infinitely worse. Still, there are residents, businesses and their employees who were impacted by the storm and need assistance.

Two possible sources of help:

• The Food for Florida program offers emergency food benefits to victims of hurricanes or other disasters. There are income and asset requirements. The Manatee County program will runs through Tuesday at Desoto Square mall from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. For more information or to pre-register, which is recommended, visit www.dcf.state.fl.us/programs/access/fff.
• The Florida Small Business Emergency Bridge Loan program can help by providing short-term, interest-free loans to small businesses that experienced physical or economic damage during the storm. Applications for this program and more information are online at www.floridadisasterloan.org.

The Manatee Chamber is proud to be a member of the County’s ESF-18 Business Recovery team and will continue to share recovery information. Our local Emergency Management network is analyzing preparation and recovery efforts to learn how to make them even better. The Chamber is committed to helping businesses fine-tune their disaster plans.

Gratitude and commitment – two words that embody a sense of community that has been the upside of the challenges we’ve faced during the past month.

This story was originally published October 15, 2017 at 8:35 AM with the headline "Focus on Manatee: Gratitude, commitment on full display since Hurricane Irma."