Submitted by Lynn Williams
City Commission Candidate Group 1
What do you see as the biggest threat facing the city of Fernandina Beach today, and how should the city address it?
In these contentious times . . . throughout the world . . . it is easy to forget that the biggest threat to Fernandina Beach is still a hurricane, worse, if it makes landfall from the East, at high tide, at night. There is nothing the city can do to prevent such an occurrence. Because of this and because we have not had a major storm hit the island in nearly 50 years, it is easy to forget that the possibility even exists. What we need to have are plans in place for shelters, and, in coordination with the county, plans for an orderly island evacuation as well as re-entry. We ought to have an idea as to what the recovery might look like, though naturally, the actual recovery would be dictated by the severity of the storm, and the extent of damage. We need to maintain our reserves and work to increase them.
Next to the unforgiving force of nature, our other problems or threats seem small. At the very least, they are made by humans, and hence, should be solvable by humans.
Editor’s Note: This is the first of four questions in a series posed to candidates for the Fernandina Beach City Commission. The answers come to our readers unedited and in the candidates own words. We rotate the order of candidates from day to day. The candidates who have qualified are David B. Austin, Andrew Curtin, Johnny Miller, and Lynn Williams. The Fernandina Observer does not endorse candidates.
October 18, 2013 12:30 p.m.