Brighton Community Hit Hard by Hurricanes

Preschool building suffers extensive damage

By Susan Etxebarria

BRIGHTON — At the Brighton reservation, the impact of the last two hurricanes, Frances and Jeanne, are estimated to cost millions in damages to buildings and houses. Hurricane Jeanne, causing the most damage, hit the reservation in the early morning hours on Sunday Sept. 26.

“ We have damage upon damage,” said Housing Director Michele Thomas, three days after Jeanne hit. “We can’t even get patched up from one before the next one hits.”

Thomas said approximately 25 generators were placed in homes of residents who were in need of electrical service; first on the list were senior citizens and the medically impaired. The electric outages lasted eight days for some residents served by Florida Power & Light at the north end of the reservation.

For the residents of this beautifully planned reservation, the destruction of vital structures, including the gymnasium that doubles as an auditorium, a meeting place and banquet hall; the field office where tribal communication begins and resources are allocated; and the $2.6 million preschool, the children’s place for receiving the best possible educational start in the world, are major losses.

All these structures symbolized the good life enjoyed by more than 200 families, a life that they all worked for, desired and planned for many years. It means having to start community development all over again; something the elders are used to doing and the young ones will have to experience.

Now the tribal citizens face difficult challenges ahead and the dedicated staff in many departments must adapt to the frustrating relocation to less desirable working environments. Portables may be installed for the short term to be used for pre-school but for now classes are being held at the auditorium at the cattle and agriculture building.

After Hurricane Jeanne, Brighton gym was condemned for use by Federal Emergency Management Agency authorities. There is a huge hole in the roof and inside the gym you can look directly at the sky. The preschool building was flooded during Frances and major structural deficiencies were discovered then. Jeanne, with winds above 110 miles an hour, only made problems worse. The building was condemned.

The field office is partially usable, but the roof over the kitchen and lunchroom and several offices are destroyed. The administration offices may have to be rebuilt.

Richard Osceola, director of the recreation center, whose staff has been forced to move their offices into the youth center for possibly the next six months, was optimistic.

“ At least we still have the use of the skate park and the swimming pool,” he said.

Meanwhile Michele Thomas has spent more hours at Brighton due to both hurricanes than she has in her offices at Hollywood. She reported lots of houses are suffering from leaks, damaged carpets and furniture.

“ The blue tarps we put on damaged roofs after Frances were not strong enough and blew off during Jeanne,” she said.

The impact of these hurricanes has also made Brighton Tribal Council Representative Roger Smith re-think what is needed on the reservation.

“ This is the first time we have experienced something like this, two hurricanes back to back,” said Smith. “And, from what we experienced, now we know we will want to build a hurricane shelter.”

One of the first things noticeable in Brighton about 48 hours post-Jeanne was the standing water in people’s yards; the sheets of water in pastures and fields where the low-lying lands are slow to drain. How much worse it would have been had not the tribe invested in drainage systems years ago.

In a1946 hurricane, the Brighton reservation was evacuated after heavy flooding. The Red Cross set up a temporary camp near Okeechobee City, Fla. Thankfully, Brighton is now prepared with safer housing and equipped for swift response in any crisis.

As far as the cattle operations are concerned, Don Robertson, director of natural resources, reported that fences were down in the pastures, mineral boxes were torn up, the hay barn at the St. Thomas place blew down and there was lots of standing water. He said ditches would have to be cleaned out so they can drain.

The reservation was littered with debris, twisted sheets of aluminum off mobile homes and buildings, shards from sheds, and unrecognizable pieces of structures lay crumpled on the grounds; signs were blown down or leaning, even a few chickees lost their supports and had fallen like cakes to the ground. But, it only took a matter of days for most of the debris to disappear.

Maintenance crews, volunteers, staffers were hard at work on Monday Sept. 20, trying to restore the landscape of the reservation back to its normal order.