DEMOCRATS OF INDIAN RIVER
 

 

Democratic Women’s Club

 

Democratic Club of Indian River

The next Democratic Club Meeting is October 20^th
at 6 p.m. at the Heritage Center, 2140 14^th Ave. 
Vero Beach. [email protected]

 

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

 

 

Letters to the Editor links: 


TCPalm:
https://static.tcpalm.com/forms/?wid=q1jkscld1v7h87e

 

Hometown News:
https://www.hometownnewsirc.com/site/forms/online_services/letter_editor/


Vero News.com:

https://www.veronews.com/site/forms/online_services/letter/

or via email:

Vero Beach 32963, Vero News & Sebastian River:
[email protected]


 

FEDERAL

EPA Introduces Its Environmental Justice Office

When Dollie Burwell, now 74, reflects back on the Warren County protests, she thinks about the Black women who led and supported the protesters. 

In 1982, Burwell and hundreds of others from her predominantly Black North Carolina community marched to block trucks from bringing in soil contaminated with PCBs, a known carcinogen, to a nearby landfill. Burwell, who was one of the leaders of the protests, had approached her congregation at the Coley Springs Missionary Baptist Church about getting involved in the effort and to guide the work in a civil and nonviolent way. “And so, in the tradition of the Black church, you have a lot of Black women who are leaders,” she said. Black women became very involved in the protests. Many were arrested. Others played a role in supporting the protesters. 

“That's what I've been reflecting on,” Burwell said. “Those Black women who fed us, who got up early in the morning and came out at the Coley Spring Baptist Church and cooked food to bring to the marches.” It’s what kept Burwell, a mother of two, and other residents marching. Burwell was arrested five times during that period for her activism. Even her 8-year-old daughter was arrested once while participating in the marches. 

While the community lost the fight against the landfill — the Environmental Protection Agency had approved the permit in 1979 and lawsuits filed by the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) failed — the battle helped birth a nationwide movement. Awareness spread around the country that toxic landfills were being placed in predominantly Black and poor communities. In her years of activism, Burwell became known as the “mother of the movement” — a leading force behind the idea that all communities have a right to a safe and healthy environment. In the succeeding decades, other women — and women of color, in particular — have fought against landfills, petrochemical facilities and fracking operations. 

“This new elevation of this office will provide the structure that we need internally, not just on the enforcement side,” said EPA administrator Michael Regan in an interview on Friday. ‘[It will provide] the assurance that as we develop all of our regulations, all of our policies, contracts and procurements, [that] every single thing we do at EPA has an infusion of environmental justice, equity and civil rights.”

For Burwell, who attended the announcement, it felt like a full-circle moment.

At the time of the landfill decision, Warren County residents thought the EPA would protect the community from the toxic waste. “A lot of people were disappointed when the EPA allowed the state to put in the landfill,” she said. “And so 40 years later, having the EPA come to Warren County and recognize the birthplace of the environmental justice movement is a big deal to us, it is a really big deal to us.” Black women like Burwell have played a key role in shaping the fight for environmental justice from a grassroots level all the way up to how federal agencies are addressing the issue. “I've been on the ground with Catherine Flowers in Alabama, spent time with Peggy Shepard in New York and Dr. Beverly Wright in Louisiana,” Regan said. “We learned a lot from the work that they have been doing over the past 30 to 40 years. And that has been integrated into our thinking and while we are able to be where we are today.”

Flowers is known for her fight to bring attention to the lack of wastewater treatment facilities in rural Alabama; Shepard is the co-founder of WE ACT for Environmental Justice, which fights for environmental health protections both in New York and nationally; Wright is an environmental justice scholar who has been studying the impacts of petrochemical plants on Louisiana, in a part of the state known as Cancer Alley. 

All three of these women also sit on the White House Environmental Justice Advisory Council, created by the Biden administration to provide recommendations on how to enact policies that address environmental injustice. 
 

Jessica Kutz

 

STATE

Hurricane Ian Damage Predicted Drive insurance Rates even higher and Cripple Insurance Industry

 

With early predictions of $50 billion in damage from Hurricane Ian, experts worry whether the state’s struggling property insurance system will become another casualty of the storm and lead to even higher premiums. If it fails, the cost will be passed on to all Florida homeowners, not just those who suffered damage, because of assessments levied on them to cover the losses.

The state has allowed many insurance companies to enter the market without enough capital to cover catastrophic events, relying on unregulated, offshore reinsurance companies, which is insurance for insurance companies.

Reinsurance jacks up the cost of premiums further, with every other dollar spent on premiums going to it.

Compounding matters are the thousands of homeowners whose policies don’t cover the extensive flood damage caused by Hurricane Ian’s epic storm surge. They will have to rely on the limited assistance available through the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

CoreLogic estimated that wind losses for residential and commercial properties in Florida are expected to be between $22 billion and $32 billion, while insured storm surge losses are expected to be an additional $6 billion to $15 billion.

Hurricane Ian is the costliest storm in Florida since Hurricane Andrew in 1992 and “will forever change the real estate industry and city infrastructure. Insurers will go into bankruptcy, homeowners will be forced into delinquency and insurance will become less accessible in regions like Florida,” said Tom Larsen, an associate vice president at CoreLogic.

The industry has already lost $1 billion a year over the last three years – without any hurricanes to deal with. Since 2017, six companies have gone out of business and four others are in the process of liquidating, shedding hundreds of thousands of policyholders who then have to rush to find new insurance with ever-shrinking options available.

Some consumers “just simply aren’t able to find any insurance company that is willing to write them” a policy, Tasha Carter, Florida’s insurance consumer advocate, told the Washington Post. Hundreds of thousands of those dumped homeowners wind up with the state-backed Citizens Property Insurance Company, which has seen its customers grow from 500,000 to over 1 million in just a couple of years. Fitch said the “strain on Citizens and its continued growth adds to the vulnerability of the insurance market to the next catastrophic event. Citizens now accounts for 13% of the property insurance market and could balloon to 2 million customers before the Legislature finally fixes things."

OIR Commissioner David Altmaier has issued an emergency order prohibiting carriers from canceling or not renewing policies for the next two months.

“The order further protects policyholders by prohibiting a company from canceling or non-renewing a policy associated with a damaged home for 90 days after the home is repaired,” Carter said in a statement. “During a time when there is limited capacity and availability, these actions are vital to ensure consumers are able to maintain coverage through the remainder of hurricane season.”

“We anticipate that with a $3.7 billion loss, we will be able to pay all claims without having to levy surcharges or assessments,” Citizens spokesman Michael Peltier said. Citizens has $13.4 billion in claims-paying ability, he said. Of that, $6.8 billion in surplus, or money in the bank.

In the account for homeowners, Citizens would have to reach losses of $4.7 billion before it would begin to levy surcharges or assessments, he said.
In the commercial and coastal accounts, there is no surcharge indicated. Citizens wouldn’t have to levy surcharges on the Coastal Account unless it reaches $6.2 billion in losses, and wouldn’t levy surcharges on the commercial account until it exceeded $2 billion.
By comparison, Hurricane Irma in 2017 caused major damage to 48 counties declared eligible for federal disaster relief. Citizens processed 77,150 claims totaling nearly $2.4 billion for an average of about $31,700 per claim. It has 4,000 claims still pending being challenged in court.


Jeffrey Schweers
Orlando Sentinel

 

LOCAL
 

 

HELPING OUR HEROES

 

With over 40,000 linemen stationed in the west coast of Florida, food is scarce, supplies are limited and lodging is not available so these HEROES are sleeping in work trucks. Local linemen family members request donations that will be collected throughout the county and delivered in two semi-trucks to the west coast to those impacted by Hurricane lan.

Items most needed: Underwear, socks, linens (twin) blanket, pillows, towels, toothpaste bug spray, sunscreen, wipes, hand sanitizer, OTC Tylenol, Motrin, Benadryl, Band-Aids and Iarge black garage bags.

Non perishable/NOT expired most needed items: Peanut butter crackers, cheese crackers, raisins, fruit cups, chips, cookies, protein bars, granola bars, breakfast bars, snack mix, peanuts, popped bagged popcorn, jerky, dried fruit, rice cakes, Rice Krispies, Goldfish, pretzels, cheese its, wheat thins, grapes, carrots, celery, gum and drinks for hydration

Nothing in cans and nothing refrigerated, please.

Drop off locations needed:
They need local churches and businesses to be designated as drop off sites for the requested
supplies. CDL drivers with trucks are needed.
First trip will be by the end of this week when volunteers will drive semi trucks(2) are available.


Please message Julie Sharkey-Villars via FaceBook for collection sites and to sign up for truck transportation. 

 

CALENDAR



Thursday, October 6, 2022
 
7:00 p.m. - Fellsmere City Council, 22 S. Orange St, Fellsmere, FL 32948
For agenda and meeting information go to www.cityoffellsmere.org/citycouncil


Friday, October 7, 2022

11:30 a.m. - Taxpayers Association Luncheon at the Vero Beach Yacht Club at 3601 Rio Vista Blvd, Vero Beach, FL 32963 Reservations are required by Wednesday morning at their website.    $22


Saturday, October 8, 2022

SIGN WAVING RALLY to VOTE BLUE!

10 a.m. - Make signs for your favorite candidates or issues, such as; GUN CONTROL, EQUAL RIGHTS, REPRODUCTIVE FREEDOM, EDUCATION, ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE, HEALTHCARE, or simply say VOTE! Or VOTE BLUE! 
Riverview Park, Sebastian


11:30 a.m. - DWC of IRC 50th Anniversary Celebration luncheon at the Bent Pine Clubhouse. 6100 Clubhouse Drive, Vero 32967 RSVP to Julie Barone (718) 916-0682 or at [email protected]   $25