Last Friday, Tropical Storm Isaac was projected to hit the Florida Keys last Sunday as a Category 1 hurricane and then head to the Florida mainland, most likely to hit Naples at about 8 a.m. Monday morning. The radar showed a huge storm, with outer bands almost certain to whip up all of South Florida. And yet...on Friday, and even on Saturday, and still on SUNDAY (yes)...the Palm Beach County School District was saying there would be school on Monday morning. How bizarre was that??
The district did not actually cancel school on Monday until after 1 a.m. on Monday, after a very raucus storm all day on Sunday, flooding starting and bad, bad weather expected to continue all day Monday. What could they possibly have been thinking? And what could they have been thinking when they then waited until late on Monday to cancel classes for a SECOND day in a row due to intense flooding?
A single father here in Lake Worth said he woke up around 5 a.m. on Monday to turn on the television and see that schools were closed. He could not arrange for child care for his two daughters on Monday, or Tuesday - not with that kind of notice - so could not go to work. As a carpenter, he doesn't get paid for days when he doesn't work, so will get about half his normal weekly pay today.
Why couldn't the school district look at the same radar everyone else in Lake Worth was seeing and realize that we were going to be under some extreme weather conditions on Monday? It's a mystery.
