美国国家公共电台 NPR In Hurricane Michael's Wake, Florida Panhandle Faces Steep Path Back To Normal

 

LULU GARCIA-NAVARRO, HOST:

More than a week after Hurricane Michael hit the Florida Panhandle, cities and towns along the Gulf¹ Coast are struggling to begin the rebuilding process. It's been hampered² by catastrophic damage not only to homes and businesses but also to vital infrastructure³. NPR's Debbie Elliott has this look at what's ahead from the coastal⁴ town of Port St. Joe.

DEBBIE ELLIOTT, BYLINE⁵: Mayor Bo Patterson drives his pickup⁶ truck around Port St. Joe to survey the town's losses.

BO PATTERSON: Everywhere you turn and go, you see some kind of destruction, whether it was wind damage or whether it was water - one of the two.

ELLIOTT: Patterson says Hurricane Michael pushed in a 13-foot storm surge that flooded the streets closest to St. Joseph Bay. The rest of town saw roofs ripped off, windows blown out and huge oak and pine trees toppled.

PATTERSON: Devastating⁷, devastating. I don't know any other word to describe what you're seeing.

ELLIOTT: The roof is off the Baptist church, its steeple bent⁸ over. The high school is unusable. All the walls are gone from the Burger King. And Port St. Joe's two gas stations are destroyed, the fuel pumps torn from their concrete slabs⁹.

PATTERSON: We can't even pump gas.

ELLIOTT: Now, how do you start to think about recovering from something like this?

PATTERSON: Well, first, cleanup. Get everything cleaned up you can and then start rebuilding. But as you can see, there's trees everywhere. You got to get all those trees and things out of the way before you can really go to work.

ELLIOTT: Backhoes are clearing trees from the roads, and crews are working on most streets to replace utility poles.

(SOUNDBITE OF CHAINSAW RUNNING)

PATTERSON: And see that? You hear that sound a lot - that sound right there - up into almost dark you hear - they're doing all day long.

ELLIOTT: The chainsaw.

PATTERSON: The chainsaw, right.

ELLIOTT: Residents are cutting up downed trees and mucking out their homes.

PATTERSON: And it's just about every street you go down that you will see destruction like that. I mean, the people are just - all they own is now out by the road to be thrown away.

ELLIOTT: Couches, mattresses¹⁰ and piles of soaked clothing are stacked up curbside.

ALESHA SMILEY: We got to get that bed up. You ready?

ELLIOTT: Alesha Smiley and her brother are clearing out the flooded apartment she shares with her grandmother, an elderly amputee in poor health.

SMILEY: Devastating. It is depressing. I try not to think about it too hard, but it's been a lot of people coming in and helping¹¹.

ELLIOTT: Mayor Patterson says the city has been getting help from relief agencies and the state and federal governments. He admits this small town of 3,500 is at the mercy of outside help because its main tax base - tourism and water and sewer¹² bills - has been decimated.

PATTERSON: We don't know how we'll pay our bills, I mean, seriously.

How y'all doing?

ELLIOTT: Patterson does see signs of progress as he drives through a neighborhood on the west side of town.

PATTERSON: How about it, my man?

I think most of the people in this area now do have power, so that's good.

ELLIOTT: He stops at an old high-school gym that's been converted to an emergency supply center. Port St. Joe City Commissioner¹³ Eric Langston is here, heartened to see people working together.

ERIC LANGSTON: We still have some things to look forward to. We're still here. We're still breathing. So the worst has already happened, I mean, far as the hurricane. All we can do now is look ahead and try to rebuild.

ELLIOTT: But, he says, it will be a long time before Port St. Joe gets back to a sense of normalcy. Back on the road, Mayor Bo Patterson shows me the damage in the downtown business district. The roof is off his pest control business.

PATTERSON: It's unbelievable.

ELLIOTT: He contemplates¹⁴ the rebuilding that's ahead.

PATTERSON: It's going to take years. And I'm hoping the city can survive it.

ELLIOTT: Debbie Elliott, NPR News, Port St. Joe, Fla.

1 gulf   

n.海湾；深渊，鸿沟；分歧，隔阂

参考例句：

• The gulf between the two leaders cannot be bridged.两位领导人之间的鸿沟难以跨越。
• There is a gulf between the two cities.这两座城市间有个海湾。

2 hampered   

妨碍，束缚，限制( hamper的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• The search was hampered by appalling weather conditions. 恶劣的天气妨碍了搜寻工作。
• So thought every harassed, hampered, respectable boy in St. Petersburg. 圣彼德堡镇的那些受折磨、受拘束的体面孩子们个个都是这么想的。

3 infrastructure   

n.下部构造，下部组织，基础结构，基础设施

参考例句：

• We should step up the development of infrastructure for research.加强科学基础设施建设。
• We should strengthen cultural infrastructure and boost various types of popular culture.加强文化基础设施建设，发展各类群众文化。

4 coastal   

adj.海岸的，沿海的，沿岸的

参考例句：

• The ocean waves are slowly eating away the coastal rocks.大海的波浪慢慢地侵蚀着岸边的岩石。
• This country will fortify the coastal areas.该国将加强沿海地区的防御。

5 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

6 pickup   

n.拾起，获得

参考例句：

• I would love to trade this car for a pickup truck.我愿意用这辆汽车换一辆小型轻便卡车。||The luck guy is a choice pickup for the girls.那位幸运的男孩是女孩子们想勾搭上的人。

7 devastating   

adj.毁灭性的，令人震惊的，强有力的

参考例句：

• It is the most devastating storm in 20 years.这是20年来破坏性最大的风暴。
• Affairs do have a devastating effect on marriages.婚外情确实会对婚姻造成毁灭性的影响。

8 bent   

n.爱好，癖好；adj.弯的；决心的，一心的

参考例句：

• He was fully bent upon the project.他一心扑在这项计划上。
• We bent over backward to help them.我们尽了最大努力帮助他们。

9 slabs   

n.厚板，平板，厚片( slab的名词复数 )；厚胶片

参考例句：

• The patio was made of stone slabs. 这天井是用石板铺砌而成的。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The slabs of standing stone point roughly toward the invisible notch. 这些矗立的石块，大致指向那个看不见的缺口。 来自辞典例句

10 mattresses   

褥垫，床垫( mattress的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The straw mattresses are airing there. 草垫子正在那里晾着。
• The researchers tested more than 20 mattresses of various materials. 研究人员试验了二十多个不同材料的床垫。

11 helping   

n.食物的一份&adj.帮助人的，辅助的

参考例句：

• The poor children regularly pony up for a second helping of my hamburger. 那些可怜的孩子们总是要求我把我的汉堡包再给他们一份。
• By doing this, they may at times be helping to restore competition. 这样一来, 他在某些时候,有助于竞争的加强。

12 sewer   

n.排水沟，下水道

参考例句：

• They are tearing up the street to repair a sewer. 他们正挖开马路修下水道。
• The boy kicked a stone into the sewer. 那个男孩把一石子踢进了下水道。

13 commissioner   

n.（政府厅、局、处等部门）专员，长官，委员

参考例句：

• The commissioner has issued a warrant for her arrest.专员发出了对她的逮捕令。
• He was tapped for police commissioner.他被任命为警务处长。

14 contemplates   

深思，细想，仔细考虑( contemplate的第三人称单数 )； 注视，凝视； 考虑接受（发生某事的可能性）； 深思熟虑，沉思，苦思冥想

参考例句：

• She contemplates leaving for the sake of the kids. 她考虑为了孩子而离开。
• Beauty in things exists in the mind which contemplates them. 事物的美存在于细心观察它的人的头脑中。