| Goodbye, Charley It's a well-established scientific fact that major hurricanes only strike the United States in presidential election years. Well, maybe not, but it seems that way, after Hurricane Charley instantly whipped up comparisons to 1992 - when the first President Bush was criticized for reacting to Hurricane Andrew too slowly in an election year. Ironically, his son was suspected by some cynics of moving too quickly this weekend to rush aid to vote-rich Florida, 2000's pivotal state. How utterly offensive. "If I didn't come," President George W. Bush said, "they would have said I should have been here more rapidly." Indeed. In truth, there was very little criticism in the air in Charley's immediate aftermath. And for good reason. Florida was prepped with a massive aid fund built up after Andrew's devastation, and the Federal Emergency Management Agency blew in briskly to begin relief efforts. No one should invite the kind of catastrophe Floridians have just lived through. But if you must survive a Category 4 hurricane, there's no place on earth you'd rather be than in the United States. Consider: Though the most famous quote from this storm's early aftermath was a prediction of "significant loss of life," as of the end of the weekend there were 17 confirmed deaths. That's 17 too many. But in just about any other country, "significant loss of life" would mean deaths in the hundreds or thousands. Building codes, state and local evacuation plans, law enforcement professionalism and the best weather-detection equipment known to mankind are all working in Americans' favor. Certainly the weather forecasting isn't perfect. Charley outwitted the experts in screwballing directly into southwest Florida's Punta Gorda and points beyond. But the fact is, hurricanes and other weather systems will just do that to you. And the warnings that were issued did prevent a truly significant loss of life. Now the rebuilding begins. And there is no other people on earth better at it than the American people. Grieved by their losses, and perhaps wondering where their next meal will come from or where they'll get a change of clothes, they'll shake this unbridled disaster off and defiantly move on. That's what we Americans do. Nature is obviously in charge. Charley made sure to remind us. But we Americans can stand up to just about anything they can throw at us. And even if we get knocked down, it's not long before we're on our feet again. Charley will be remembered as one of the biggest blowhards we've ever seen. But he sure won't get the last word.
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