The Stories team at CAP Action works with storytellers who author op-eds about how policy impacts their lives. The team helps elevate their op-eds.
Picture this: someone in your life is having a medical emergency. You live in a small town and must travel at least 30 miles by ambulance to the nearest emergency center. You hold their hand as the paramedics rush you both to the hospital. But then the ambulance comes to an abrupt stop. You look outside the window and see the bridge you are traveling across is broken. As the bridge tender hurries to fix it, every minute feels like an hour, but it’s better than your other option: taking a 99-mile detour.
This is not a fictional scenario, this is a real-life situation that I faced while in an ambulance crossing the Alligator River Bridge. The 61-year-old drawbridge regularly malfunctions when closing, leaving the tens of thousands of residents in risky situations like the one I encountered. As a critical hurricane evacuation route, a malfunctioning bridge could be a matter of life or death.
The above excerpt was originally published in Cardinal & Pine.
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