From: bernhold@qtp.ufl.edu (David E. Bernholdt)
Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom
Subject: Hurricane Andrew Notes
Date: 31 Aug 92 19:13:23 GMT
Organization: TELECOM Digest
X-Submissions-To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu
X-Administrivia-To: telecom-request@eecs.nwu.edu
X-Telecom-Digest: Volume 12, Issue 675, Message 2 of 12

Not terribly telecom related, but since people have asked for info
about South Florida, here's a second-hand account ...

The secretary in our Project, Judy, has a sister in Homestead, in the
center of the area devastated by Andrew.  She and her husband left
here Wednesday to go down there and help out; they returned Saturday
morning -- they said they had to get some rest or they wouldn't be
able to get to work today.

Despite the fact that they are supposedly only allowing residents into
the area, they arrived in Homestead unchallenged, though there were
checks at a few offramps from the highway. (They were expecting checks
and had prepared by contacting State Police, etc. in advance.)

The place is (hardly suprisingly) a complete mess.  She had pictures
of her sister's block and in some places you couldn't even see the
street for all the rubble.  Though the TV reports are likely to show
the places where the houses were of lesser construction and have
totally collapsed, she says that many more houses were effectively
just as bad because the roof had been ripped off, allowing wind and
water to get inside the house.  Pictures of her sister's block showed
houses with the exterior walls remaining but no roof.  There were four
families, including Judy's sister, actually living in their houses in
that neighborhood.  Some other people would come in during the day and
leave at night.

They live close to Homestead Air Force Base.  Despite reports that it
was leveled, they did manage to clear some of the runways and are
flying in and out frequently (lots of helicopters, apparently).  What
little they could see of the base (mostly housing) suggested it was in
a similar condition to the houses in their neighboorhood -- windows
blow out, many roofs blown off, exterior walls usually standing.

They have no power.  Water available, but the pressure was so low you
had couldn't raise the hose more than three feet.  Their telephone was
working, but there were relatively few in the area that were (despite
the fact that the area has underground cables).  They foud the phone
quite useful because it meant they didn't have to drive -- most cars
were destroyed by the storm, including Judy's sister's. Newspapers are
publishing, but they don't deliver.  TV and radio are broadcasting,
but you have to have batteries or a generator to run them.  Generators
are like gold -- Judy said she had heard of $500 units being sold for
$1800-3000.  I don't know about gasoline to run them.  Fortunately,
they brought a generator and some gas for her sister.

As they were driving down Wednesday, and again heading up on Saturday,
they saw convoys of ambulances, fire equipment, and semi tractors -- a
dozen or so at a time -- barrelling down the highway behind a State
Trooper using lights and sirens.  Unfortunately, though, the aid does
not seem to be disbursed very well.  People have no way of finding out
where it is being distributed, and if they did, most cars are
inoperative or don't have gas.  They only aid they saw was private
citizens who had loaded up their cars and were cruising through
neighborhoods offering it to people.

The only law enforcement the came in contact with was 3.00 AM Friday
They stopped to make sure Judy and company were armed.  They said to
be sure to shout "duck" to the neighbors before you shoot (it is a
fairly densely packed area), and to choose you words carefully when
the cops come back to investigate any shootings.  The cops were a
little bit miffed that they weren't allowed on the street earlier.
Apparently, they had been held in a staging area waiting to respond to
reports of looting.  They'd rather just patrol.

The insurance adjusters had also not yet been seen in her sister's
neighboorhood, though Judy heard many were handing out initial ($2500)
checks as soon as they had verified that you had an insurance policy
with them.

Judy said she slept about six hours in those three days, and they had
two hot meals.  The rest of the time, they just worked on cleaning up
the mess.  People were very helpful to each other.  Judy said if it
weren't for her job, she'd go back in a flash.  They need lots of help
down there, and it sounds like it will be quite a while before any
sort of normalcy is restored.


[Moderator's Note: This will go down in history as one of the worst
natural tragedies ever to strike the USA. And help, in the form of
practical household goods is still in short supply.  Apparently they
will not have electric service restored for *several months* if not a
year or more as transmission lines are totally down.   PAT]