From: clarinews@clarinet.com (JANE SUTTON)
Newsgroups: biz.clarinet.sample,clari.news.weather,clari.local.texas,clari.news.disaster,clari.local.florida,clari.news.top
Subject: Andrew victims hurry up and wait
Keywords: general weather, weather, severe weather, trouble,
	municipal goverment, government
Date: 27 Aug 92 20:33:27 GMT
Followup-To: biz.clarinet.sample
X-Supersedes: <andrew-reliefU2aR420pe@clarinet.com>
Location: texas
ACategory: national
Slugword: andrew-relief
Priority: major
Format: regular
ANPA: Wc: 953; Id: z5597; Sel: txnww; Adate: 8-27-320pcd; Ver: 0/2
Codes: ynwwrtx., ynbwrtx., yngcrtx., xxxxxxxx


	HOMESTEAD, Fla. (UPI) -- Victims of Hurricane Andrew Thursday hurried
to areas where food, water and precious ice were to be distributed only
to stand in line and wait in the hot Florida sun.
	``You got masses of people standing in line,'' said Charles Morris, a
Florida City Public Works employee pressed into service as a
distribution supervisor.
	When asked what they needed most people shouted, ``Ice, Ice, Ice.''
	A lot of people still had food at home but said ice was needed to
keep it from spoiling.
	``We've already eaten everything that hasn't started to smell,'' said
Gary Young of Homestead. Everthing left had to be cooked immediately or
it would spoil, he added.
	One woman standing in a water line had another request.
	``Tell 'em we're standing in these long lines so send some Port-o-
Potties,'' she said.
	At one Publix grocery store 400 people stood on asphalt in the hot
sun waiting for a truck that Cookin' Good Chicken Co. was supposed to
send filled with 30 pound boxes of ice.
	Many people had been in line since 7 a.m. and by 10 a.m. the truck
had not arrived.
	Some people said water had begun to trickle from taps at home but
they had no bleach to sterilze it and no power to boil it.
	``We need every size and shape battery you can bring down. That's a
priority,'' said Sonny Guercio. ``We need Coleman fuel. Lost of us have
Coleman stoves but no fuel to run them.''
	The problem facing both Homestead and Florida City is not getting
help, it's distributing massive of amounts of food, water and supplies
and managing the volunteers who are pouring into the area from around
the state and country.
	Homestead City Manager Alex Muxo said the city has received shipments
from all over the country but volunteers had not alerted residents the
goods were coming.
	Muxo said National Guard troops at times had to be dispatched to
break up angry riots among people waiting in lines for water.
	``People were ready to take the guards' guns away from them to get
the water. That's how desperate it is,'' Muxo said.
	He said the Guard troops in Homestead appeared to have arrived
without a commander and often, when asked to do things, they said they
had to wait for authorization.
	``We have 250 guardsmen bu there's nobody authorized to let us use
them,'' Muxo said. ``We can't get certain things released.''
	Muxo said he asked the federal government to set up a tent city,
similar to one built by the government in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, for
Haitian refugees. He said he has received no answer to the request.
	He said if such a tent city was set up the federal or state
government would have to run it because Homestead does not have the
resources.
	He said 90 percent of Homestead's 450 city employees lost their homes
in the hurricane.
	``It's become a real challenge to have them here (City Hall) when
they're trying to take care of their own families,'' Muxo said.
	He said the city was setting up dorms near the electric power plant
to accomodate city workers, contract workers and volunteer doctors and
nurses.
	He said two doctors showed up Wednesday night from out of state but
did not have a place to stay.
	Offers of help and shipments of food and water were coming from as
far away as Alaska but an emergency command center with telephone lines
was first set up at City Hall Thursday to organize volunteers and
shipments.
	``We were running into a problem because of the outpouring we're
getting,'' Muxo said. ``We need volunteers but we also need to manage
the volunteers.''
	By midday, volunteers started to create order out of chaos. Trucks
with shipments of supplies were sent to the Homestead National Guard
Armory, where they were unloaded and the goods were sorted. From there
the supplies were taken to individual distribution centers where
volunteers loaded them into grocery bags.
	``We're putting it together as if we were going to eat it,'' said
Trish Faver, a schoolteacher from Key Largo. ``We're trying to get all
the four basic food groups in these bags.''
	The items most in demand were peanut butter, cereal, canned fruit,
prepared pastas and spaghetti -- things that either would not spoil once
opened or could be dumped directly into a pan and cooked to make a whole
meal.
	The warehouse was stacked with flats of military meals ready to eat,
bottled water, Gatorade, cases of toilet paper, canned chicken, peanut
butter, sodas, and pet food.
	Most people donated practical items but a few sent chiffon dresses,
electric coffee makers and can openers and toilet seat covers.
	Starting Friday the police Explorer unit and other volunteers will go
door to door in Homestead, distributing plastic trash bags and flyers
that tell people where to get help, food and water, Muxo said.
	Most homes were still without power and Muxo said batteries stored
before the storm have been used up by now so residents are difficult to
reach.
	``We felt the best way to get to people is to go door to door or
rubble to rubble -- there's no door,'' Muxo said.
	The streets into South Dade County were lined with convoys of
backhoes, flatbed trucks with generators, utility poles, paramedics and
National Guard units.
	In Florida City, doctors from the medical center at the Key West Navy
Base set up a field hospital on the lawn across from City Hall. They
were kept busy treating people with wounds from flying glass and
puncture wounds from stepping on nails. They also distributed diapers,
baby food, milk and formula.
	Mountains of food, toilet paper and water sat in the gutted Florida
City government building and city officials were trying to get out word
to people to pick it up.
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