From: clarinews@clarinet.com (JANE SUTTON)
Newsgroups: biz.clarinet.sample,clari.news.disaster,clari.news.weather,clari.local.florida
Followup-to: biz.clarinet.sample
Subject: Shelter life is mix of helplessness, boredom
Keywords: severe weather, trouble, general weather, weather
X-Supersedes: <fl-andrew-shelterU2aQ350pe@clarinet.com>
Date: Wed, 26 Aug 92 13:14:00 PDT
ACategory: usa
Slugword: andrew-shelter
Priority: regular
Format: regular
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	MIAMI (UPI) -- For shelter residents who formed a human chain at the
height of Hurricane Andrew to move from their threatened gymnasium to
the safety of another building, life has settled into a numbing routine.
	Their immediate needs for food, water, sleeping cots and sturdy roofs
over their heads are taken care of. It's the rest of their lives that
worries them.
	``They had very little before. They have nothing now,'' said Debra
Carlton, Red Cross shelter manager at Miami Dade Community College's
south campus.
	About 200 storm victims were still housed in the college's
Administration Building, down from 1,600 when Andrew hit.
	Most of those remaining are migrant farm workers who had lived in
rented trailers, relying on food stamps and Aid to Families with
Dependent Children to squeak by before the storm hit, Carlton said.
	Most have no insurance, no bank accounts, nothing to fall back on and
nothing to start over with, Carlton said.
	Rachel Fabelo had a job as an accounting clerk before Andrew hit, but
has no money and does not know if the job or the company still exists.
	Waiting at the shelter with her three young children and five
relatives, including an elderly aunt who recently suffered a stroke, she
started to cry when asked about her plans for the future.
	``We have no home. We don't have clothes, just what we were wearing
and a few things they have given us,'' Fabelo said.
	``It's been very hard but I can't complain. They've (Red Cross
volunteers) been very attentive. I really cannot complain.''
	She and her family breakfasted on ham croissant sandwiches,
cornflakes, orange juice and canned peaches. They get one gallon of
water per person each day to drink, and a nurse is there taking
temperatures and dispensing medicine.
	``They treat us real good. The only thing is that we're homeless,''
said Mercedes Sanchez, who waited at the shelter with her 14-year-old
son.
	There were heroic moments in the shelter. The storm refugees started
out in the gymnasium, but in the thick of the hurricane ceiling tiles
began falling and the roof caved in.
	Around 3 or 4 a.m. Monday, with 150-mph winds howling, the residents
were forced to move to the administration building about 400 yards away.
Some of them lined up and formed a human windbreak, locking their arms
around each others' waists while safely passing the others down the
line, holding them tight to keep them from blowing away, then handing
them on to the next person.
	``Everybody was so scared,'' Carlton said. ``These are the real
heroes. They became one mass of human flesh.''
	Once the danger passed, many returned to their homes, found the
houses gone, and went back to the shelter. An estimated 50,000 people
were still living in Red Cross shelters in south Florida Wednesday.
	At first they were horrified by the damage and grateful to have
escaped alive. After three days in the shelter, they felt a mix of
helplessness and crushing boredom.
	They sprawled on the floor and sat in plastic chairs or on their red
canves cots. Some read books. Many simply stared into space.
	Some have filled the time by helping Red Cross volunteers cook 10,000
meals a day on generator-powered ovens, for distribution in mobile vans.
	The youngest children seemed oblivious.
	``She probably thinks she's on vacation,'' Fabelo said, pointing to
her 2-year-old daughter Shannel.
	Her 6- and 8-year-old daughters are baffled.
	``They understand there was a hurricane, but they don't know why it
happened. They've got used to the fact that this is their home, but
there's nothing for them to do. The kids just wander around,'' Fabelo
said.
	Carlton said toys were among the items ``in the pipeline'' and being
shipped to the shelters.
	Volunteers also arrived Wednesday to begin damage assessment, the
first step toward issuing vouchers and helping Andrew's victims find new
places to live.
	``They're getting restless. They want to begin to rebuild their
lives,'' Carlton said.
	But for most, she said, it was unlikely they would be able to leave
the shelter any time soon and unclear where they would go when they
left.
	Meanwhile, there is no running water and nowhere to take a shower at
the shelter. The toilets can only be flushed by filling the back of the
tank with buckets of water, a method that is not wholly effective.
	``We've got two custodians doing nothing but flushing the toilets,
God bless their souls,'' Carlton said.
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