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Today marked the 15 year anniversary of Hurricane Andrew in Homestead & Florida City Fla.
The day began rather unremarkably. We knew this hurricane was coming, but after years of them fizzling out to tropical storms or depressions before landfall, many of us just laughed it off and made plans for 'Hurricane Parties'.
My newborn daughter was still in the hospital in Homestead. I lived in Florida City, which is right next to Homestead. I went to visit for a while, then went on about preparing for the hurricane, boarding up windows, putting things away off the porch, etc. My parents were in town to celebrate the birth of my first child, as were my sister Sandi, who was 6 months pregnant with her first child, and her husband David.
I lived in the Goldcoaster Mobile Home Park, one of the largest, nicest 'snowbird' resorts in South Florida, where I had a 28x70 doublewide. By noon, we were told by the Florida City Police Department *and* Metro-Dade that we *had* to evacuate the park. It was now madatory evacuation. Having planned on staying at home and riding it out, we put a few things away in the master bathroom, then went to a motel about a mile down the street, right at US 1 & Palm Drive, and got a few rooms. Being concerned with the 5 - 7 foot storm surges predicted coming in from the Bay, they gave everyone 2nd floor rooms.
David's mother & grandparents lived in the same park also, and they were with us. His sister Linda and her husband Ronnie, who were friends of mine, lived close by and were also with us, along with their 3 kids. We got David's mother, grandfather & grandmother, who was in a wheelchair, upstairs and settled in a room. My folks, Sandi & David got the room next to theirs, while my wife & I and Ronnie & Linda and their kids took a room several doors down.
My dad and I decided to take a ride out to Homestead Bayfront Park so we could watch the storm roll in. We stayed out there for well over an hour, until a Metro-Dade officer told us we had to leave. He had been there the whole time too, as well as a few other people, but he decided it was getting just too dangerous... which it was. The winds were already coming in at 50+ mph.
On the way back we stopped at a convenience store next to the motel to stock up on some beer, ice & cigarettes. The guy behind the counter tried to charge me $24 for a 12 pack of beer and $5 for ice. This was BEFORE the storm even hit! Needless to say, it pissed me off and I literally threw a 12 pack and hit the guy square in the face with it and told him to shove it.
We got back to the motel, checked on David's mom & grandparents in their room, then we both went to our rooms. We were having our little hurricane party in our room, not really giving much thought to the storm, until it started getting *really* bad. Ronnie had already passed out, so I was alone with 2 women & 3 small kids, all of whom were very scared. At one point our door blew open so I dragged the big dresser over and put it against the door.
I had been keeping contact with my folks in their room and they were getting hit pretty hard. David's mom & grandparents were in the corner room and my folks were in the room right next to the corner. My room was several doors down in the middle of the motel. While talking to my sister, I heard her scream, then the phone lines went dead and thepower went out. The wind sounded like a freight train, and I could hear glass breaking, both from windows in the motel and from cars in the parking lot. Lots of crashing noises as palm trees fell into the roof of the motel and on the ground in other places. Then things *really* started to get wild.
I covered up the women and kids with one mattress, then I took the other matress & box springs from one of the beds and was holding it to cover the big window in the room. All of a sudden, there was someone beating on my door, begging to come in. It was a family from down the hall whose roof had been crashed through by a tree. They were hysterical. I got the dresser moved and the door open and let them in. Then the roof got sucked off. I had been watching it for a few minutes, as I could actually see the roof lifting up at the eaves of the building frominside the room. Debris was flying everywhere, and I was struck by a piece of wood or something, I'm not sure what it was. This went on for a what seemed like several hours.
Once the eye started coming over and I was able to get out, I ran down to my parents room to check on them. It was still dark out and I couldn't see much of anything. I couldn't get their door opened because of debris blocking it. Their window was broken, the roof completely gone, and everything in the room was upside down. I was screaming for them and heard some muffled yells back, then I saw sliver of light coming out from under a pile of debris. I was through the window and digging away at the pile with no thought to my own safety. I was barefoot and had on nothing but a pair of shorts.
They had all gone into the bathroom, where they put my mom and sister in the tub, then David and my dad leaned over them to shelter them more. When the roof tore off, the ceiling materials fell in on them, then the walls fell in on them. I got enough off of them to where they could start moving and they helped get themselves free. We took off next door to check on David's mom & grandparents. Their room was also destroyed, worse than my folks, as they were on the corner. His grandmother was still in the bed, covered with debris, and his mom & grandfather were trapped under debris. Neither of them were in good health & couldn't move the grandmother (remember, she was invalid) when things got real bad. Amazingly, we all survived.
I carried the grandmother down the stairs, then came back up trying to dig out her wheelchair and the grandfather's walker. We all took rooms downstairs, which weren't in much better shape. Most of them leaked from rain and broken pipes upstairs. Remember, this was just during the EYE of the storm. I couldn't tell you if this took 20 mins or 2 hours because time was seeming to stop right then. Everything is still a blur today as far as timelines. I remember just making trips up and down the stairs, carrying injured people, carrying belongings for others, trying to help get everyone situated downstairs. Now it was starting to get light. Dawn was upon us. So was the second band of the storm... and I was stuck outside. I was under a concrete stairway and felt pretty safe though. I was watching stuff blowing around and didn't want to risk trying to run across the parking lot to the new downstairs room. It only seemed to last about 30 mins, though I can't be sure. I didn't feel anywhere near as long as the first part.
Once it calmed down and I felt safe to move I took off to the room to check on everyone again. They were all doing good and glad it was over.
One of my cop friends was at the motel also, and he deputized me and Ronnie and told us to go get some supplies and stuff. He said we weren't looting since we were deputized we were making emergency appropriations. The *first* place I went was to the store where the owner had tried to gouge us for beer and ice the night before, and we cleaned him out. I took all the charcoal and lighter fluid I could find, plus all the ice, sodas, milk, diapers, baby food, baby formula, juice, bandaids, cigs & beer that I could find. I didn't touch the cash register or safe, as I was there for survival, not financial gain. We had about 100 people at the motel, and had to take care of them and feed them. We took the stuff back to the motel, where it was guarded by a cop and my dad, then set out to check our homes and a few more stores.
My home was leveled, except for the master bathroom, which had 3 walls standing. Everything else was flattened. Gone. Someone else's front door was laying in where my living room used to be. Ronnie lived in a brick duplex, which was still standing, but all the windows gone and half the roof gone. We stopped at a blown down Circle K store and went in to see what we could get from there. There were a few guys already in there, and two of them were trying to get the safe up over the counter. I started walking past them when one of them said "hey big man, help us get this safe over the counter"... I told him to knock himself out, that I wasn't there to steal money, I was there to find stuff for survival. Dude started to cope an attitude, so I pulled my pistol out of the back of my pants, stuck it in his face and told him if he opened his mouth again, he was just gonna be another statistic among the dead from the storm. they both took off, leaving the safe behind... though I'm willing to bet they came back after we left.
I then tried to make it to the hospital to check on my daughter, but the roads were totally blocked by trees, vehicles, debris and downed power lines/poles. It was 3 days before I was able to get to the hospital. I had already heard that the hospital had been evacuated the night of the storm, and it took 3 more days before anyone could tell me where my baby was. That was a whole different nightmare in itself.
There was a Burger King in front of the motel, and it was tore up pretty bad. The outside storage cooler from the Captain D's was laying in the middle of US 1. The walk-in cooler at Burger King was still intact. We started bringing food from there to the motel, and actually got a human chain going so we didn't have to make a bunch of trips back & forth. We took mostly hamburgers and chicken breasts, the ones they used to make the BK Broilers with. Anything that would cook on a grill, we took. I had brought a grill in the back of my truck when we first went to the motel, so we had something to cook on. We also hit the KFC and got their chicken before it spoiled. I had found two 55 gallon storage bins full of ice in the walk in freezer at Burger King, so we used some to pack the chicken in for a little while.
I started cooking chicken and burgers as quick as I could afterwards. We found one other person who had a grill at the motel, and they brought it over to us. My father and I cooked for 24 hours straight. We got everyone at the motel fed and had given out drinks, beer, cigs, diapers, baby food, anything anyone needed. It was around 5 or 6 pm before we ever saw the first cop, besides the one at the motel. State Troopers finally made it in around dark, along with some National Guard. W fed the troopers and National Guard guys too. For 2 days.
The devastation was unreal. It looked like we had gone to war, and someone forgot to tell us. Concrete light poles snapped at the base and laying in the streets. Buildings and homes demolished. Flattened. All the trees stripped of their leaves. Vehicles upside down and scattered about. A surreal feeling permeated the town. The military vehicles ruled the streets, while the helicopters ruled the air. Day and night they flew. 24-7. I didn't remember hearing that many helicopters when I was in the army.
I can tell you as a fact that the reported death toll was a sham. My cousin, who worked for Metro-Dade County, personally oversaw 12 refrigerated trucks full of bodies. I personally saw 8 of them myself in Florida City. They didn't count the migrant workers in the campesinos(sp?) in Florida City, Homestead, Naranja or Cutler Ridge. Homestead/Florida City is where about 80% of the nation's winter vegetables are grown. Farms, farmers and packing houses are the main livlihood of the towns. There was one campesino in Florida City that had at least 1000 mobile homes or more stacked in it, many with 3 and 4 families living in them. I honestly believe that they had very little understanding and/or warning of the hurricane coming, and probably weren't forced to evacuate either.
Sorry to ramble on, but I had to get this out of my head...
PEACE!
Ghost
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