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I owned a sweet little 2-bedroom townhome overlooking a peaceful lake that I adored, in Naranja Lakes, a townhouse development around 5 lakes, where the atomic bomb of Andrew exploded .. 6 minutes from Homestead Air Force Base, which was built to withstand 200mph and was completely destroyed. It has since been rebuilt and is now the
I was in an evacuation zone, and I'm so grateful I survived, for considering my evacuation location and the lack of storm prep by my friends, I may well not have.
My friends were about 8 miles west from me, in an old tiny 900 sq. ft. stucco 2 bedroom home with crank out windows and a barrel-tiled roof they had moved from Miami years earlier to their beautiful 5 acre avocado and mango grove. A brand new large ranch was 2/3 complete about 100 yds behind this little house, with fresh ceramic tiles just installed on the roof.
The man of the house, mechanical though he is, shockingly did not do ONE thing to prepare or protect the house. Hence, objects were coming inside for us to dodge throughout the night, from avocados and rocks to roof tiles .. all riding the frigid horizontal rain and the violent tornadic winds after the windows were smashed.
We moved inward sequentially in the hallway as they broke, but as the bedroom window broke, our last refuge was in the tiny corner in front of the little bathroom, at the linen closet. There we were, huddled with their 3 dogs .. all like mute statues for hours.
I asked him to shine his flashlight above us, as I heard what sounded like breathing. Sure enough, the crawl space door above was heaving .. like lungs .. in and out. It wasn't until a week later, when walking up the back stairs I happened to look up. There from the left side of the house to about 2 ft. from the right side was a huge fissure .. and crack indicating we were that close to having the roof entirely lifted off. Thank you, Lord.
The storm was so tightly wound, we never did get the eye. It finally just dissipated and ended. After it was thankfully over, we collapsed in a coma-like short nap. When we had swept out all the broken glass, pulled up the soaked carpet and padding and dragged out the soaked clothes from the closets to dry on trees, I just had to call my family.
I knew my car had thankfully survived in the new house garage, but dead horses, electric poles and dangerous debris were everywhere. I just couldn't risk getting a flat tire, so I hitchhiked for the first time in my life to get to a pay phone in the country that neighbors told us was miraculously working.
I joined a line of folks, numbed and robot like, like me, to call my family. We were all conscious of those waiting behind us, and thus made the calls very quick. It's always been amazing to me that it was such a polite and placid scene, given the horrors we'd all experienced.
I hitchhiked the 2nd time the next day .. I just had to see my place .. and it was shocking. I was in the middle of a 7 unit 1-story lakefront building. I was dumbstruck when I arrived to see that the 3 units to the right of mine were just crumbs .. piles of debris on slabs. My unit had the first standing outside wall on the right (but it had been an interior wall).
Several years later, after more building inspections and analysis, it was revealed that the concrete tie beams were never properly anchored to the roofs and foundations ... it was criminally built and had passed building inspections. I may be all wrong, but I think there's a chance that 3 people who didn't evacuate and who died in this development may have survived if the huge tie beams didn't coming crashing down. I think if that builder was around, folks would've been sued off, if not jailed for criminal negligence.
The damage and debris was exponentially compounded by the fact that this part of Naranja Lakes was across the street from about 3 trailer home communities. The sheet metal lay everywhere and pierced roofs, buildings, cars and trees. Of course, the trailer parks were destroyed and were then merely rows of slabs with piles of walls and sticks everywhere. The medical/hospital tents that were finally set up were great, and I had to eventually get a tetanus shot for stepping on that dang pervasive sheet metal.
After Andrew, which came up so suddenly that weekend, there was no outreach, no state or federal help ..we were not in the news like storm victims are today. Plus, we were way out in the country. We were totally on our own for almost 3 weeks for everything. My friend's boss was a lifesaver .. he brought us a portable generator, so we could ration 1 shower each daily, coffee in the morning, and something warmed up for dinner. We survived on the canned goods I had brought and in my friends' cupboard, and the well water when the generator ran the pump.
When the help finally arrived, it was incredible. I'm so grateful to the kind neighbors outside the area. They just drove up in cars and trucks with bread, water, food when I'd be salvaging. But the biggest gratitude is to the military, who restored what was becoming anarchy and blatant looting and crime, by establishing curfews and a sense of some order. Armed residents and "you will be shot" signs were everywhere.
Of course, there were the gougers .. selling water, ice and chain saws for exhorbitant sums on the roadside. I think there's another justice for those types.
I was heartbroken when I went back to my unit to get some serving trays I had in my untouched utility room for Thanksgiving, to find my things spread on the front lawn. I had steel bars on the window and doors, but some creep had gotten on the roof into the house and started pillaging before they were evidently scared away.
I was already a basket case .. not knowing where "your things" .. your life anchors are .. or that they're ok, can drive you crazy... it does weird things to you to not know where your black dress purse, pearl earrings or crockpot are. I just couldn't get it all done at once, and it was torment leaving them in that increasingly prone crime environment.
I was salvaging late one night and overstayed the curfew and had to sleep in my car for a couple of hours. In the first 6 weeks, I stayed with 6 different friends.
The military, Salvation Army and Red Cross put up the food kitchens and ice and water stations throughout the area, so that you could always find a meal between salvaging expeditions. They really moved heaven and earth to help and were so giving with clothing, personal hygiene items and canned food and water This kindness of strangers and the large military force were huge highlights in the miserable aftermath.
Military pilots who'd been in VietNam and blackened the skies for weeks and weeks flying in all the vital necessary sustenance we finally received said it was worse than Viet Nam.
I had been homeless and a houseguest with various friends for 6 weeks until I found a room to rent, and in bread, food, phone and mail lines for 6 months, but the fear from the crime and treachery of the construction laborers who flocked in for the insurance, reconstruction and FEMA dollars finally drove me out after a year and a half.
There were no livable homes, so they set up little tent villages .. bathing in canals, doing their "thing" in public, and generally menacing the community. I wouldn't dream of going out at night. Living like a prisoner in that devastation and fear was just too depressing and overwhelming.
There was a bar that survived about 10 blocks from the house where I had eventually found refuge, and I was surprised 3 times by a guy passed out in the back yard. They'd get drunk and not knowing where they were, they'd just drop.
The last straw was a knock at the door at 4 am one morning by an armed guy looking for a cigarette, who shot at the roof when he was denied.
Thanks God, disaster recovery and relief efforts are well-organized and publicized now.
I'll never forget it .. the emotions, sights, the goodness of people and the smells .. especially the pervasive smells that blanketed the whole area for months.
Within about a year after Andrew, after much legal wrangling and some suspect behavior on the part of some of the directors, the residents of voted to dissolve the condominium association .. I think it was the first time ever for such a thing .. as over 75% of the 1300+ units were destroyed. We were then able to claim the insurance proceeds for the structures and common areas.
Documents determine damaged condos' fate
I know from friends that the Homestead area has come back slowly. My old location was in lawsuits and negotiations for years, and there's a new development going up finally. But the whole demographic and laid-back small country town atmosphere of the place has changed. The thousands of acres that had been farmed with the best produce and fruit anywhere gradually have given way to developments.
Of course, the NASCAR track eventually brought a new look and money to the area, and the place is booming with malls, outlets and developments ... Miami has come to Homestead .. mostly east of US #1, in the lowlands that once were farmland, and are now flood magnets in just heavy rainstorms.
A "then & now" media presentation by location
My before pictures .. the front and my delightful lakefront deck
The "after" pictures:
Hurricanes completely altered my life .. twice .. and finally drove me out of my formerly peaceful, country and suburban lifestyle in South and Central Florida after 30+ years. My life is galactically different now. I'm in a 1-bedroom apt. in a big city highrise, but I'll put up with anything to avoid hurricanes, even winter snowstorms. I just couldn't take that heart-stopping fear anymore again after finding myself in the hallway, under a mattress in the dark, praying the roof of the house I was in would hold during the storms of the '04 season on the central FL west coast.
I'll never forget them .. there will always be residual sad sad memories of loss and grief ..and scary flashbacks, but I'm here .. and darn grateful to God that I am. Life does go on, one foot in front of the other. God is good.
AFTER 10 YEARS, HURRICANE ANDREW GAINS STRENGTH
August 21 , 2002 — In the record books, it’s still one of America’s costliest hurricanes, and today NOAA scientists announced Hurricane Andrew was even stronger than originally believed when it made landfall in south Florida 10 years ago this week. Based on new research, scientists upgraded the storm from a Category 4, to a Category 5, the highest on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Scale.
NOAA - Hurricane Andrew Ten Years Later
Hurricane Andrew: Family's Recordings Survive
Andrew 15 Years Later: A Rebirth In Homestead
Local CBS weatherman, Bryan Norcross, was our hero ... his decisive advice, warnings and directions were a godsend .. we had him on the radio the whole time we could. So many people will never forget what a blessing it was that he went through this with us .. minute by minute ..for the whole ride.
As he says today, we had transistor radios then.. which are gone from the scene today. And they were vital, and he was our hurricane coach. I have had a crank radio since '04 that I'll never be without ... they're fantastic. I recommend everyone in a treacherous weather area get one.
Hurricane Andrew: Bryan Norcross Recalls The Storm (with video from that night from his bunker)
I'll never accept that only 65 people died during this storm. There were rampant rumors of refrigerated trucks full of bodies, and there were so many undocumented migrant farm workers living in shoddy trailer park villages on flat farmland, I have to logically think more people died, but I guess we'll never know.
Storm's howl fills the ears of survivors - good area and storm information
"The base once employed 6,500 military personnel and 1,000 civilians, making it the mainstay of the local economy.
Homestead was home to more than 26,000 people, with another 9,000 in nearby Florida City. Thousands more filled surrounding unincorporated areas like Naranja and Leisure City. There were sprawling mobile home parks where neighbors gathered Friday nights for potluck suppers, and migrant camps of Haitians, Salvadorans, Guatemalans and Mexicans hired to cultivate Dade County's vegetable crops."
*snip*
"She survived. Others did not. Fifteen people were killed during the storm and another 25 later died of indirect causes. Andrew demolished more than 25,000 homes and damaged another 100,000. It flattened the air base. Of the 1,176 mobile homes in Homestead, all but nine were destroyed."
*snip*
Before the storm, five condominiums made up Naranja Lakes, population 3,500, mostly retirees. Three of them died during Andrew. Hurricane experts say it was ground zero for the storm's impact.
Afterward, four condo associations reviewed the damage and voted themselves out of existence. The fifth decided to rebuild. Reconstruction took more than a year and cost half the property's value, said association president Len Anthony, 73. Had the 200 residents known that in advance, he said, they would have given up, too.
Today their condo still stands alone, surrounded by the weed-covered slabs of the others. People call it "The Dead Zone." In retrospect, Anthony said, "the county should've condemned the property and forced everybody to move."
More than 100,000 South Dade residents moved away. The migration altered the area's racial makeup, according to a Florida International University study.
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I absolutely detest high wind now .. it completely unnerves me. I get jittery every time there's a hurricane afoot, and I will continue to pray for those who face such a traumatic event. May God protect, guide and save them. He is so faithful and so good.