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Institute for Crisis, Disaster, and Risk Management Crisis and Emergency Management Newsletter Website |
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December
2006
Volume
11 - Number 3 |
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Remembering Hurricane Andrew By Maria Lyn Ramos It was mid August, just a few weeks before the start of the school year. No one could have predicted the extent of the damage. With my father out of the country, our neighbor insisted our family spend the night at their home across the street. We brought along our poodle. It was a sleep over. It was fun. The wind picked up speed and all I wanted to do was run outside and play in the storm – this category 5 storm. Then the power went out as the night drew deeper. We listened to reports from a battery-powered radio. The newscasters would later become local heroes, winning accolades for their dauntless reporting. I worried the roof would blow off. I worried something would happen to our home – to us. At daybreak we stepped outside in utter awe of the massive power of wind. We would later learn we had been the lucky ones – just a few miles south, the city of Homestead had been completely razed. We walked the neighborhood, picking up people along the way, as if on patrol, examining the extent of the damage. A massive banyan tree had plummeted just a foot from the house. No structural damage, luckily. The wind had picked up small dinghy from who knows where and dropped it in a neighbor’s swimming pool. The roads were impassable. Trees uprooted everywhere. We were sans power for two weeks. We cooked outside, everything was barbequed. We got to know our neighbors, shared with them, they shared with us. They became our major support; no one seemed to know how long it would last. Ice became a precious commodity – a black market emerged. Blocks of ice were sold for $10. The evening’s quite soon gave away to the roar of generators. School was postponed. The South Florida community rallied together around the loss, and on the hope of rebuilding. Andrew was the second most destructive hurricane in U.S. history. Total damage was estimated at over $26 billion – with that majority attributed to 164 mph winds. It destroyed 126,000 homes, left 180,000 people homeless and wiped out 80% of the area’s farms. Forty-three deaths were recorded, but perhaps many more lives unclaimed given the large number of undocumented workers in southern Dade County’s farmlands. Federal aid was slow coming – at a news conference Dade County emergency management director exclaimed, “Where the hell is the cavalry on this one? They keep saying we're going to get supplies. For God's sake, where are they?" Stringent new building codes for new homes and renovations of existing homes came into effect in 1994 because of Andrew. Insurance premiums rates increased by 100%, while coverage has dropped. In many cases, homeowners have had to purchase one policy to insure their home and another to insure against wind damage. For more information: www.nhc.noaa.gov/HAW2/english/history.shtml#andrew |