A little history-my date with Andrew

Originally posted to Hurricane Ivan blog September 10,2004


No link this time. Here's some history.

My grandparents lived in Boca Raton, Florida for twenty years. Every year we would visit them from New York for three weeks vacation, always at Easter. They would talk about hurricanes and getting ready for hurricane season. Each year in June they would buy all the items they needed: water, canned food, toilet paper, etc. Each year in November at the end of the hurricane season,they would use up the supplies. They would repeat this ritual every year. You see, they always had supplies left, because they never experienced a hurricane. At least not that I can recall.

When my mother moved to West Palm Beach in the early 802's and my grandparents passed away, my mom inherited the practice of keeping a "Hurricane Supply" of everything. We used to tease her about her supply. To this day if you are ever in Florida and need toilet paper, stop by mom's- she's got enough for the whole state.

After graduating from college in 86' I moved to Fort Lauderdale and got a job working in Miami. On August 25, 1992, I encountered Andrew.

As we all know, the storm took off from the coast of Africa in a straight line headed directly for Fort Lauderdale. I was living in an apartment on the Intercoastal waterway less than 1/8 of a mile from famous Fort Lauderdale beach. I remember sitting in the pool a few days before the storm. They were saying that the storm surge was going to be 20 feet high. I looked over at the water in the intercoastal and then over at my first floor picture windowed apartment. A twenty foot storm surge would end up reaching above my apartment to the second floor apartment. That was an eye opener.

So for two days straight, I sifted through my entire life's possessions. I'm a pack rat, so it was very tough choosing the few items I would be able fit into my evacuation vehicle, a Chevy Cavalier. Anything I didn't take, I put up as high as I could off the floor and away from the front of the apartment and the intercoastal. I still have the scratch in my dining room table from where I put my box spring mattress on it. I shut the hurricane shutters and walked away, thinking that I was never going to see my stuff again. Once you go through this experience, you never feel the same about material possessions again. I was fried and exhausted as I hadn't slept in three days.

For my evacuation shelter I chose to stay at a friend's house about 20 miles west of the beach, I think it was called Coral Springs. It was a three bedroom house and when I showed up with my stuff, I was surprised to find 10 other people there and 4 dogs and a couple of cats. Well pretty soon the power went out and it began to smell like a barnyard. And then there was no food, just some hamburgers that we couldn't grill because someone was a vegetarian or something. To the disgrace of my grandparents memory, I just brought a bag of chips. Anyway the wind began to blow and howl and it was a long night. We heard on the radio that the storm had turned at the last moment and went south to Kendall. Note to self: never shelter with people or animals that you don't know and that don't have any food. Nice to see they finally put comfort food on this year's official hurricane supply list that they send out.

Before the storm I waited in line about an hour to get gas. People were crazy and there were long lines for gas for people's car and propane for their gas grills. The reason they tell you to do this is because gas pumps run on electricity. After the storm there is no power for a long time. So no gas for a long time. And no cash from the ATM either.

After the storm, my friend and I went out driving to find power and a TV. We finally found a Kmart and I remember walking up to the TV section to find a line of people looking at about twenty TVs, all tuned to the same news broadcast. And there wasn't a peep from anyone standing in the store. The devastation in Miami and it's southern suburb Kendall, was unbelievable. The television showed footage from a news helicopter flying over the wreckage, and I remember thinking that the devastation just went on and on for miles and miles. We are used to seeing the results of a single tornado or some high winds, but not mile after mile of flattened houses. And no trees. Nothing.

Trees were down in Fort Lauderdale and the power was out, but nothing like Miami. When I got back to my apartment I found no damage at all. The roof on the apartment building across the street lost some shingles, but physically we were no worse for the experience.

Now a lot of people from Fort Lauderdale evacuated to Kendall because the storm was headed for Fort Lauderdale. They actually unknowingly evacuated into the path of the oncoming storm. I have learned through experiencing more evacuations since Andrew, that this is a very common problem and as much as weather forcasting has improved, we are still dealing with Nature.

My mom was in Ireland at the time of the storm, so I never even thought of going and staying at her house in West Palm Beach. She had food, toilet paper and no pets. I have since used her as my primary evacuation shelter when storms threaten my home on the west coast of Florida. Except this time, but more on that later.


When I did get back to work, I heard horror stories from people I worked with who rode out the storms in their homes. They spent the night holding their front doors shut with their hands so that the hurricane would not "breech the envelope " of their house. Once a window or door blows out or the roof goes, the wind gets in and interior of the house becomes twigs in minutes.

Most people rode out the storm in their tubs with their mattresses over their heads. They were instructed to so this by Brian Norcross a local TV weatherman who was simulcast on radio. He was a hero because he talked everyone through the storm. Once of the strangest things we learned during Andrew was that the phones worked throughout the storm because the lines are buried underground. And so from under their mattresses in their tubs, people would call in and ask Brian questions. Brian was great. He told them exactly when each part of the storm would go over each area of Miami. When the eye wall the contained the strongest winds approached each area, he would say to people in that area "you only have to hold on for about 10 more minutes" and sure enough in ten minutes the winds would subside. When the eye went over them and there is a natural lull in the storm, Brian told people not to go out even though it was tempting, because the other side of the eye wall was coming and they didn't want to get caught outside when the winds slammed them. I believe his individual efforts saved many many lives.

A level 5 hurricane roars like a train and now they know from studying Andrew that a hurricane spawns many tornados. Also, as my friend Hamilton told me, he looked outside at one point and about 15 feet off the ground he saw things just whizzing by in the air, just like on the wizard of OZ when Dorothy was in the tornado, but there were pieces of things, not entire houses. That's a good thing. He said when the storm was over, he and his wife and new baby pulled the mattress off their heads, walked our of their newly built house and then the entire ceiling fell in. The rain and water got under their roof and soaked the ceiling so much that it gave way.

People talked about being in their safe rooms and hearing the windows blow out in the rest of the house.

I made ice at home and carried it to work every day with me to give to one of my co workers to take home with her. Another coworker had to relocate up to Broward as they lost their car in the storm, so I helped her by driving an extra hour each day to pick her up and take her home from work.

At my job, we organized caravans on the weekend into the devastated area to take food and supplies to the people who worked with us. I went on one of those delivery trips. I'll never forget it. I saw a chain link fence bent over flat on the ground. Palm trees as sticks if they were left standing at all, and pine trees with branches left only in the direction of the wind.

I remember riding along and looking at the concrete block houses. I saw the roof gone, the windows and window frames gone, only the concrete block left. And on the inside I saw what looked like just a bunch of junk. I thought gee those people had a lot of junk in their house. It wasn't until I saw the next house and then the next one and realized, that's not junk. The hurricane, as it "breached the envelope of the house" and the wind got inside, became a powerful force that turned to the contents into a pile of junk. You could not find your way. All of your typical landmarks like street signs or recognizable buildings, gone. Houses all look the same with no roof. Trust me.

And it didn't really flood, but the interior of the houses got wet because at wind speed such as Andrew's, it drove rain water in between the wall of the house and the window frame, not to mention in around the garage door. Water will find its way in. Its like blasting your entire house with a fire hose at full blast.

I saw houses that looked fine from the street, but when you looked at the back of the same house you could see right inside the upstairs bedroom because the bedroom wall had blown out. One apartment would look fine, but for the one next to it you could see right into it because the wall had blown out. No rhyme or reason.

People couldn't get in to help people for days because of the downed trees and power lines. People had to fend off looters themselves because the police couldn't get into the devastation area. There was no ice to be found in Dade, Broward or Palm Beach County for months. There were no apartments available in Broward (the next county north) for a very long time. People who were displaced had to go somewhere.

I remember Katherine Hale, another Dade County hero. After three weeks of no national response to the emergency, she risked her job by getting in front of a microphone on national TV and saying the now famous line " Where the hell is the Calvary?? Some say that George Bush senior took a big hit himself because he was president at the time. A lot of people held him responsible for the slow response of the government. They said it may have contributed to him losing the election. Interesting that Bush Jr would be president now when all these storms are hitting Florida. Nothing biblical mind you, we just wonder sometimes.

Finally, after the storm we had counselors come and talk to us in groups at work. One counselor gave us statistics about post traumatic stress. She said a certain percent of people would experience sleeplessness, depression (no kidding), relationship problems, feeling guilty or responsible for not choosing to leave or better protect your house or family better. And she said a large percent would quit their jobs and move away. Which is what I did. But apparently I did not move quite far enough away.

After they go though something like an Andrew, many many people say they will never stay again. I was one of them, until this time when my personal situation won't allow me to evacuate out of state. Guess my luck is running out. I hope not, but we'll see. Writing this helps me to handle the stress. Like 99 percent of the rest of the west coast of Florida tonight, I would rather not realize what is ahead of us, but unfortunately I do. It is frustrating to see people oblivious to what might happen. Thing is, I was supposed to be living in Atlanta by now, but due to the job situation and the economy,guess where I am? Pinellas County. As of today, dead center for Ivan hitting Fla. And I can;t get out.

Tomorrow I'll share more evacuation stories from other storms, tips on making it through and my intention is to do a daily wrap up of how we're doing each day.

Tonight we rested and ate Chinese food. I order Chinese when I am in stressful situations. I have ever since I was in college, when while working in the theatre all day in the loud, dirty, hectic scenic wood shop, I would escape to the calm, quiet, clean costume shop and eat Chinese food. Something about it seems calming and civilized, especially when winds or things around you begin to get stirred up.

I don't consider myself a religious person, but tonight we'll take all the prayers we can get.And if you live in Florida and have to opportunity to go, get out and get out now. Take it from me and please don't wait another minute.

Oh yeah, you can leave a comment if you like. The blog is set up so your comments will appear here on the blog.

Take care and stay safe.