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CNN Live Today
10 Years Ago, Hurricane Andrew Roared Toward South Florida Shore
Aired August 23, 2002 - 11:21 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: It was 10 years ago today that Hurricane Andrew was roaring toward the South Florida shore, and when the storm was done, 126,000 homes were simply ruined. Florida's insurance industry was left in just about the same shape.
Our Miami bureau chief John Zarrella was there for Andrew. He is here for us now, a decade later, from what was the disaster zone.
John, good morning, once again.
JOHN ZARRELLA, CNN MIAMI BUREAU CHIEF: Good morning, once again, Daryn. That's right, you know, just a couple of days ago, Andrew was upgraded to a category-five hurricane by the experts at the National Hurricane Center and a team of meteorologists who studied this storm. Its maximum sustained winds now put at 165 miles per hour, and wind gusts up in excess of 200 miles an hour when that storm made landfall here in Southern Dave County 10 years ago tomorrow, and, of course, as you mentioned, 126,000 homes were destroyed by Hurricane Andrew, 61 deaths in the United States, 250,000 people were left homeless, over $600,000 dollars in insurance claims, and total damage was $30 billion, the greatest national disaster in U.S. history in terms of dollars.
And they are still feeling the effects down here 10 years later. We are down here in South Miami, where the folks of Habitat For Humanity are still building homes 10 years later. They built 200 homes so far down here, building 13 more in this development right here now, and it is all most of it for people who were displaced by Hurricane Andrew 10 years ago when they lost their homes.
We're joined by one of those people, Luz Newton.
And, Luz, we talked a little bit ago. Your house was destroyed. You lived in a homestead. What did you and your family do after the storm?
LUZ NEWTON, HURRICANE VICTIM: OK, we lived in a condemned home. The hurricane destroyed our roof. It caved in. And we weren't able to live in it, so we were -- a soldier came by, and he gave us -- basically, he took us to the tent city and homestead, and we lived there.
ZARRELLA: You lived in the tent city?
NEWTON: Yes, I did.
ZARRELLA: How long were you there?
NEWTON: I lived there for almost five months.
ZARRELLA: Five months in tent city.
And you told me earlier that you were eight months pregnant when you were in tent city.
NEWTON: Yes, I was.
ZARRELLA: With your second child?
NEWTON: Yes, with my second child, and it was terrible, the experiences we went through. I had my little girl, which at that time, she was two years old. She suffered tremendously with everything that was going on, the weather, mosquitoes biting her, the food.
ZARRELLA: And after your child was born, you had to go back to tent city?
NEWTON: Yes, I did. I had to go back to Tent City with my baby, and then after that, my sister, she took over, took my baby in, and was -- my baby was able to survive the mosquito bites and a lot of the things that we were going through.
ZARRELLA: I guess the greatest thing that happened since then, you now live in one of these Habitat for Humanity Homes. You moved in about six or seven years ago.
NEWTON: Yes, I did. I am grateful for that. I am grateful for Habitat for Humanity that helped me.
ZARRELLA: Last quick question, like everyone else down here, you don't ever want to see another Andrew, do you?
NEWTON: No. I don't. No, I don't.
ZARRELLA: Luz, thank you so much for taking the time to come out here. Ten years, tough memories being resurrected, Daryn, for lots of people who survived, went through Andrew. It is a changed environment, a changed community. South Dade County will never be the same again. It has been changed forever. It is clearly the case down here -- Daryn.
KAGAN: And, John, as someone who has lived through it and has watched the community build back all across South Florida, do you see some examples of lessons learned, some examples, too, where you are thinking, do these people not remember what just happened?
ZARRELLA: Yes, there two lessons learned, the people that lived through the hurricane, they prepare, there -- the building code has changed dramatically down here, but there are also tremendous numbers of new residents, people who moved down here, who still have no idea now what a major hurricane can do, a whole new population that has moved in down here. The county government and federal government are concerned about who really do not understand, again, what a major hurricane can do, because there are all new people who have moved down here. There is a big huge change in the whole demographic down here in South Dade County.
KAGAN: We should pull out some of the old tapes like we did last hour and make them mandatory viewings so people can see exactly what is possible. I understand you are going to be having reports on Hurricane Andrew and the decade after recovery all weekend long?
NEWTON: Exactly. In fact, we're going to leave here and go to a community later this afternoon that is totally desolate. Ten years later, it has not been rebuilt, called Naranja Lakes, that was wiped out by Hurricane Andrew, and right now, it's just an overgrown field; there is nothing left.
And, Daryn, real quick, I would be really amiss if I didn't say Eric Fegal (ph), who was a producer with us 10 years ago, called after the last hour and said, what about me? He said, I helped hold you down during that hurricane -- Daryn.
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