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CNN Live Today

Ten Years Have Passed Since Hurricane Andrew

Aired August 23, 2002 - 13:12   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: It was only 10 years ago tomorrow that one of the worst storms in the nation's history came ashore. Hurricane Andrew slammed into Florida with a fierce intensity.
Our Miami bureau chief John Zarrella was right in the thick of it.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOHN ZARRELLA, CNN MIAMI BUREAU CHIEF: That is Biscayne (ph) Boulevard right there. I can't tell from here with all this wind and rain in my eyes exactly how bad or serious the damage might be. Again, we are about five miles from the Atlantic Ocean from here, and it certainly feels as if -- well, this is an incredibly strong gust of wind now that we are experiencing, as you can see, and these -- this is backside of the hurricane, Of Hurricane Andrew, a tremendously powerful storm that has come ashore here in Miami.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COOPER: And with a look at Andrew's impact on South Florida, a man who looks exactly the same, John Zarrella, is live in Miami-Dade County.

FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: Minus the rain coat.

COOPER: Afternoon, how is it going?

ZARRELLA: Anderson, yes, some things don't change. So things don't change. Fortunately, I haven't aged too much in ten years, but you know, we didn't make it all the way to Homestead, which was hardest hit the day after -- the day of the storm on the 24th, but one place we made it to was Naranja Lake. So why I am standing here in the middle of all this? Well, before Hurricane Andrew hit on the 23rd of August, this was a thriving townhouse community. Hundreds of families lived in this area. Now you can see, it is just overgrown with weeds, it has become somewhat of a dumping ground. It is hard to say if some of this debris here is stuff that was dumped, or perhaps some stuff still left over from Hurricane Andrew.

One hundred and seventy to 180 mile an hour winds came down in here, destroyed this place, and the day after, on the 25th of August, we got our first look at Naranja Lakes and what it looked like the day after the storm. People were digging out. I guess, though, one of the miracles of the storm is so many people survived. There were only about 23 people who died during the storm. One woman died here, an elderly woman who lived alone. It was the only fatality, unbelievably here in Naranja Lakes. But we did have the opportunity earlier this week to talk with a mother and her daughters who didn't live too far from here, who rode out Andrew at home, and lived to tell about it.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CHICK BERNABE, HURRICANE SURVIVOR: When the broadcast was saying, you know, all the rooves are going to blow off, my mother said, No, I don't think so, it has never happened before.

JUNE MASTRANDREA, HURRICANE SURVIVOR: So you hear all of this rain, you hear the wind, and then there starts to be like this -- you could hear the nails starting to pop out of the wood, and at that point, I was scared. I was scared.

BERNABE: My mother was leaning up against the outside wall, and the wall -- she will tell you, actually moved. You could feel the wall sway. So it wasn't just -- so we were waiting for it to collapse.

MASTRANDREA: All you heard was howling of wind and then that is when we started moving from room to room, and at one point, I remembered the front door had blown open, and just all of this rain and leaves and sticks and debris were just coming in through the door.

BERNABE: In my mind, I imagined something out of the "Wizard of Oz," you know, like we were all going to be sucked up out of this roof, you know? So, it was very real at this moment.

MASTRANDREA: I remember there was like a bird on our patio, on our back patio, and it was in such shock that it sat there for two days after the storm, and did not move, it didn't flinch. And all of us thought it was dead, and then one day, it just disappeared. It just flew away.

BERNABE: Life went on, I guess. That is why I appreciate these pictures. That everyone here was in the same situation that we were in, with dealing with all of the construction and rebuilding, and we still took time out for -- to celebrate things like birthdays.

We're still all alive, you know, we made it.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ZARRELLA: So much has changed here in South Dade County, and the people who lived it, the people who have moved down here since will tell you that South Dade County will really never be the same. Some of this will eventually be redeveloped. Other portions have been redeveloped, but there are pockets like this all over that still have not come back, and may not come back for years to come. A quarter of a million people were left homeless, 125,000 homes were absolutely obliterated by the hurricane. Sixteen billion dollars in insured damage, $30 billion in total damage. The costliest natural disaster in U.S. history. And right now, 10 years later, people are unfortunately having to relive it, a lot of those who survived it, and the memories are not, certainly, all good -- Anderson. COOPER: Well, John, you mentioned this area you are in right now, Naranja Lakes, that it once was a thriving community. Why has that area not been rebuilt whereas some areas have? I mean, what makes the difference between an area that has been rebuilt and has come back, and an area that has not?

ZARRELLA: A couple of things, Anderson. Researchers say that some of the areas that have done the best in recovery were areas that had the strongest leadership, that people got together, or cities or communities -- this is unincorporated Dade County. A lot of unincorporated areas didn't do as well. In fact, a lot of people who lived here left. They couldn't even find them, to settle on property issues, on ownership issues. It has been ten years, and only now, we're told, has all of the litigation and everything being settled in Naranja Lake that developers can finally come in here and do something about this piece of property and maybe finally start to rebuild here. But a lot of reasons why some places did better than others did, and this was one of those areas that did not do well at all -- Anderson.

COOPER: All right. John Zarrella in Naranja Lakes from Miami. Thanks very much, John. It is hard to believe it has been ten years.

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