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CNN Saturday Morning News

Hurricane Andrew Hit U.S. 10 Years Ago

Aired August 24, 2002 - 09:04   ET

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

CAROL LIN, CNN ANCHOR: We're going to actually check back in with CNN's Miami bureau chief John Zarrella, who has been doing a special series on the 10-year anniversary. Ten years ago today, he was reporting on Hurricane Andrew when as hit south Florida. What are your memories from that?
JOHN ZARRELLA, CNN MIAMI BUREAU CHIEF: Well, Carol, I was just listening to you and Charles talk, and I know the most surreal memory have of the event was being down here in Cutler Ridge, as far as we could get that day, couldn't get here to Homestead, where we are today. And I recall that we spent the entire day down there, the looting started at about 11:00 a.m.

But -- and we had been up for, like, 36 straight hours as the storm approached and covering its landfall, et cetera.

And when I finally got home that night, and living in Broward County, about 50, 60 50 miles north of here, you know, the air conditioning is on, and you know, my wife had a turkey in the oven cooking for my family and my mother and father who had come to weather the storm at our house.

And, you know, it's so surreal, because here was total devastation, yet within 30, 40 miles to the north, everything was fine, it was almost a totally different story.

But, yes, 10 years ago today, that storm blew ashore at 5:00 a.m. Incredible power. No one could have imagined the level of destruction. Sixteen billion dollars in insured losses, $30 billion in total damage.

And when you finally got to look at it from the air, even the aerials didn't do it justice. It was so hard to get people's attention as to the magnitude of the disaster. It was mile after mile of roofs gone, of walls knocked down. Just total obliteration of an entire area. When people said it looked like a nuclear bomb hitting, it did look like probably what it would like when a nuclear bomb hit.

When you looked here at Harris Field where we are now, this whole area in Homestead was absolutely leveled. But it became the focal point of the recovery effort. A tent city was built here. And for five months, manned by the United States military, some 10,000 people during the course of those five months called Tent City home, because they had lost everything.

And, you know, within a month after the storm, we were interviewing survivors and people, and we ran across one woman who really epitomized and puts very chillingly the effects of Hurricane Andrew.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MORIA ORTIZ, HURRICANE SURVIVOR: I can't stay here no more. I hear that wind at night. Have you ever heard the devil breathing down your neck? We had the devil here.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ZARRELLA: And then some of the other things, like animals that were left out, that had been blown out of the zoo, that had been pets at people's houses, monkeys and baboons and big cats. All kind of new animals introduced to the wildlife here.

So for months and months after the storm, the different effects of Hurricane Andrew just kept being felt by the people here as the recovery effort continued. And that recovery effort, of course, still continuing here in South Dade County 10 years later.

This is John Zarrella reporting live from Homestead.

Carol?

LIN: John, when you say the recovery is continuing, what could be possibly be happening 10 years later?

ZARRELLA: Well, you know, the area has not completely recovered. There are places here in Homestead, or in South Dade County, that are literally the same as they were left after Hurricane Andrew. And some places are worse off. Naranja (ph), an unincorporated area not far from here, the poverty rate was 18 percent when it hit, it is 50 percent today. Some areas affected even worse now than they were 10 years ago.

LIN: Oh, sad to hear. All right, thank you very much. John Zarrella reporting live there in Homestead, Florida.

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