are stationed at a lot of intersections. They are stopping traffic and even we had trouble
getting through a number of intersections. You've got to have a good reason to be here.
You have to live here or have a good reason to be here to get down here. So we urge everyone
to just stay off the road. And that's the story here. We're going to head out and get
some more stories for you and come back.
Rick, let me ask you a quick question. What are people showing as proof that they have
a good reason to be there? Do they have to show proof that they live there?
Yes, absolutely. You need to have some kind of identification that proves that you do
in fact live in the area or I guess if you can prove that you own a business in the area
then you're allowed in. Other than that, no, they're not letting people through.
All right, thank you. Rick Levensall reporting to us live from Cutler Ridge.
We are going to take a commercial break. The time now is 9.09 a.m. Wednesday morning. We'll
be right back.
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would you? Good morning. Back now with more of our continuing coverage around the clock
of Hurricane Andrew and its aftermath. The time now is 9.12 a.m. It is Wednesday morning.
We are being simulcast on Love 94 radio. That's WLVESM 93.9. We want to remind our viewers
and listeners of that. We also have a couple telephone numbers we want to share with you
if you don't have them already. Get out a piece of paper and a pencil to write them
down. The metadata rumor control hotline number, if you have questions about rumors you may
have heard, it's 595-6661. That's 595-6661. And the Channel 7 information number is 930-5627.
That's 930-5627. We have a pre-recorded message giving you information on a whole number of
things that you may need this morning. We want to now join Spiro Canton from Southern
Belle. He's been kind enough to give us a few minutes on the phone this morning. Good
morning, Mr. Canton. Good morning. How are you? Tired and weary. How about yourself?
Ditto's over here. Anything since we talked last night, is there anything to report that's
improved? I think last night you were saying you were still waiting really for FP&L to
connect power before you could do anything about the phones to these damaged areas and
you were also having a problem with too many people using the phone lines for non-essential
calls. That problem still exists to a point, but we've got some good news for you. Up in
the Keys, our crews have been working all night near Lake's Prize. There was a fiber
cable cut right there and what occurred, that severed calls coming in and out of the Keys
and that was fixed early this morning around 6 o'clock and service has been restored. So
if you have family members in the Keys or if you're in the Keys just waking up right
now and wondering if you can call out, phone service should be able to be restored. It
should be restored right now and you should be able to call out and call family members
in the mainland. You were saying yesterday that at least in part your progress directly
depends on how quickly FP&L can work because you've got so many phone lines tangled in
with power lines and you really can't go in before FP&L decides the condition about these
lines. So it kind of gives us a gauge as to how FP&L is progressing judging by what you've
been told. Can you give us an update there? That's true. What was occurring is that we're
going from the north on a south type basis and that's the way that I think FP&L has put
together their grid and that's the way they're repairing. I know that the people in Broward
County are receiving many services back, their electric service and their phone service is
coming back quicker than the people in Dade County. The folks in North Dade are slowly
getting service back as far as electrical power and I think that we're concentrating our
efforts right behind FP&L as soon as they're giving us the all clear in different areas
and we'll be progressing south as FP&L progresses south also. How many people are still
without phone service in our area? It's hard to gauge that. We know that all our central
offices are up and running, again 24 under auxiliary power, but all 30 of our central
offices are up and running and in the Keys, only ones under auxiliary power, Key West,
all eight of those central offices are running. So what occurs is we get complaints, we get
about 19,000 complaints I believe yesterday in total of people who have called up saying
they don't have telephone service, but that is a little incomplete picture because I'm
sure some people down in South Dade whose homes have been destroyed have not been calling
us, but we also have received reports from people in the South Dade whose homes have
been destroyed that the only thing working is their telephone. As a matter of fact one
of our employees got a call from a friend of hers who was trapped in her garage and
she wanted paramedics to come out and called one of our employees through the telephone
line and she lost her entire house I believe, the roof came off and two bedrooms were totally
destroyed and the only thing that she had left was her garage and the telephone. We
have reports of that all over the Cutler Ridge area of Florida City where there might be
rubble around but the phones are still working. Some people have been wondering if the utility
companies out of necessity may pass on the cost of repair in the near future through
telephone bills or power bills, can you speak to that from your end? No I think it was too
early to even come up with an answer to that. Right now that's not one of our big concerns.
Right now our concern is getting the service back to our customers and making sure that
emergency services are up and running. I guess there will be plenty of time to reflect on
that but thank goodness the telephone system here has really survived very well. It has
indeed. I would think that the redundancy systems that we've been working on for the
last several years has really kicked in and I can't say enough about our employees also,
the people who were at different locations making sure 911 and the hospital services
were up and running plus the engineers and folks we've had out there making sure our
central offices are up and running. Some of their actions have just been bordering a
hundred heroic. Well the phone service has been one saving grace in all of this. At
least we've had that to count on. Two hundred of our employees have basically lost their
homes down in the South Dade area and I think most of them are working today. Are you still
asking people today to stay off the telephones until you can get all the work completed and
until FP&L can get their end completed? I think that's essential. What is occurring is
that the people who are trying to put everything back together are depending very heavily on
telephones to communicate. What is occurring also is folks that are inside their homes
and do not have power, one of the few things they have to do as far as communicating with
other folks is to use their telephones. So the capacity on our different networks are
just phenomenal. I mean I don't think we've ever been this busy and I don't think our
COs, our central offices have ever had this much of a volume. So it's important for folks
to realize that we're trying to help out as far as the emergency services are concerned.
To do that we need to have extra lines so the folks who really need the phones can have
access to them. So it's not essential if it's not an emergency we're asking people to stay
off the lines and if it is an emergency they need to get on the lines just to make it very
brief. Yeah I guess a lot of people are just bored because they have no television and
nothing to do at home and they're just sitting there talking to their friends on the phone
and they really should not be doing that as you say. Do you have any estimate on when all
the work will be complete and everyone in South Florida will have phone service restored?
It's hard to say. We're going to be following FPL from the north end of the county all the
way down to the south so we'll be shadowing them. As soon as they give us all clears for
different areas which means that the electrical lines are not electrified we'll be going in
there and putting the service back together for folks who have lost it. Now it's important
to note that there might be extensive electrical damage there but very nominal telephone damage
so we really can't gauge our repair efforts along with FPL aside from the fact that they're
going to give us the all clear that it's safe to work in different areas. So we might be
ahead of them in some areas, might be behind them in some areas but we anticipate that
we'll be following them throughout the entire county making sure that people receive telephone
service as soon as we get the word from them that it's safe for our employees to work.
Alright Mr. Canton thank you very much for joining us this morning. That was Spiro Canton
he's with Southern Bell giving us sort of an update on their progress and as you heard
him say the good news this morning is that they have reconnected most of the keys. So
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Good morning, it is 923 a.m. Wednesday, August 26th. For those of you just joining us, Channel
7 is providing round-the-clock coverage of Hurricane Andrew's aftermath. We are also
being simulcast on Love 94, that's 93.9 FM. We do know that still many of you, if not
most of you, do not have power restored to your home, so we will do the best we can in
describing new pictures that we get in and making it easy for you to relate even though
you don't have the visuals. And in some cases, Joan, we have people who have had their power
just turned on this morning or late yesterday, and maybe they haven't seen a lot of the pictures
that we've been showing over the last day and a half, two days. So we're going to show
you some of those pictures again, here are some right now. This is Florida City, pictures
of the devastation in Florida City, you can see the trees down there. We are going to
continue to do this, forgive us for you people who have seen these pictures before, if you
have, we have so many people who just haven't seen them. You can see the businesses boarded
up there, actually that shopping mall didn't take quite as much of a hit as a lot of places,
but you can see here some buildings just destroyed.
It's almost like a 90% loss in Homestead in Florida City and the surrounding area.
It is, that's what the city officials have been saying, a 90% loss. You know, it looks
like the aftermath of nuclear war in many places. It looks like an atom bomb hit them.
It's horrible.
There's no place for a lot of these people to go, but this morning the good news is that
our reporters are telling us there are finally some relief supplies making their way into
these cities. Carlos Harrison has been in Homestead and he was telling us earlier that
several semi-trailer trucks full of supplies, the baby food they so desperately need and
diapers and things are finally getting through, not only getting through but have arrived
and are being delivered. So today should be a better day in terms of the good news to
report and the progress that's being made rather than concentrating so heavily on the
devastation we can begin to talk about rebuilding.
That's true. Also, though, of course, the search and rescue effort continues and we
may in fact be getting some more bad news about fatalities today. The death toll was
at 14 this morning. I would venture to guess that it will rise today. We have a lot of
details coming into our newsroom all the time, a lot of new information. Let's go check in
now with Marilyn Mitchell who's in our newsroom at our news desk with the very latest information
on a whole number of things. Marilyn. Hey, we've got some very good news for people
actually who were hit harder. Believe it or not, these people are soon going to be able
to get their mail. People in Homestead who have no homes, I know it sounds impossible
to deliver mail when there's no house there, but the U.S. Postal Service says it is setting
up a temporary post office. No details yet how they're going to do this, but they're
going to set up in Homestead, Key Biscayne, in all the areas that were hit the hardest.
They are going to have this general mail delivery as soon as they possibly can. They
said the services they will be providing are very, very minimum, certainly delivering mail
and possibly taking packages or letters to be mailed. They won't give us a time. They're
just saying that they hope to get something going before long. So that's some very, very
good news. For people who are feeling really down and out, depressed about this, and I
suspect there are a lot of people out there, there are some psychiatrists who are offering
their services free of charge. They are standing by ready to take phone calls. If you have
a pencil and paper, we've had a lot of requests for this. The number is area code 305-462-HELP.
It's area code 305-462-HELP. This is the Community Psychiatric Centers of Fort Lauderdale offering
their services to anyone who's depressed, wants to talk, needs to get on the phone.
I know we're not supposed to type phone lines, but I think for some of these people who are
really, really feeling like they don't know where to turn, it might do them some good to
get on the phone and talk. A lot of people bored today, don't know what to do with their
time, want to go to the beach. Well, if you want to go to the beach, forget Miami Beach.
The beaches are closed. As of 8.30 this morning, this announcement from the Office of Emergency
Management, they did not say why all beaches on Miami Beach will be closed effectively
immediately. No explanation, perhaps cleaning up. Who knows? That seems to be the reason
a lot of places are being shut down. Nova University, however, in Broward is up and running today,
so kids need to go back to school, may not be happy about that. People who are finding
themselves wanting to do something today, the American Red Cross can always use your
help. Call, look in the phone book. You have numbers for American Red Cross listed. They
need people to pick things up, to deliver things. Anybody who has nothing to do, you've got
the gas, you've got the time, they certainly could use your help. Also, if you want to
drop off anything, canned goods, food, there are several malls in Broward and Dave that
are collecting donations. Coral Square Mall, in the parking lot in front of Burdine's,
you can drop off clothing and canned goods. Broward Mall, in front of Sears. The Galleria
Mall, in the parking lot in front of Burdine's. Aventura Mall, in front of Fridays or Sears.
And Pompano Square, in the parking lot outside of Sears. That's it for now. I'm Marilyn Mitchell,
reporting live from the nature. Back to you. Thank you very much, Marilyn, for that information.
We're gonna go ahead and show you again those live pictures we had while Marilyn was speaking
of Homestead. This is downtown Homestead this morning. We did not get a chance to reference
this for you, but you can see that the streets are very empty. The devastation is incredible.
Basically, what you've got here is a curfew so that no one can travel south of Kendall
Drive, protecting Homestead, Florida City, Kendall, and those areas from people who don't
have any business being here, which has, in some part, helped get relief supplies through
this morning. Definitely. Although I heard that traffic going in this morning was just
horrible, that it was backed up bumper to bumper. I guess that's mostly people going
in, trying to check on their homes, as well as relief supplies. You can see, Joan, that
some of the streets have been cleared. The rubble has pushed off to the side here, so
they are at least, they have been able to do that so that relief supplies and police
and National Guard people can travel by car, can get through. We are being told now that
we have a Florida Highway Patrol representative on the phone. I'm sorry, I missed the name.
Grady? Grady Carrick, I believe. Good morning, Mr. Carrick. Can you hear us? Yes. Okay. I
guess the thing we can ask you, actually, is what we've been talking about, and that
is how is traffic flow into these areas now that they have the curfew set up and relief
supplies are desperately needed to get in this morning. Is it helping? There is still
a lot of traffic on the roadways, really entirely too much for our operational needs. We need
people, really, to stay off the roads as much as they can because it's a situation where
we can't get the stuff down to South Dade that we need to. We're trying to do escorts
for relief supplies, utilities, National Guard, FEMA personnel, as well as others that need
to get into that area, and right now we just can't get people down there. I'm wondering,
who are all these people who are trying to get down there? You would think that if they
were just joy seekers or people who had no business there that they would know that there's
a curfew and they're not supposed to be there. By this point, we've certainly been talking
about it enough. Do you have any sense of who these people are that are clogging the
roads? No, we don't. I have the impression that a lot of them are residents from down
there that are trying to go back and assess their damages and try and gather what they
can from their properties. But then again, I see an awful lot of people with video cameras
and still cameras going down there and taking pictures out of the windows of cars, and that
would lead me to believe that there are a lot of people down there that really shouldn't
be down there at all. As we look at aerial pictures of the traffic flow, let me ask you
about the looting situation. I don't know if you've been involved in making those arrests.
I guess every available law enforcement officer is. Is it getting better or worse? I don't
really have any indications on how that's going. I know that we've encountered quite a few
situations out there, and we've been called on by some of the local authorities and particularly
MetroDate to assist them in some of their efforts. We are really working well together
trying to alleviate that from happening. Again, it's just a matter of getting people from
place to place and responding whenever we need to. What are the FHP troopers doing mostly?
What area have you been designated to handle? Right now we have all available people out
on the roadways. We're handling a lot of traffic intersections, trying to expedite traffic
into areas where we really need to get people into. We're also assisting local agencies
in responding to some calls in some areas of the county. In addition to that, we have
250 troopers that were brought in from other parts of the state that are assisting local
agencies individually. They're pretty much detailed to specific agencies and given responsibilities
from the agencies they're working with. I want to point out that we are looking at live
footage of the Florida Turnpike in South Dade this morning, headed down towards Homestead.
While it isn't exactly bumper to bumper, it's very, very slow, I would say, moving in some
cases at about 10 to 15 miles an hour at the most. Are you all involved in keeping people
away from the area, like at the so-called checkpoints? How exactly does that work? Are
there one checkpoint where people are just being stopped and asked to show ID? Right
now, the National Guard is pretty much handling the majority of the checkpoints. They're assisting
us and local authorities are trying to keep nonessential people out of the area. They're
pretty much carrying the lines here as far as that goes. Are they really arresting people
for violating the curfew? They had said that they would. As far as I know, yes, they are
taking action where they have to and it's something that people need to take seriously.
Where are they putting people that they arrest? I don't know if you have an answer to this,
but last night, our reporters in Homestead were telling us they were arresting looters
and people who violated the curfews and putting them on buses, but they really didn't know
where they were going. Right. We're trying to transport as many of the arrests that we
make to the main jail facilities as far as any of the things they have set up in the
south end for... Captain Garrick, I'm so sorry. Unfortunately, we have to cut you off. We
have to go to a press conference right now at the Emergency Management Center for Dade
County. We'll get back with you later. Okay. Thanks for calling. Let's go live to that
press conference right now. They're going to meet today at 1 o'clock to find out that
information for you. Also, Octavio Viciato, the school board superintendent, he's meeting
with his senior staff to find out when school will start again. So they'll know that, in
fact, they're meeting as we speak. Also, we have folks with us from... We have Kate Hale
with us, director of Metro-Dade's Office of Emergency Management. We have Fred Teller,
who is the director of Metro-Dade Police, David Paulson, who is the chief of fire and
rescue, and also Jean Beck from Florida Power and Light. To start it off, we'll have Kate
Hale. Okay. This morning, we are looking at today's objectives being getting a lot more
food and water out into the community, setting up staging points where people will be able
to go and access those resources. The additional roads will be cleared today, but we're still
asking people not to get out in the areas if they don't need to. It is impeding the relief
effort. We need those areas clear if you don't belong there in order to get the resources
in to help the people who are in that particular area. If you have any questions of the emergency
operations center that are not available through the media, and I know the TV and radio stations
are providing this information repeatedly, but we are being inundated here with calls
for information that is widely available, so we ask you please be very careful about
making sure you have a valid, serious question and not inundating us with questions that
you can have answered by the media routinely. The community should start seeing a little
more normalcy today, and that's a good sign. We'll be back with you later today after we
get some reports on some of our agencies and what they're going to be doing, but most
of the agencies in the community will very shortly be returning to delivering services,
so there's a large portion of this community that is elderly that is dependent on services
coming out to the community. Those agencies are now assessing when they'll have those
services back online. We will be reporting that information as soon as possible later
in the day. We've been inundated with offers of services and supplies, and we are going
to be setting up some systems to help direct your calls and your donations and your offers
to those agencies that are in charge of delivering these to the community, so please bear with
us. We'll be back with you very shortly this morning.
Thank you, Kate. Let me bring you up to date about what occurred last night. In the restricted
area south of Kennel Drive, we only had to make four arrests for looting. In North Dade,
we made four more, so there were only eight arrests last night for looting. That's way
down compared to the night before and compared to the day. We had to make 70 arrests for
curfew violations, but of course they were minor things. We've increased one death last
night. We're now up to 14, plus one from the city of Miami, which brings the total to
date that we are aware of to 15. Prior, we'll talk today about them and the guard starting
some serious search kinds of missions, and so that number may rise, but it only went
up one last night. We have blockaded the south part of Dade. That is working. There are many
crews out now going up and down the streets, clearing the roadway, clearing the lights,
doing all the things that needed to be done. Broward's Sheriff's Department has sent a
contingent of 70 police officers. We're using those today to work our serious major traffic
signal intersections in South Dade to facilitate the flow of cars. We also have about 200
civilian volunteers that will be at different traffic signal intersections, helping you
get through those lights. I know it was a mess yesterday, but I think in some of the
major ones you'll see somebody there today to assist you through. We're getting a number
of requests of how they can help the Metro Dade Police Department, and we set up a phone
bank, 471-1753 through 1757. If you think you have skills that will help the police
department, if you'll call that phone number, they will take your name and your skill, and
they will assess that against our needs, and we'll try to find things for you to do to
assist if that's what you'd like to do. So we have set that up, and basically that's
what we went through during the night. Today we're going to be looking very carefully
as power is restored to doing two things. One is in the areas where we can lift the
curfew, we will attempt to do that. In areas where we can move it back, we will attempt
to do that, but it will be later today before we can make that decision. In the restricted
area, of course, we will be in the same kind of a mode that we've been in the past. So
I'll be glad to answer anything that you have to ask. Thank you.
Yes, sir. Do you have an update on the Metro police officer who was injured in that motorcycle?
Yes, he is in stable condition, and he's been the only serious concern that we've had. We've
had several minor kind of injuries, but he was the only major one, and he is doing fine
at this time.
And what's his name?
Mike McDonald.
Anything else people should know about as far as that 24-hour curfew in South Dade County
about getting in and out?
Well, it's not a curfew in South Dade. During the daylight hours, they can move about. At
night, they can't. But that's going to continue. There are six major crews that are working
South Dade to clear the streets and the lights, and we'll know tonight. They felt they needed
two days to do that. So we'll know tonight where they're at and what we need to do in
terms of what we can do tomorrow.
Do you have a firm number of how many officers or crime personnel have actually been injured
during this whole ordeal?
I don't have that number. I know there's been minor as far as we're concerned. It's been
minor.
I'll bring you all up to date on how we're doing. Our call volume is starting to drop
quite a bit, so much so that we're taking our personnel off with a 48-hour shift and
putting them back on their normal 24-hour shifts. So that will give our people a little
bit of a break. Also, we have almost 60 outside people that come in from other counties. I
know when firefighters and paramedics are assisting us, we expect 100 more today, and
we'll start relieving some of our people to be able to take care of their own homes.
We have two hospitals that are down, Daring Hospital and also Homestead General Hospital
are closed due to structural damage. We've opened two field hospitals. One of them is
at the Cutler Ridge Government Center and the other is on North Chrome Avenue and 16th
Street. So if you have any injuries and you can transport yourselves, we'd ask you to
go to one of those two field hospitals. And if you cannot do that, then call us and we'll
respond. We have some Florida forestry people that are riding on our trucks, and as we're
going through the areas, they're going to be helping us clear some of the streets. So
we'll be doing some street clearing to get our fire trucks and rescue trucks through.
I want to ask also, you know, traditionally and historically we've found that the greatest
number of injuries should start happening right now. We've got a couple days after the
storm, people are starting to get out and start working their houses. South Carolina
had a lot of chainsaw injuries, people falling off the roofs. So be careful. When you're
out there, you know, everybody's tired. If you have not used a chainsaw before, please
hire somebody to do that and do it yourself. We don't want to see any more injuries. I'll
answer any questions after having them.
Are the crews starting to feel worn out? Can you give us a...
Yeah, that's an understatement to say that. The crews are very tired, but the calls are
dropping now, so we're back on a regular schedule, and plus we're getting help from the outside.
And we're starting to put some of the firefighters and paramedics from other counties on our
trucks with our people to help to relieve some of that.
Can you repeat the location of the two hospitals?
Yes, there's one at the Cutler Ridge Government Center, which is 211th Street in southwest
108th Avenue, and the other one is North Chrome Avenue in 16th Street. These are full-fledged
hospitals. We have over 70 doctors and nurses working there. So those are the places to
go right now so we can take some of the relief off of the hospitals that are always there
that are still in service.
The forestry people, are they local or outside? How many of them are there?
The support people are from other counties in the state of Florida, and I can't think
them enough for sending people down to help us. Right now we have about 60, and we're
expecting probably 100 more today. They've been coming in almost as fast as we can handle
them, so as soon as they come in we try to get them into the operations in the south
end where we need them the most and put them on our trucks to help us with some of these
responses.
Are you still searching for victims and survivors out there?
Today our mission is changing focus. We were overloaded with responding to calls, so today
we're starting search and rescue missions. We're going to be going to the high-risk areas
like the mobile homes, areas where we know there's a tremendous amount of damage, and
doing searches. We're going to go to neighborhoods that have a lot of damage and talk to the
people that are there to see if they have any information about people missing, wherever
they were seen last, and us and the National Guard together will be doing search and rescue.
Do you have an approximate number of how many people have been injured so far, the ones
that you've taken care of so far?
I don't have that number today. We've been running a tremendous amount of calls. We'll
once things get completely back to normal, we'll total all those numbers and give them
to you.
Do you have a rough estimate?
I can only tell you that, like I said before, during the storm we had 150 calls come in.
Within two hours we were 300 calls behind. Within the first 12 hours we had ran over
600 rescue calls, and that pace has maintained itself up through yesterday. We're starting
to drop off a little bit, and that's why we're going back to normal shifts. We're able
to handle it with the crews that we have.
Are you getting some help from extra helicopters, since yours were wiped out at Tamiyama Airport?
Yes, we got two helicopters from the National Guard, and they are in service today.
Do you have any idea how many homeowners are in Homestead?
Hopefully fewer than there were yesterday, because we're trying to transition them out
into shelters.
How many were there yesterday?
I don't have a firm count on how many were specifically in the Homestead area. We know
that there are a large, large number of people who are now homeless in the entire South Dade
area, whether it's Homestead, Florida City, Goulds, Naranja Lakes. The entire area down
there, Leisure City, is very, very heavily impacted, and we're really focusing everything
that we can get into the area. We have now established a South Dade Emergency Management
Region to focus the assessment, to keep things moving, and to bring all the resources in.
We've sent a tremendous number of resources down into the area since yesterday, and we'll
be continuing to work and focus on that area today to get to those people who are in areas
that are so heavily devastated and get them the services they need. In many, many cases,
we're going to have to be moving them out. Monroe County has set up shelters in the upper
Keys, so we'll be taking people into the Keys or into our North Dade shelters, but
getting them out of the situation they're in until services and some normalcy can be
restored. Again, we need to remember how very heavily impacted that specific area was.
There's another point I'd like to bring up, and I really need the media to reinforce,
and that is for Monroe County evacuees who are going back into Monroe County, into the
Florida Keys. Please, even if it's backed up and it takes a while, stay on the Florida
Turnpike. Do not get off and try to move through Dade County. The roads are limited down there,
and we certainly need them for all the emergency service providers who are in the area. We
need Monroe County evacuees who are now returning to the Keys to not get involved in Dade County
background traffic, so please stay on that Turnpike south. We've had nothing to change
that figure at this point. That estimate still stands. Those were initial damage estimates,
and of course now we're going to be getting information as the weeks go on, but that will
take weeks and months. We'll get them out to shelter. Those people who need services,
who need food and water, we are establishing staging areas where they can go and collect
that. There will be various stages of the process, and there will be people who need
immediate sheltering, people who need long-term sheltering, and people who need temporary
housing until they're ultimately permanently relocated, and that temporary housing process
may take months. As I told you before, the minute we have that, we'll bring it to you
so it can go right out to the public. As I said, as soon as I have the figure, I'll be
back with you. To use chlorine or to use iodine, and that information all the media has. They've
been rebroadcasting it. Rumor control has it, but again, they need to add iodine or
chlorine to that water to disinfect it. What's the biggest threat right now? Is it health
concerns, traffic safety? What's the biggest concern? The biggest concern in the South
Dade area is still, because of the devastation, debris, people being injured trying to repair
their homes, people who need food, water, and medical services. Do you have any figures
on the leaf supplies? How many tons of food, for example, have come in? Tremendous numbers
have come in, and I don't have a total on that for you, because right now, instead of
totaling it up, what we're doing is trying to get it out to the areas. We will have those
figures available, but right now, you know, reporting the total reports on that will
be forthcoming. We're getting everything, and we're getting road crews and firefighters
and police officers and debris clearance equipment and personnel. We've had a number of
mobile communications vans come in that are being staged around the area to reestablish
communications for emergency responders and for relief providers. We've had food, water,
and other things come in. So the medical supplies and support that have come in have been tremendous.
We have two field hospitals that are set up. We have nurses who have been flown in from
all over the country. So those services and supplies are coming in in great numbers. We
are very, very grateful to the other Florida counties in particular for the tremendous
contributions they've made, as well as the state and federal agencies. In terms of food
and supplies, then you're not looking to the private sector, the grocery chains, on their
own, to be able to normalize the flow of food? No, that's absolutely not true. Once those
normal food resources are reestablished, that's going to take care of much of the community.
But much of the community is still going to be dependent on relief supplies because their
homes have been destroyed and their normal homes and ability to access resources has
been impacted or completely destroyed. Do you have an update on what's happening on
Key Biscayne, whether you've had a chance to take a look at it? Well, the damage assessment
reports are coming in from Key Biscayne, and as you know, there's a lot of damage, and
we'll have more information on that as they provide it. We put a call out for food and
water for those who are going to be needing it, and that is really the first and foremost,
and certainly for medical services. Those supplies are now coming in. The disaster relief
agencies will soon be in place, as well as a lot of the agencies who normally provide
these services in the community will be back online and able to discharge what are their
normal and routine responsibilities. So I think by the end of today, we'll see a tremendous
amount going back into the community as opposed to that first rough 36-period hour after the
storm first hit. Just a couple more things, and I'll be through. One, Key Biscayne is
open to the residents who live there only. We've put fire and rescue vehicles back over
there, and some of the streets are open so the residents can go back. The other is, I
need to re-emphasize what we said earlier, is that we'd ask you all to stay off the streets
if you don't have a reason to be there. We don't need any sites here. We're having a
great amount of difficulty getting our fire trucks around due to the debris on the roads,
but also because of the heavy load of traffic, and most of the traffic that we're running
into is just people just looking. So if you don't have a reason to be out there, please
stay in your home and stay in your neighborhood, and don't save the sites until later until
we get back to normal. Thank you. Are there any other questions?
Good morning. My name is Gene Beck with Florida Power and Light. I'd like to take this
opportunity to give you a brief update. We will be holding a press conference in our
office at 9250 West Flagler Street at 10 a.m., which is approximately eight minutes from
now. For those of you, we are continuing to work 24 hours a day for the duration of
the effort to get our customers back in service. We now have approximately 640 of our own
crews that are working. We have brought in, by the end of the day, we will have approximately
2,000 additional personnel from other utilities that we have initial agreements with. That
includes Florida Power Corporation, Tampa Electric, Georgia Power, and also South Carolina.
We urge you to continue to be aware of the safety aspects if you have down wires in your
area. As we begin to restore power, please be very careful. Avoid contact with those
lines. Your safety is our concern. It's so important. Also, as services begin to be
restored, we will be having certain neighborhoods that come on perhaps a little faster than
others. With the large amount of damage in the area, lines down and so on, it's going
to take some time. Please be patient with us. We are working around the clock and we'll
do everything as quickly as absolutely possible. Again, we are having a press conference in
the G.O. at 9250 West Flagler in the next few minutes. Once that information is available,
we are now simulating the data that can be released. We'll be glad to give it to you
at that time. Thank you. I don't have an exact number. Again, it's widespread damage
continues throughout Dade County, especially in the South Dade area. One more note before
we conclude. For all Dade County employees, Dade County Manager Joaquin O'Vingro is meeting
with his staff, with his directors today, and we will let you know when you are to report
back to work later this afternoon. So as more information becomes available, we'll give
it to you. Thank you. You have been listening to a live press conference from Dade County
Emergency Management officials. High points today. Basically, they're concentrating on
getting food and water and medical services to the people that are desperately needed
in South Dade. They're setting up checkpoints for people that can get to those checkpoints
themselves, either by car or on foot, with food and water and medical services there.
They are also trying to get other people who can't get to those checkpoints on buses to
get them to shelters where their supplies are available. It sounded, according to Fred
Taylor, Director of Metro Day Police, that the number of looting cases was way down.
Like I think you said, they arrested eight people in all last night, which is tremendously
down. There were 70 arrests for curfew violations, but he said those were not serious violations.
And the other thing he said was that they are going to do some serious search and rescue
efforts today. Fifteen deaths so far in South Florida from all of this. One up from yesterday.
We are going to hit a live press conference at 10 o'clock from FP&L. I know a lot of you
are very concerned about your power. But in the meantime, while we have a couple of minutes
before that, we are going to go live on the phone to Michael Williams, who is in Louisiana,
where Hurricane Andrew is barreling through at this point. Michael, are you there?
Yes, Penny. Good morning. Devastation is the word here, too, unfortunately. I know it's
a word you all have used and heard all too often in the last few days. New Orleans fared
fairly well. There's going to be some flooding here. The eye of the storm passed southwest
of the city, but a little town called Morgan City, about 80 miles southwest of New Orleans,
80 to 100 miles southwest, is, according to all reports this morning, devastated. Also,
we are being told, and I might add we may have some video of Morgan City, that it's
already back to the station. If we do, perhaps we can call it. But also we're told that a
hurricane spawned a tornado, left 30 people injured southwest of New Orleans, and flattened
the mobile home trailer park. We, of course, have heard this talk too much in the last
few days about the devastation. Emergency crews are rushing to the Morgan City area
southwest of New Orleans, and also there is concern that Lafayette City, roughly an hour
and a half to two hours west of New Orleans, may catch much of the front, Andrew, as it
works its way up into Louisiana. So again, crews are going to be very, very busy here.
It's going to be very much a mirror image of what you're dealing with in South Florida.
They're just beginning to deal with it, just beginning to try and get a handle on the exact
nature and extent of the damage. New Orleans, again, was spared, or at least for the most
part, there was concern at one point that if this hurricane had come barreling right
into New Orleans, there would have been a huge, huge catastrophe because the city lies
below sea level. All told, they're estimating that as many as two million people along the
Gulf Coast evacuated to areas north to try and find safe grounds. Many of them will come
home now to find exactly what many people in South Florida found, and that is homes
that are no longer there in complete devastation. So we, again, must say that it's a sad
picture indeed here in Louisiana, much as it is in South Florida today.
What a problem with your audio, but we're going to try to hang with you for a couple
more minutes as we await an FP&L news conference. Quick question, have you been in downtown
New Orleans at all? I'm curious. I had heard that it was really deserted, that a lot of
tourists had left and not much was happening because of fears of Hurricane Andrew. Have
we lost Michael? Currently we have lost Michael Williams. We'll try to get back to him in
a little while. While we can fill you in on what Tom Burst had to say about the progress
of Andrew, he did say that the good news partially is that Andrew finally looks like finished.
The winds have diminished to something like 90 to 100 miles an hour. Andrew was moving
what, northwest through Louisiana? North, moving north through Louisiana, no longer going to
be a hurricane if he isn't already. But the danger then as he moves inland is the flooding.
But at least New Orleans was spared the wrath that Homestead and Florida City felt from
Hurricane Andrew. That certainly is what Tom has been saying, although Michael seemed to
be indicating that it was going to be just as bad there. We do have Michael back. Maybe
we should just pose that question to him. Michael, we have been talking with Tom Burst
and he's been telling us that Hurricane Andrew will not be quite as bad in Louisiana as it
was here. Is that the sense you're getting there or is it hard for you to tell at this
point? Kenny, really for me it's hard to tell. I'm having to go a lot on what we're hearing
locally. I know we've got some footage out of there. I suppose it's all a relative thing.
It's hard to imagine it could be any worse than it is in South Florida. I must tell you
I was stunned for the first time, believe it or not, as we've been running all over the
Bahamas and the Gulf Coast for the first time today. I got a look on a network broadcast
of some of the pictures out of South Dade. I must tell you I was stunned even though
I'd heard the reports. I know that the people in Morgan City are going to be picking up
for a long time, whether the devastation is quite as widespread. We simply don't know,
but we know in certain pockets it's going to be very, very bad. So these people are
going to be picking up for a long time in this little town southwest of New Orleans
and in other areas and it's going to be just as tough for them to pick up. Hopefully it's
not as widespread, but they're just going to have to go in and assess that today. Well,
Michael, we know you'll be bringing us stories from there, stories that many people here
can relate to, and we will be checking back with you throughout the day for those stories.
Thank you, Michael Williams from Louisiana. The time now is 10 o'clock. A few seconds
after today is Wednesday morning, August 26th. Channel 7 will continue its round-the-clock
coverage, also broadcasting on 93.9 FM. We take a break now to do an anchor change, and
Jim Berry and Kelly Mitchell will be joining you in about 30 seconds.
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As Director of Admissions here at HCI Career Training, I get a lot of satisfaction watching
our students getting the kind of skills they need to start their careers. Terry, what's
it like going to classes here?
At HCI it's fun. We're more of a family situation. It's not just a one-on-one.
Tina, why did you decide to continue your education?
The biggest thing that I'd get from my training would be a successful career. I need to be
doing something that I love and I feel this would be it.
Cindy, why did you choose computer training?
Because I can go to school sooner here than what it takes at college.
What makes HCI so special?
I think that HCI is part of my family. The instructors here make me feel like I'm at home.
Computer training at HCI can be the start of your career and business. If a career in
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I love, I love my Ross Challenger guy. I love, I love my Ross Challenger girl.
We get great prices every day of the year.
Name brand athletic shoes. At department stores, $60. The same shoes at Ross, $35.
The only difference is the price. Denim jeans. At fine stores, $38.
The same jeans at Ross, $19. The only difference is the price.
My Ross Challenger girl. She gets great prices every day of the year.
And good morning. It's Wednesday, August 26th, 10 a.m. Jim Berry manning the desk now along
with Kelly Mitchell as Channel 7 continues its round-the-clock coverage of the aftermath
of Hurricane Andrew.
And we want to make sure and remind you that we're not only broadcasting on Channel 7 WSDN,
we are also broadcasting on WLVE 93.9. That's Love 94, Miami, Miami Beach.
They have been our partners throughout this whole ordeal.
So I know a lot of you folks are still getting your information off of battery-operated radios.
That's pretty much the only way a lot of people can do things.
Something like, I believe it's now a quarter of a million people who are without power.
But things are moving. Power's coming back on slowly. I know I have it now and so do a lot of other people.
But for a lot of other folks, it's going to be a long, long time.
It is going to be a long time for a lot of folks. And that's why it's so important that so many of you
who are still without power, who still need services, stay close to us on the radio if you can.
And please listen to all the information that we have provided for you.
Why don't we start now by going to Marilyn Mitchell, who has a lot of new information.
She is manning our update desk, Marilyn.
We have some very good information for people whose homes were damaged in this hurricane.
If you need plywood, get a load of this.
We have got a company that is donating a truckload of plywood.
It is plastic plywood, but you can cut this into any shape, length, width that you want.
You just have to go and get the plastic plywood.
Here is the address. It is at 127th Avenue and Coral Reef Drive.
Again, free plastic plywood, a truckload of it.
127th Avenue and Coral Reef Drive.
We also have information that Builders Depot is now open.
That's located on Northwest 73rd Street.
They have got roofing material and I believe they have generators there also.
If you've got some spare time on your hands,
the Bureau of Prisons is looking for help to rebuild the Federal Prison Camp at Homestead Air Force Base.
That was wiped out during Andrew.
All of the prisoners have been transferred to other facilities.
So if you are looking for an inmate, by the way,
you best call the Bureau of Prisons to see where that friend or family member is.
Home Depot stores are starting to open up.
You're going to have to check your Yellow Pages and make some phone calls to see where they are open.
Most of them are open, we understand, except for in Kendall, Cutler Ridge, of course, and Perrine.
Those remain closed.
Builders Square and Hialeah is open for business.
They have got generators.
All Capital Bank branches in Broward and Palm Beach are open.
In addition, there are four open in Miami.
They are in Miami Beach, Hialeah, South Hialeah, and downtown Miami for people who need money.
Here's an interesting service.
If your phones are out, there is another company that can get you online temporarily until Southern Bell gets there.
So if you're a Southern Bell customer and your phones are out,
you might want to give these people a call.
It's called Telephone Engineering.
Here's their phone number, 948-3220.
Florida International University is asking us to call all employees to show up to work tomorrow.
They want to see you.
That affects both campuses.
Florida International University wants its employees back at work tomorrow.
Also Coast Guard employees, listen up.
All Group M officers.
Liberty will expire tomorrow morning at 7.15 a.m.
Everybody has to report to work.
If you haven't contacted your unit by now, please do so.
They're telling us that the incoming phone system has been knocked out.
There is a new number that has been set up.
That phone number is 767-6114.
767-6114.
And we have some bad news and good news here.
The monkey jungle.
Anytime we talk about animals in a disaster, people seem to really listen up.
I don't know why.
I think it's kind of animals affect us differently for some reason.
Homestead-based monkey jungle was destroyed in the hurricane.
Good news.
The monkeys are alive.
They survived.
I'm not sure where they were housed, however.
The monkey jungle has been destroyed.
The monkeys are well, alive and well, and they are being sent over to apparently other zoos
where they will find a new home.
I'm Marilyn Mitchell reporting live from the newsroom.
Back to you.
What do you do if you find a loose monkey?
I don't know if there's monkey control or not, if you can turn one in,
but we did see some pictures yesterday of Metro Zoo, and it was just incredible.
It looks like, again, it was another situation of where all the animals were safe,
but it's going to be two years before the place looks like it used to,
and six months probably before it can even be reopened.
You're seeing it right now as we're talking about it.
Part of the thing that made the zoo so wonderful was the landscaping.
You really felt like you were somewhere in the tropics, somewhere perhaps in the Amazon,
and there's just not a whole lot left of the foliage, not to mention a lot of the buildings.
It really is a tragic scene as we continue to look at the pictures of Metro Zoo,
utterly ravaged by Hurricane Andrew.
We did get a number of calls yesterday from people over in Busch Gardens
who wanted to fly over with supplies, food supplies for the animals,
but that's really about the best we can hope for right now,
because the zoo itself, as you mentioned, is going to be a long, long while before it's back.
Just another lovely little reminder of what Hurricane Andrew actually did to us.
Now we want to go live to Rick Leventhal, who's in Cutler Ridge,
and of course that's one of the places we first got an indication of how bad that this really was and continues to be.
Rick, how are you doing this morning?
Well, like everybody else, I guess I'm pretty tired, and I'm pretty shocked at what I'm seeing down here.
We just came from a neighborhood nearby called South Miami Heights.
It's near Richmond Heights.
It's an area we told you about last night that was also devastated,
an area we haven't seen too many pictures of.
The stories that we're getting down there are very sad stories.
These are people who don't have food or their food's going bad.
They don't have water or they have running water, but they can't drink it.
They don't really have a means to boil it unless they make a fire in their backyard.
More significantly, they can't get to a shelter because their vehicles aren't running or they don't have gasoline,
and they're saying that the people are not coming to them, that they're not getting the stuff they need.
They would like people to come to their area and bring them the food items they need for themselves and for their children,
and they're not getting it.
I want you to hear their stories, and we're going to start with a gentleman who we met in this parking lot here just a short time ago.
You're looking for gasoline?
We're looking for gasoline and food for the kids in the shelter.
Food for the kids?
Yeah.
We live on 208th Street there.
There's not much people around.
I mean, you guys are not seeing...
Some people are not out there with their radios to listen to, to hear anything, you know.
Have you tried to get to your nearest shelter?
No, because it's all filled.
I mean, some people, when the ceiling collapses, it's not worth going there.
The shelter? The ceiling collapses at the shelter?
Yeah.
You know, some people, my friends say it's not worth going there, so I stayed at the home.
But don't they have food and water?
I don't know, because my transportation, I have a car.
And you need gas?
Yes, I need everything else, you know.
I've got three kids trying to feed them.
We're cooking outside with two bricks and putting wood to cook them next.
There's flies, mosquitoes, everything coming out now.
We should go see some kids at 208th Street who's living outside.
This is the neighborhood near 208th Street and U.S. 1.
A lot of roofs gone, trees obviously, all gone.
Hey, yo, can we ask you a couple questions?
Have you guys...
Hold on, we're going to get out of the car.
Are you getting the help that you need?
Are you getting the food and the water that you need here?
No, but we have running water, but we don't have no kind of help, no food or anything.
You know you're supposed to boil that water before you drink it, right?
We're not drinking it. We're not drinking it.
We're just trying to wash out our clothes that were damaged from the storm.
We're not drinking it.
It looks like your roof held up pretty well.
No, it's in the back. It's rough. It's pretty rough.
We're trying to clean up some of it, but...
This all came out of your house?
Yes, all of this.
And the back is pretty damaged and everything is all blown up.
We just put it back together to try to keep it somewhere to stay because we couldn't even live in it anymore.
Have you been to the shelter, your local shelter?
No, no. We went to Gools the other night and lived with my sister.
And last night we came back and we boarded up the house so we have somewhere to stay today.
But no hope of power for a long time here.
And I guess the water won't be good for a long time.
And how are you going to keep your food fresh?
I don't know. We have to survive, I guess. I don't know.
This is your baby?
Yeah, this is my baby. I need some pamphlet.
We got water and everything melted, but we still need some pamphlet.
How was he during the storm?
Well, he was pretty quiet.
We had him hit in the closet when the windows were blowing out. We put him in the closet.
How old is he?
Five months.
What are you feeding him? You have some kind of condensed milk or what?
Do you have enough?
Some of it got lost and, you know, flying out of the windows and stuff.
But that's pretty much it.
Water?
I need milk for my baby too. He's only a month old.
One month old baby and he's got no milk.
I got three cans left.
Yeah, we see lots of them in the closet.
And the milk in the refrigerator, it ain't going to last too long. It's going to go spoil.
We threw away a lot of meat. Yeah, meat's going bad too.
We need it.
What we are concerned about is why the government can help every other country in a disaster such as this and not our own.
We haven't received any kind of, we don't have anywhere to stay.
We don't have any clothing. We don't have food.
All the information we've gotten was a water line, an ice line, which is not as important as having somewhere for our babies to live right now.
And they're not doing anything fast enough to help us and I'm sure that they can do better.
They're more concerned about the looters and the stores, which is a problem, than they are about the people in their communities, the taxpayers.
And I think something should be done very, very urgently, very soon, immediately, right now, like right now.
Okay, that was Dorothy Jones. Dorothy Jones speaking very eloquently outside her home in the South Miami Heights area.
These guardsmen are here for support and for maintenance and for security.
They're really, they're not here necessarily to pass out food and water, although they've gotten some people coming to this parking lot at Cutler Ridge Mall asking for,
you know, some water and they have been giving out a little water and food.
But we don't want to tell people to come here because really their supplies are just for themselves.
They only have enough really to keep themselves going.
Again, the place where people should be going for their food and their water are the shelters in the area.
Unfortunately, as I said earlier, some people aren't getting there and the Red Cross apparently is trying to get out to some of these areas to help these people.
I guess the best thing we can do is just pass along the areas that we come across that are in need of help.
Reporting live in Cutler Ridge, I'm Rick Leventhal.
Question for you. My sense is that a lot of the folks out there in those neighborhoods are keeping vigil over their property. Is that your feeling?
Yeah, they're keeping a vigil. But I'll tell you, Jim, I think what they're doing even more than that is just trying to make it livable.
You saw that woman who had a huge pile of what was once her possessions, her belongings and parts of her home that were soaked
and they had their clothes that they had washed with the water they have and had their clothes hanging up.
They took some boards that they had on the windows and were trying to put their house back together.
I think that these people down here are just trying to have some kind of a shelter of their own at this point.
Some of the live interviews we've been doing, Rick, with the officials, I know Florida Highway Troopers and things like that are saying that the supplies are starting to get through to that area.
You're down there. Do you see it the same way?
Well, the supplies may be getting through but right now, right now, they're not getting to many of the people who need them.
That's the only thing I can say. And I know it's tough. I mean, this whole area needs help.
It's block after block after block of homes that are destroyed and people who need the stuff.
And I know it's going to take a long time to get it to these people and that's what we're looking at right now.
These folks need help and it's a long time in getting here and that's just a logistical problem when you have all of these people who need all of this help.
All right, Rick. Well, thank you very much. Rick Leventhal reporting live from Cutler Ridge.
And we want to remind you quickly that it's now 10-16 on Wednesday, August 26.
For those of you who don't have power, don't have clocks and may have lost your watches in the storm.
We also want to remind you that in addition to this telecast on Channel 7 that you can hear us on the radio on Love 94, WLVE 93.9 FM Miami and Miami Beach.
Well, Rick Leventhal talked a lot about the need in South Dade County.
And this again points to the fact that the generosity of the entire community is so desperately needed.
A lot of relief efforts are being organized. And of course, county officials are doing all they can.
For more on that, let's check in with Craig Stevens now with Dade County officials, Craig.
All right, Jim. Actually, we just went through the press conference here a short while ago and we're just getting some new information in here that I want to share with you.
So I've got to tell you a little bit about it first.
Apparently, we've heard, we've received word here, I should say, that a number of monkeys have escaped from the University of Miami labs there.
And this might not seem like a big deal having a bunch of monkeys running around town.
But reportedly, we have had reports come in to EOC here that some of them were used in AIDS experimental research of some kind.
And that perhaps some of them, we don't have any indication as to how many, but some of them may, may have been under distress, infected with the virus as a part of this experiment.
First of all, let's talk to Officer Fernandez again here from Entry Day Police and find out exactly if we have an idea of how many we think have escaped and what else can you tell us?
Well, we do know that 300 have escaped. This happened yesterday at some point.
What the University of Miami wants to get out to the public is that they've been getting a lot of rumors and the rumors have gone out.
We've been getting a lot of calls as to the validity of these monkeys being infected or carrying the AIDS virus.
As far as they understand and as far as they know, none of the 300 monkeys that escaped do have the AIDS virus.
What they're asking the public to do, however, is if they do see any monkeys roaming around, they're not going to be harmful to anybody, try to stay out of their way.
They're asking if you can just put out some water, some food, anything they can throw out to the monkeys and then call one of two numbers.
Both are for the University of Miami Research Lab 547-5503 and 547-6804 and let the researchers know.
They will send somebody out immediately to pick up the monkeys and if nothing else, even if the monkey has left, they know an area of where these monkeys are going to and they can send the people out looking for them.
Have we pinpointed an area where some of these have been spotted already?
No. As far as I understand, we haven't gotten any calls of these monkeys being spotted and that's why we're asking the public's assistance in this matter.
Again, as far as you all know, there is no confirmation and I just tried to count all these numbers myself and haven't had any luck in confirming whether any of these monkeys are in fact infected and is part of this experimental research.
But your advice at this point would be to treat one of them, if you should encounter one, as though they perhaps could be handled with caution, but it's okay to provide food, water, just to maybe hold onto them for a few minutes until somebody can get there to get them into custody?
We don't want the public to handle them at all. We prefer just to stay away from them. Even though we understand these monkeys are not going to be harmful to anybody, we don't want anybody to go out and try to grab these monkeys and hold them for the U.M. research people.
If you can put some food out without having to get close to them and they stay around, that's fine. If not, don't try to stop them. Just give the U.M. researchers a call and they'll be out there looking for them.
All right, Detective Ralph Fernandez, thank you very much. Something else, another odd twist in this story courtesy of Hurricane Andrew. This we do not know is related, we could be, but then again it may not be related to the release of two baboons who at this point are still at large, somewhere near the Federal Pen and South Dade.
We understand they escaped from the U.M. Primate Center, which is just near the Metro Zoo at some point, and they are considered dangerous for no other reason just because their baboons and baboons are known to be hostile if encountered.
So if you see them, you're advised to stay clear, just call authorities and the appeal has gone out and I'm not sure where we are with this yet from the folks at the Federal Prison that someone from either the Zoo, Metro Dade, or from the U.M. Primate Center to call and please tell them what to do should these things be tracked down.
So again, that's what we have as far as the Wild Kingdom here at the EOC, some strange things happening. I'll throw it back to you and if you want to come back to us shortly we can run through some of the highlights of the press conference we had here just a short time ago, but for now, live at the EOC, I'm Craig Stevens back to Jim and Kelly.
All right, Craig, thanks a lot and he mentioned some of the highlights. Officials there stressed that they're working as rapidly as they can to try to get things back to normal. They stressed that it is still very important that if you do not need to be in South Dade, by all means, stay out of that area.
Apparently there are a lot of signs of a lot of curiosity seekers and joy riders going through the area with video cameras trying to capture the pictures of Hurricane Andrew and this certainly is not the time to do that because folks down there are in desperate straits.
You have to also consider the fact that a couple of days or a day after the hurricane blew through, the weather has been pretty good and you wonder what's going to happen to folks down there if and when we get back into this pattern of afternoon rains and torrential showers and just how that's going to exacerbate an already very difficult situation.
Yeah, that's probably the only fortunate thing. That and the fact that Andrew himself was a dry hurricane. They expected about 12 inches of rain out of this puppy and it only turned out to be about three inches, so I think that helped save whatever contents were left, but you're absolutely right.
Hopefully there'll be enough supplies, enough plastic to put over things that get down there before that does happen, but you know what's going to happen. I mean, this is too humid a climate for that to not be the case.
The encouraging news is that little by little things are returning to normal right after the storm. 1.4 million people were without power and now I believe that number is down to 250,000.
So you see that in just a couple of days, progress has been made. Obviously in the areas of South Dade, Perrine, Cutler Ridge, Kendall that have been really devastated in Homestead by this storm is going to be probably several weeks.
We understand that we've got the opportunity to speak to the mayor of Homestead and of course that's one of the places that just pretty much does not exist anymore, not only the town itself, but the Air Force base. These people are really dealing with an awful lot and is that correct?
Do we have the mayor now?
That's affirmative.
All right, Tad DeMille, mayor of Homestead. Good morning to you. I hope it's a little bit better morning than the last couple of ones you've had.
Well, I've been listening to your programming and we are improving. We appreciate the concern that you all have expressed for this community.
Well, it's hard not to be touched by what we've all seen and I must say it's probably very difficult to be the mayor, everybody expecting you to have all the answers and yet none of us have ever dealt with anything like this. So what are you telling folks at this particular stage of the game?
We're telling them to sit tight, that help is on the way, that it's being recognized, the devastation that's occurred here in both Homestead and Florida City and that we met with the governor yesterday. He toured the community.
The president was in earlier. It's just a matter of coordinating the efforts. We're exceptionally pleased with our neighbors to the south in Monroe County. They sent people up immediately.
North Carolina is here with officers. South Carolina is here with officers and the National Guard is here.
We understood even before the hurricane happened that folks from Charleston were on their way because they could so relate to this.
Yeah, absolutely. And the word that we're getting from the folks from Charleston, and of course it's hearsay, but they're saying that Hugo didn't hold a candle to what has occurred here in Deep South Dade.
Mr. Mayor, give us the game plan. Where do you begin?
That's the overwhelming aspect of what we have before us. We have begun generally with trying to provide arterial access to the community so that our emergency crews can get out.
As you all know and you've flown over it, the mobile home parks were just absolutely devastated.
The areas to the east of Homestead and south of Homestead have been places where people could reasonably expect to have survived a storm.
We want to make sure that no one is injured or is hurt in those areas.
Will you have to evacuate people, clear people out so that you can rebuild, restore power, restore some semblance of order before you can move them back in?
Do you expect that you will have to move people out of entire communities so that you can go to work in there and then move them back into their homes?
You know, the evacuation is almost self-determined by the quality of housing. In many, many areas of our city there simply is no housing.
So it's almost a de facto removal of people. We're setting up shelters. Homestead Middle School is a shelter. Several of the churches are helping out.
Waste management is coming in. We're setting up some housing for contract labor.
There's just a number of things that are taking place, but as far as the evacuation, we're encouraging those that obviously have no particular need to be here.
You know, we don't really need sightseers at the moment. You all, during an outstanding job with your aerial views and your reporters, let them see it on the TV.
Yeah, exactly. That's what I was thinking. Get somebody up north to record it on the VCR, if you wish, because we're going to show you just about everything you need to see.
Do you have a feel for whether you have accounted for everybody or is there a concern you may find some more victims when all is said and done?
We feel pretty good. We've not had any relatives coming in looking for other relatives at this point, and normally if one were missing we would be hearing that.
There's still a tremendous amount of devastation. We sent our police officers and the dogs into the worst areas, and thank God they're finding nobody, which is wonderful.
Yeah, it sure is. What do you do today? We know long range is still putting together, but on Wednesday after this has all happened, what's the primary focus for today?
Well, what we're doing today is, again, coordinating the offers that are being made throughout the country, really, with equipment, people, and those types of things.
We do have water restored in a number of areas in the city. Electricity is probably going to be a month or two months away.
We're prioritizing, as you know, Homestead generates its own power, and we're prioritizing the areas to be brought back online.
The command center, of course, is up. We're working on the hospital and other areas to bring them up.
Mr. Mayor, what about the long range economic impact? It may be too soon for you to address these issues with any thoroughness, but you're looking at an Air Force base that was wiped out.
Lord knows if the government will decide to rebuild it or not. You're looking at a baseball stadium you invested $10 million in. You've got to put a lot of money back into that.
What about the economic impact, a lot of jobs that have been lost? Do you expect that most of those jobs will not be able to be replaced because of what's happened?
Well, the baseball stadium, I toured the stadium yesterday, and the consensus is that we'll have spring baseball.
I guess it's kind of in Congress to talk about baseball in the middle of a disaster, but baseball does mean between $12 and $15 million of economic quality to a community.
The Cleveland Indians have expressed a great deal of support. They're sending food resources and other personnel to help out to the community, so they've made a very deep commitment.
Homestead Air Force Base, as you all probably know, a number of us went to Washington this past spring to meet with our congressional leaders and the chief of staff of the Air Force.
I'm, I can't say optimistic that we'll see Homestead Air Force Base again. I hope that we will because of the threat that was existing with Castro and others that caused Homestead to survive the first round of cuts.
That's a major economic commitment for the federal government to make to rebuild Homestead.
That could be a real double whammy, and to be truthful with you, when I was talking with Governor Lotton Childs yesterday, I said, I, you know, I worry about this because you know the government's been trying to do away with air bases wherever they could.
And he said, you have every right to worry about it. We are very frightened by the implications of this, so we'll just hope for the best.
I hope that we're both wrong, that the governor's wrong, and that all of us are wrong on that, but that's a strong possibility.
Mr. Mayor, for the community at large that's listening and watching and looking at this devastation, for folks living in Pompano, Deerfield, Boca, South Broward, what can we do to help?
The, I guess the first thing is again offer the prayers. If we can coordinate through the command center here at City Hall, the 247-1801 number, that'll be a big help.
I had, you know, I've grown up here in Homestead and went to Lower Matacombe Key right after Hurricane Donna came through in 1960 where we had the 200-mile-an-hour winds and the storm surge.
And I don't believe that Donna did anything differently than what Homestead had, with the exception we didn't have the storm surge, but the trees look just as though we had 200-mile-an-hour winds.
Yeah, what trees I guess would be the question there. There just doesn't seem to be anything left. And that's really hard for people to deal with when what they are so familiar with is now gone psychologically.
It just seems to overwhelm you and make it difficult for you to have the energy and the wherewithal to put things back together. Any psychiatric counseling, anything like that, or is it just really too soon to get in that position?
You know, we're not the first community to experience a natural disaster. And, you know, we look at what took place with Hugo, other major cities have received natural disasters.
And communities are rebuilt. There's a great deal of community spirit here. We have seen both sides of the pendulum of the human psyche where we've had really wonderful things happen among neighbors.
And we've also experienced the total outlandishness of the looters. One message I would like to put out that Chief Ivy and our City Manager Alex Muxo are saying is that don't come to Homestead if you're planning on looting, because you will go to jail and you will stay there.
Good. I'm glad to hear it.
A stern message. And on that note, Mr. Mayor, we want to thank you for joining us, and we want to let you know that we're with you, and chin up.
Well, we appreciate very much the interest that you've expressed. We've, you know, I've watched your broadcast, and you all have taken a very keen lead in recognizing the devastation here and the need that we have for help. And we appreciate the balance of what you're showing us.
Well, sometimes it just helps to have other people know what you're going through. So we thank you for joining us this morning. Tad DeMille, the Mayor of Homestead, and best of luck to you.
And you see that community pulling together. And I guess if there is a silver lining in all of this, it shows that in a crisis situation people can rally people in that community and people from other communities to help the folks in Homestead who need it right now.
Yeah, it's a shame that it takes something like this, but it does sometimes bring out the best in people. It can also bring out the worst. There's no question about that.
I understand from the law enforcement authorities that the number of looting arrests down, it seems to, that message seems to be sinking in. And I think the disgust of people, just your average citizen, who finding out that this was going on in a situation in Los Angeles, it almost seemed to be like a free-for-all.
Everybody thought it was okay to do. And I say everybody, that's generalizing, but a lot of people did join in the free-for-all fund there. And here it seems to be not at all socially unacceptable to be doing anything like that.
Right.
One of the things that's so important right now is power. You can't really do a lot of stuff until you have the power to do it with, and people are still concerned about that. We've got the president of FPL on the line right now, and boy, people would really like to hear from you right now.
Hello.
Hello, Mr. Frank. Good morning. Jim Berry here along with Kelly Mitchell.
Good morning.
Well, let's hope it's a good morning. Is it a good morning for you as you try to restore power throughout our community?
Well, it's clearly a better morning than it was yesterday, let's put it that way. We have managed to restore of the 1,000,004 customers that we had out at the end of the storm. We've been able to restore over 800,000 of those.
About 190,000 were restored just since last night, so we're making some pretty good progress. But we still have about 590,000 customers across the system out of service.
Where are those folks concentrated?
They are concentrated in Dade with still some in Broward. We've pretty well finished up in Palm Beach County. We've only got about 1,600 customers left out in the Naples area in the west. We've got around 100,000 still in Broward, although it's our expectation that we'll be able to get those cleared up probably by the weekend. But Dade County obviously is the one that's hit the hardest.
And some of these structures, in all fairness, there's nothing to restore power to, so it drives your numbers up, but it doesn't mean that you're not getting to those lines where and when you can. As you've moved well within Palm Beach and within Broward, those folks I understand are being shuttled down to Dade and start doing the dirty work that needs to be done there.
Yeah, that's exactly right. One of the things that has helped us is that we've been able to clear up some of the other areas faster and move crews in. And of course we've been moving crews in from out of state as well. We've gotten great cooperation from the other utilities in the state of Florida, great cooperation from utilities outside the state of Florida from as far away as South Carolina, and great cooperation quite honestly from all our suppliers as well.
Well, we maintain a fairly sizable inventory of materials and supplies for just this kind of eventuality, but not nearly enough to handle destruction in this magnitude. And so our suppliers have been doing a terrific job in our view of getting supplies.
Mr. Frank, it may be difficult for you to talk about specific areas, specific neighborhoods, but we've seen Cutler Ridge, we're looking at it now, wiped out. We've seen Key Biscayne, folks still not allowed over there from what I understand. Can you give us a gauge as to which area is going to be the most difficult for you to restore power and which area is going to take the longest?
Oh, well, there isn't any doubt about that. For anyone that's seen the aerial photos, clearly the area south of, let's say, 88th Street, from there all the way south is going to be the toughest, is going to take the longest. To be quite honest with you, in many of those areas we still have not been able to get our survey people in to see what needs to be done.
And that is part of the process. We have a survey crew that goes in first, delineates the problem, and then turns our crews loose on it. We haven't even been able to get into many of those areas to do the survey work, so the extent of the damage in some cases we haven't even been able to assess yet.
Obviously, this is not the kind of storm you're going to have every single week, but are there things that we wish we'd now done differently? I mean, is this a situation where South Florida needs to have all underground power lines or things that could prevent it being as bad as it is, or is it just one of those things?
No, I don't think so. I think when you're dealing with something that basically happens once in a lifetime or once in a hundred years, you have to assume that there are going to be some difficulties involved with it.
But I think that at this point we have been pretty well satisfied that the pre-storm work we had done, and I don't mean when we knew that Andrew was coming, I mean the general preparation for the storm season that we do and training employees that normally don't deal with some of these issues to work on storm-related issues and that type of thing, on having a reasonable supply of materials and inventory so that we can get started on the restoration process.
I think at this point that it has proved that the preparation work that we've done has in fact stood us in good stead, and I don't think in retrospect, of course we'll go back and look at all that once the work is done. Our biggest focus right now is on restoring power. Once that's done, we'll go back and have a good solid post-mortem, but my sense is so far that the preparation work is exactly what it should have been.
How many more homes do you expect to have restored service by the end of the day?
I can't possibly tell you that. We are giving briefings twice a day. We will be briefing the media probably around 5 o'clock this afternoon on our efforts to date, and then we'll be having a normal briefing which we just completed at 10 o'clock tomorrow morning. We're going to do that on a continuing basis as long as it makes sense to do that. Again, I would reiterate though that the toughest part of the job is still ahead and that the progress we're going to make is going to slow down as we go forward.
Mr. Frank, are there still live lines on the ground or have you been able to cut the electricity off to those lines? Is that still a real danger?
Yeah, it absolutely is a real danger, and I think that you folks in the print media have done a real good job on helping us get that message across, but we can't stress it enough. There are wires down, there are wires down all over the place, and the fact that a wire happens to look particularly benign and there aren't any sparks floating around it does not mean it isn't alive, and people should just stay away from wires, just period, stay away from wires.
Have they been pretty good about that? I don't think I personally have heard of anybody coming in contact and having serious injury or even death. People seem to be heeding that word?
Yeah, I think people are doing a good job. We have no indications at this point that we have had any casualties or any injuries as a result of people contacting the wires, but I think we need to continue to stress the message because the longer they're there, the more likely it is that people will start to take it for granted.
And I particularly worry about children because children are very curious, and I think everyone just has to stay very alert and very sensitive to the issue.
Okay, well Mr. Stephen Frank, President of Florida Power and Light, we thank you for joining us, and good luck in trying to deal with obviously a very difficult situation.
Yeah, we'll await new word at 5 o'clock this afternoon, and hopefully that will be a good word for most of us out here.
I didn't get a chance to thank him. I live in North State, and I was in the dark for about 20 hours, and when those lights came back at 1130, Monday night, there were the collective in my house.
Sometimes you don't wish this at any time, but sometimes we forget how much we do have, and it is a reminder when you can't brush your teeth and you can't go to the bathroom and you can't turn on the lights and all those kinds of things.
It does remind you how lucky we are sometimes to have what we do have.
In the meantime, we want to say it's 1040 this morning for those of you listening to us on WLVE and WSVN.
If you're fortunate enough to have your power back and your TV set up, we're glad to have you with us, but right now we're going to take a little break, and we're going to come right back.
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It is Wednesday, August 26, 1042 a.m., and you're watching Channel 7's continuing coverage of the aftermath of Hurricane Andrew.
Good morning, and we hope it is as good a morning as it can be for a lot of you. I'm Jim Barry, along with Kelly Mitchell.
And it's nice to see you folks out there. Hopefully you can see us. We understand that a lot of you now have power, now are able to use your TV sets,
and hopefully things will get better from this point forward. Charles Molino is standing by at the news desk,
and he's been accumulating all the information that you need to know at this point, and I'm sure much of it is sorely needed, Charles.
That's certainly true, Kelly. And in fact, we've been hearing for the past couple of days about the difficulties with getting food to people who need it.
The Red Cross has got logistical problems as far as actually getting individual small donations and taking large corporate donations,
which have been extremely helpful, but as far as actually handling small donations from various people, that's been tough.
So we at Channel 7 are going to give it a try. We're starting the seven food drive drop-off,
and we are setting up locations where you can actually take food donations to help out the people who've been slammed by the hurricane.
We have several locations. See if you can hear, listen for one that's near you. For people in southwest Broward,
or for that matter elsewhere in Broward, if you want to come in from farther in, or on the Dade Broward line, Palm Springs North Elementary School.
That is at 17615 Northwest 82nd Avenue. If you can make it out there with whatever food donations you care to bring, we would certainly be delighted to take them.
For people in Miami Springs, Hialeah, Hialeah Gardens, Opalaka, and that area, Hialeah Miami Lakes Senior High would be the place to go.
So it is at 7977 Wythe 12th Avenue. That is a Hialeah address, and we'll be taking donations there.
For people in Central and South Dade, try the Topic Air Flea Market at 7751 Bird Road in Northwest Broward.
The Tamarack Fire Department at 1649 01 Commercial Boulevard. That would also be a good place to bring your food donations if you got them.
And then in northeast Broward, King Toyota has been established as our drop-off point on Federal Highway in Deerfield Beach.
Now, as far as what we really do need to get, baby food, diapers, baby supplies, and canned goods.
If you can come up with any of that sort of stuff, bring it on out to our Channel 7 Food Drive drop-off points,
and we'll be delighted to take it off your hands and get it to the people who need it.
And any places that have collected stuff already and are now having trouble getting it someplace,
or bringing it closer in to where the damaged areas are, by all means drop what you have collected off at our drop-off points,
and we will see that it gets to the people who need it.
Meanwhile, we've got some word on water. Now, we've been hearing a lot about water supply problems around the area,
and some of this stuff may sound familiar, some of it may not,
but the Medford-Age Water and Sewer Authority Department is reiterating some of its alerts.
Of course, they're working 24 hours a day to get things going again and get water that you can actually drink to you.
If you have low water pressure or no water, do not call the authority.
They already know what's going on. Service will be restored as soon as it can be gotten back online.
If a pipeline is between your meter box and your home has been uprooted, it's up to you to call a private plumber to take care of that.
That's not part of their system. That is part of your own house system.
If the water is leaking out of the ground in the streets near you, then they do need to hear from you.
The number is 274-9272. Once again, if water is coming out of a main or a line in your streets,
then you do have to call in because that's not necessarily something they'd know about.
274-9274. It's important that all leaks are isolated from the system in order to get the pressure back up again,
so they must be isolated and then fixed.
As the water pressure gets back up again, we are being urged not to immediately jump out and start using it
because that can cause sewer backups. You may be getting more water. You may be delighted.
You may be tempted to start running it again. Don't do it.
It is important that we give time for the sewer system as well as the water system to recover from the hurricane.
So take your time and be very sparing in the use of your water.
If you are experiencing sewage overflows in the central and south areas, don't call in.
The sewage system was damaged and the necessary repairs are already underway.
Meanwhile, we are once again reminding everybody to keep boiling your water.
Don't brush your teeth with water that comes out of the tap.
And if you're taking a shower or washing in it, keep it out of your eyes and your mouth.
To wash dishes, same rules apply as for drinking water.
Be sure you boil the water or use eight drops of liquid chlorine bleach per gallon of tap water to get rid of any bacteria that's in it.
Of course, we'll keep you up to date with all the latest information as it comes here at the news desk.
So until then, back to you.
All right, Charles, and thanks for that reminder.
And you know, for those of us who are fortunate enough to have power restored,
it's easy to fall back into the old habit of hopping in the shower and not thinking about the water situation,
but you have to be careful to keep it out of your mouth and keep it out of your eyes even.
And we have a little bottle of water that we know is safe.
And you have to go to that even in putting your contact lenses in.
I mean, little things that you don't think much about.
We're looking at pictures from Skycam.
We're up above I-75 just at the mouth of the Palmetto.
And Maurice, can you hear us?
Yes, I can.
Maurice, tell us what we're looking at.
Okay, Jim, we're over the Golden Glades interchange looking northbound.
Traffic on I-95 that's going from north to south is now backed up for about two and a half miles.
It looks like everybody's coming back home.
When it gets to the Golden Glade, most of the traffic is still staying on I-95,
whereas some of the traffic is now going on 826, but it's just a little bit.
Most of it is still going down I-95.
Yeah, you're absolutely right.
That's what we're hearing, too, that all the people who were evacuated are now being allowed back in,
and that's just another ordeal to deal with on top of everything else is traffic problems.
We're seeing it right now.
Hopefully that's what these people are, people who need to get where they're going and not the folks,
as Jim was saying, with the video cameras who want to record this for posterity and get in other people's way.
Okay, the traffic you're looking at now, I can see at least two miles down the road, and it's the exact same as it is here.
Maurice, in terms of the condition of the roads, what are you seeing?
The road's real nice.
Traffic is moving.
It's not stopping, it's moving, but it's moving at the rate before you get into the Golden Glade interchange,
about 30 miles an hour after they go through the Golden Glades.
Naturally, they speed up a little bit, but there are no stopping in the traffic.
It is flowing, but it's just flowing slowly.
What are you seeing on the road?
Yesterday, I saw caravans of food trucks.
Also, at one point, Florida Marine Patrol was caravanning in 12 boats and that kind of thing,
and also we were seeing field units with red and blue lights, metadata police moving in.
Are you seeing vehicles that are directly related to hurricane release?
I haven't seen anything in particular like that.
Most of us see a lot of 18-wheelers that are on the road,
but I haven't spotted any particular caravan-type unit yet.
Well, maybe they've already gotten into where they need to be, and that would be good news for those folks.
18-wheelers may be bringing in some sort of supplies.
Even if it's just to restock some of the stores, that means there'll be things for people to buy.
Yeah, boy, it is backing up.
Maurice, if you get a moment, we'd like to come back to you.
Could you swing west over toward the Palmetto and maybe even southwest,
because we'd like to get a sense as to what's happening over there.
A lot of folks, I know, scooted out of town via the turnpike.
In fact, I know one of our sports reporters high-tailed us to Orlando,
and it took her nine hours to get back yesterday as it was bumper to bumper all the way back from Disney World.
Yeah, it was, and I know we got a friendly call from her roommate down on South Beach.
We're real glad to know that she got back.
There are still people trying to get in touch with other folks at this particular point,
but we do think in a lot of cases most people are accounted for.
You are watching Channel 7's continuing coverage of Hurricane Andrew and also listening to it on Love 94.
We'll be back after a short break.
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I think that people don't realize how much sugar they eat.
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Dental 7 wants you to know how to get help and how to help others in the aftermath of Hurricane Andrew.
The American Red Cross urgently needs volunteers that need non-perishable food and water in bulk loads,
and especially donations of money to help buy other needed supplies.
If you would like to make a donation or become a volunteer,
please call the American Red Cross at 324-2504 in Dade or 749-0600 in Broward.
All right, we are back with you on WSBN Channel 7 and also on WLVE 93.9.
That's 94 Love, Miami, Miami Beach, and it's 1053 on Wednesday, August 26th.
And that's Kelly Mitchell in case you didn't identify yourself.
I'm Jim Barry, and right now, for those of you who are listening to us,
we are looking at some pictures of a very devastated Florida city.
We're looking at trees knocked down. We're looking at traffic signals that are out.
Florida city on the outer reaches of Dade County civilization in very south Dade County near the Homestead area.
This is an area that I believe is largely rural, and as we go through some of these areas,
we see not a lot of property damage because frankly there isn't a lot of property in some of these areas.
It's a very open area, but we're looking at trees just smashed and looking at a lot of steel beams
that are just bent all to bits as people there also obviously were hit very hard by Hurricane Andrew.
And also, this is really about the southernmost boundary of the heavy damage.
Beyond this, when you start getting into the Keys, an area that so many people were worried about because of its vulnerability,
it really came off a little bit better.
And so the heavy stuff pretty much stops at Florida city and kind of works slightly north,
and then of course after that, the farther north you go, things improve considerably.
I'm wondering a lot about the people who do live in those largely rural areas,
because mostly we've been focusing on the heavily populated areas, of course Perrine and Cutler Ridge and Homestead,
but there's a little community down there called Naranja that is very rural.
I mean, you've got farms, and I just wonder about the impact upon those people.
Obviously, if the people in residential heavily populated areas are cut off,
you can imagine what it must be like for those who live in a more rural setting.
Yeah, it's not a pretty picture for anybody.
We're moving now into the Homestead area.
You're seeing some of the damage there, some of the water still standing, those types of things.
And that's a concern too, because one of the things that the folks told us about in Charleston, South Carolina,
was the standing water, of course, was a breeding ground for mosquitoes.
So there was big concern about the spread of disease, those kinds of things,
on top of what we're all dealing with now.
And as you can imagine, the situation is not the most sanitary.
So with all luck, if the weather holds out and it stays dry and we've got some sunshine,
some of that water may start disappearing, and we certainly hope so.
Right. It's been, of course, very difficult to communicate with people down in this part of the county.
The phone lines are down in many cases. You can't drive down there.
And so perhaps the best thing that a lot of us can do is write a letter and hope that it gets through.
And the Postal Service is announcing plans to restore some semblance of normal postal service to the folks in that part of the county.
And joining us now live on the phone is Cesta Eyre, a spokesman with the Postal Service.
What can you tell us about your efforts? First of all, are you there?
Yes, I am here. Thank you very much for letting me on.
We're working real hard right now.
The mail is starting to come back in from the outer areas.
In other words, mail coming into the Miami area is beginning to come in, and we're working to process that mail.
Today we're spending time at each facility that is standing to determine how usable it is and how we can get back in there.
Additionally, we want to meet with folks from the Dade Emergency Operations Center to work with them to try to establish general delivery points.
Now those are points where we will set up in areas that have been devastated by Hurricane Andrew
and have mail delivered to the customers by having them come to that location.
We will provide the information through the media on where those locations will be and what will be needed to pick up mail.
But rest assured, we are doing everything we can right now to return to normal operations.
What about mailing out?
I know there's a lot of people concerned that they don't know, you know, paying their bills and being penalized for being late and that type of thing.
I mean, you obviously can't speak for companies like American Express and that kind of thing,
but what are the facilities for people who need to get their bills paid?
Right now, those facilities that we know are returning as quickly as possible are up in the northern Dade area.
If they have friends who can get those bills up to the north, they, Broward County for sure,
it will drop in the mail and it will go to its destination with no problem.
The places in the south where we really have problems with collection boxes and offices, the same thing.
Once we ascertain where we are with our facilities and the establishment of the general delivery offices,
we will also deliver as well as collect mail going out.
Well, that's probably the best news a lot of people have had in a long time because you've got to get something normal going after a while.
How are your people holding up? I'm sure it's kind of rough on them.
I have to say that they're holding up quite well.
Many of our employees who live in Dade County were impacted one way or another by Hurricane Andrew,
but we had quite a few folks who came in to work last night.
We have quite a load in this morning. We'll be pretty close to normal, I would say, in a couple of days or so.
Will you be borrowing people from other areas to bring in to help deal with this flow of mail?
At this point, we've not had to do that. We do have access to those personnel and other resources,
but at this point, we're working with what we have, and our employees are responding in such a way that we believe we can get the job done.
Are many of your post offices back up and running, and can you provide us with some kind of list so we can let people know where they can go?
I can get a specific list for you from Dade County very shortly.
All offices in Broward County, with exception of some who may not have power,
and I think there may be only one or two without power in Broward County, that being the Hallandale office and the Margate office,
they should have employees there working, however. But all of Broward County, all of Palm Beach County, are operating as normal.
There are some offices in North Dade County, i.e. the Norland branch, I know for sure it's working,
and there are several others, and I'll get the list back to you within about 30 minutes or so.
Oh, good. That's what I was going to ask you. You said you'd brief us as soon as possible.
Do you have sort of a feel for when that might be?
I'm looking at about 30 to 45 minutes where I'll know what we have operating this morning.
Okay, Mr. Harris, we thank you for joining us, and I know that's welcome news for folks in those highly affected areas
to know that they at least will be able to get some mail and perhaps even be able to send some out.
Okay, it is coming up on 11 o'clock Wednesday morning, August 26, and you were looking at continuing coverage of the aftermath.
I'd like to call it the recovery now from Hurricane Andrew.
Jim Berry here along with Kelly Mitchell, we are going to take a break,
and Penny Daniels and Joan Lovett will join you for the next hour, and Kelly and I will be back at about noon.
So keep it right there on Channel 7 and Love 94 for the very latest.
Hang in there.
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Good morning. 11.03 on Wednesday, August 26.
Joan Lovett along with Penny Daniels.
As Channel 7 continues, it's round-the-clock coverage of Hurricane Andrew and the aftermath of recovery,
as Jim Berry's been calling it, and we kind of like that.
Yeah.
I want to remind you we are being broadcast on WLVE 93.9, which is Love 94 in your FM dial,
for those of you who do not yet have power, and we know there are a considerable number of you.
We are getting a lot of latest information all the time, constantly flowing into our newsroom.
Let's go to Charles Molino on the news desk with the very latest right now. Charles.
Well, Penny, we've got some good news to report for people in Hollywood.
Most of the areas affected by the hurricane, of course, have been under boil water advisories,
if there's any running water at all. It could be contaminated by bacteria,
and you have to boil it or treat it with a little bleach.
But the word from Hollywood is their boil water advisory is over.
So a little good news there to report.
Meanwhile, we have word for Coast Guard employees, all Group M officers.
Liberty will expire tomorrow at 7.15 in the morning.
Everybody will have to report to work.
If you haven't contacted your unit by now, please do.
The incoming phone system has been knocked out.
A new number has been set up. It is 767-6114.
That applies to Coast Guard employees, in particular Group M officers.
We have word from some homeowners whose houses have been damaged that you can get plywood.
A company is donating a truckload of plastic plywood that you can cut to any width and length,
and all you have to do is show up to get it.
It is being given out at 127th Avenue and Coral Reef Drive.
If you head out there, then you can pick some of that up, and it should come in handy repairing your house.
We also have a little advisory for people who are dealing with phone trouble.
If you have phone service but you're having a hard time getting through,
it's because the phone network is overloaded. Just wait and try again later.
And for people without phones, Southern Bell is offering free local calls at several locations.
45 Northwest Fifth Street, 75 Civic Court in Homestead,
2850 North Canal Drive East in Homestead,
14475 Southwest 264th Street in Oranje,
14645 U.S. 1 in Perrine,
10701 Southwest 88th Street in Silver Oaks,
and 15,000 Southwest 88th Street in West Dade.
Meanwhile, we have heard from folks at the Parrot Jungle.
The Parrot Jungle apparently is doing better than you might have expected.
They're in Kendall, but they're hoping to reopen by this weekend.
They did not lose any birds or animals, but the garden got hit pretty hard by Andrews.
They're asking all employees who can make it out to report to work.
That's at the Parrot Jungle, and if you are a Parrot Jungle employee
and you can't make it and they want to hear from you by phone.
Meanwhile, Flamingo Gardens in Davie will reopen for business tomorrow
and they're going to donate 10% of all ticket sales to the South Florida Hurricane Relief Fund.
Meanwhile, employees of Paper Wholesaler from the Perrine store, please contact your manager.
The number there is 553-3777.
Folks at Transatlantic Bank report their downtown office will be open until 2 this afternoon.
They're taking emergency loan applications. You can give them a call at 377-0200.
Also, Northern Trust has reopened its Brickle Avenue branch,
but the Coral Gables and Key Biscayne offices are still closed because the power's out.
Meanwhile, an air transport plane has been donated to help carry in supplies.
The pilot has called in offering his plane and his services.
Anybody interested? The number is 305-928-2565.
A little earlier we inadvertently reported all Home Depot stores are open. They are not.
The stores in Kendall, Cutleridge, and Perrine are still closed down because of storm damage.
However, the rest of them are open.
That's the rest of the Home Depot stores besides those in Kendall, Cutleridge, and Perrine.
The Builder's Square in Hialeah is also open for business if you need repair supplies.
And while we're at it, they've got generators.
All Capitol Bank branches in Broward and Palm Beach are open.
In addition, there are four of them open in Miami. They're open in Miami Beach, Hialeah, South Hialeah, and downtown Miami.
If your phones are open, we have word of another company that can help get you online temporarily until Southern Bell gets there to get you back.
It's called Telephone Engineering, and you can reach them at 948-3220, obviously with a phone that is working.
And they're located at 2647 Northeast 186 Terrace in North Miami Beach.
Florida International University is putting out a call to all of its employees if you can show up for work tomorrow.
They'd like to see you. That affects both campuses.
Registration has been moved back to September 3rd.
Classes will now start on September 8th.
Right now, power and water has been restored to the FIU campus.
And we had gotten some inquiries about what the situation was with FIU classes, so the word now is classes will start September 8th.
Registration has been moved to September 3rd.
And we have one thing to report from the folks at the Florida Lottery.
Apparently, the hurricane has taken a bite out of the Lotto jackpot for this weekend.
It was supposed to be $6 million. It will now only be $4 million because not many people here in South Florida have an out-buying ticket,
which is perfectly understandable because they've had other things to worry about.
And besides, all those lotto terminals at the convenience stores have been knocked out because there's no power to run them.
And, of course, that's going to cause a problem.
The Lotto jackpot will be only $4 million, which may not sound like a big deal, except, of course, that they do need the money because it goes to the state's education fund.
Meanwhile, we have just gotten word from the Dade County Schools Superintendent Octavio Viciato will address all school employees this afternoon.
That'll be on WLRN Radio and Channel 17.
All employees are asked to watch to get the latest from Dade School Superintendent Octavio Viciato.
That is all the latest we have right now. I'm Charles Molino at the News Desk.
Thank you very much, Charles. Good information. We'll get back to you soon.
Now we go to Craig Stevens, who's been monitoring things at the Dade Emergency Management Office.
And I know they had a press briefing a little while ago.
FPL was supposed to say something at 10, and Craig's got all of those updates for you in case you haven't heard any of it. Craig?
We sure have, Joan. Let me start off first with the American Red Cross.
They are accepting people at free shelters in the Southwest area, and they are Green Glade Elementary School that is located at 3060 Southwest 127th Avenue,
Kendall Lakes Elementary School that is at 8000 Southwest 142nd Avenue, and in Homestead, Homestead Middle School at 8th Street and Northwest 2nd Avenue.
We, of course, will be repeating these again, but just very quickly, Green Glade Elementary School, Kendall Lakes Elementary, and Homestead Middle School.
The Red Cross has said they are accepting people at those free shelters in the Southwest area.
Now on to this news conference held here just a short while ago to bring you up to date on some of what officials from various county departments had to say.
First of all, they are continuing their appeal. They say, you know, things are beginning to get back to normal, but they want people to stay indoors.
They still are trying to clean up the streets out there, clear them of debris and fallen trees and what have you.
Also, the live wires. Again, if you don't have to be outside, they want you to stay indoors and stay where you are right now.
As far as arrests, there have been problems with looting. We are aware of eight arrests, a total of eight, for looting.
Seventy other arrests for curfew violations. The death toll as far as a hurricane-related death, right now we know of 14 and dead, one in the city of Miami.
Now they went on to tell us that a number of people are calling saying they want to volunteer, they want to help the police department.
And the police said they would love to hear from you, they'd love to have your help.
And what they want to do is try to match your skills in those areas they think might be beneficial.
So there are two phone numbers you can call to get in touch with Metro Day Police to volunteer.
Their numbers are 471-1753 or 471-1757 if you want to help out the police.
Now as far as the curfew goes, it is still in place, that will go on tonight.
They're looking into ways of lifting it in those areas they think are secure.
We'll hear more about that this afternoon, but those restricted areas we've told you about will remain just that, restricted.
I should tell you, as far as the fire officials, their volume of calls has dropped dramatically.
They have people back on their regular shifts. They have a hundred firefighters from surrounding communities helping them out here.
So they hope to be able to accommodate all the needs that are out there right now.
I can tell you that there are two field hospitals that have opened up, one in Cutler Ridge,
which is I believe on 211 and Southwest 108th Avenue and also another one on North Chrome Avenue.
And they're advising that the greatest number, thank you, the greatest number of injuries happens right now, just after a hurricane passes.
What with people using chainsaws and so on, so they're advising people to be careful out there.
Again, they stress this is the time where there are the greatest numbers of injuries.
A note to folks heading back to the Keys, Monroe County and Vactuese.
You are asked by officials here to please not use dead county roads.
You're asked to continue on the turnpike because if you've been out there and they don't want you out there,
but you've been out there, you'll know dead county roads are a mess.
So again, you are asked to please stay on the turnpike.
Those who have their homes that have been demolished in this horrible storm,
you're asked to hang tight because buses are going to be making the rounds,
trying to round up people to take them to shelters.
As far as water goes in dead county, you are reminded to continue boiling your water or disinfecting it with fluorine.
Key Biscayne, we've had many, many calls about Key Biscayne.
The island is only open to residents, just residents.
Other than that, they don't want to see you there, they'll turn you back.
Florida Power and Light, you may have heard just a short time ago the president telling us they have more than 600 crews working.
They're expecting 2,000 additional crews to help them get the electricity back online.
They've restored 800,000 customers statewide, or I should say the Dade, Broward, Monroe, Collier, and Palm Beach counties.
There are still about 590,000 in Dade County that are still without power,
and they are doing their best to get that back online as soon as they can.
I just handed this here, let me see what this is.
All questions pertaining to the baboons.
I was asked about baboons that had apparently escaped from the University of Miami research lab.
Well that says all questions relating to those baboons cited at the Metropolitan Correctional Facility should be addressed through the UM research lab.
Telephone numbers there, 547-5503 and 547-6804.
So apparently those baboons have been cited, they have not been caught.
There are also 300 or so monkeys, very quickly before I go, 300 or so monkeys that have been spotted.
Let me tell you, we don't know whether this is related to the baboons,
but we had told you earlier there were some reports these monkeys are used in AIDS testing,
and some of them may have the HIV virus in them as part of some sort of testing,
but someone I talked to on the phone just a little while ago says they are quarantine monkeys,
but they are not, I repeat, they are not used in any kinds of AIDS research and development testing, what have you.
So we'll keep on top of that as well, and I'm just about in a few minutes to talk to somebody from Southern Belle
to get some telephone information for you guys and whatever else I can come up with,
so we'll join you just as soon as we can.
For now, at the EOC, I'm Craig Stevens, Penny Jones.
Craig, I'm wondering if you've heard about any reports of looting in other areas,
areas not in South Dade that was hit the hardest, like North Dade or Northeast Dade.
I'm going to have to double check, Penny, because if you saw the press conference, everything came kind of quickly.
I believe of the eight arrests, four were near the Kendall area, which was of course devastated,
and I'm going to have to double check, but I believe four of them came from the North Dade section of the county,
but I'll double check that. Again, eight total in arrests for looting.
Craig, I personally did not get to see the FP&L news conference.
I know that our anchors who were here before did, but if we have viewers just joining us,
could you just tell me whether you heard what kind of progress they expect to make
other than how many crews they're going to have on the streets.
Do they expect to get some more people online today?
Of course, they're hopeful. They say just last night alone they were able to restore power to 190,000 customers
just since last night. In terms of quantifying how many folks they hope to have back online,
they're not really able to do that. They're working on their list of priorities,
restoring power to those sections of town, your hospitals and agencies that are related to law enforcement and so on.
So they really can't pinpoint specifically where and how many, but they're encouraged just as I say
because last night alone they had almost 200,000 customers brought back online.
Terrific. All right. Craig, one more thing I'm curious about.
With all the people in South Dade who still don't have basic supplies like food and water
and all the problems they've been having getting supplies in, why haven't they brought them in by helicopter?
No, Penny, that's a very, very good question that I suppose we need to pose to them.
I don't know that it's related because we talked yesterday about a couple of the choppers actually
for belonging to Metrodate altogether. I believe that were wrecked at Vatemi in the airport.
I don't know if that would have anything to do with it because actually I believe there was a search and rescue.
But in any case, no, we have not heard anything of airlifts, which I guess that would amount to,
but that's something that's worth posing and we'll check on that as well.
Okay. Thank you, Craig Stephens, reporting to us live from the Office of Emergency Management
and probably saying it 10 different ways, but you get the idea.
Emergency operations, our emergency management, it's all the same thing.
It's the people in Dade County who are working very hard from various agencies to try to get needed supplies to people,
to try to get our area cleaned up and to try to get things back to where they used to be here in Dade County.
We are going to take you back to the press conference that these people held about an hour and a half ago.
Craig alluded to some of the high points, some of the things they had to say,
but while we have this time when we're waiting for our crews to get settled in their live locations,
let's go ahead and let you listen in, especially in case you missed that earlier today.
Okay. This morning we are looking at today's objectives being getting a lot more food and water out into the community,
setting up staging points where people will be able to go and access those resources.
The additional roads will be cleared today, but we're still asking people not to get out in the areas if they don't need to.
It is impeding the relief effort.
We need those areas clear if you don't belong there in order to get the resources in to help the people who are in that particular area.
If you have any questions of the Emergency Operations Center that are not available through the media,
and I know the TV and radio stations are providing this information repeatedly,
but we are being inundated here with calls for information that is widely available,
so we ask you please be very careful about making sure you have a valid, serious question
and not inundating us with questions that you can have answered by the media routinely.
The community should start seeing a little more normalcy today, and that's a good sign.
So we'll be back with you later today after we get some reports on some of our agencies and what they're going to be doing.
But most of the agencies in the community will very shortly be returning to delivering services.
So there's a large portion of this community that is elderly, that is dependent on services coming out to the community.
Those agencies are now assessing when they'll have those services back online.
We will be reporting that information as soon as possible later in the day.
We've been inundated with offers of services and supplies,
and we are going to be setting up some systems to help direct your calls and your donations and your offers
to those agencies that are in charge of delivering these to the community.
So please bear with us. We'll be back with you very shortly this morning.
Thank you, Kate. Let me bring you up to date about what occurred last night.
In the restricted area south of Kendall Drive, we only had to make four arrests for looting.
In North Dade, we made four more, so there were only eight arrests last night for looting.
That's way down compared to the night before and compared to the day.
We had to make 70 arrests for curfew violations, but of course they were minor things.
We've increased one death last night. We're now up to 14, plus one from the city of Miami,
which brings the total to date that we are aware of, to 15.
Prior, we'll talk today about them and the Guard starting some serious search kinds of missions,
and so that number may rise, but it only went up one last night.
We have blockaded the south part of Dade. That is working.
There are many crews out now going up and down the streets, clearing the roadway, clearing the lights,
doing all the things that needed to be done.
The Guard Sheriff's Department has sent a contingent of 70 police officers.
We're using those today to work our serious major traffic signal intersections in South Dade
to facilitate the flow of cars.
We also have about 200 civilian volunteers that will be at different traffic signal intersections
helping you get through those lights.
I know it was a mess yesterday, but I think in some of the major ones you'll see somebody there today
to assist you through.
We're getting a number of requests of how they can help the metadata police department,
and we set up a phone bank, 471-1753 through 1757.
If you think you have skills that will help the police department, if you'll call that phone number,
they will take your name and your skill, and they will assess that against our needs,
and we'll try to find things for you to do to assist if that's what you'd like to do.
So we have set that up.
And basically, that's what we went through during the night.
Today we're going to be looking very carefully, as power is restored, to doing two things.
One is in the areas where we can lift the curfew, we will attempt to do that.
In areas where we can move it back, we will attempt to do that.
But it will be later today before we can make that decision.
In the restricted area, of course, we will be in the same kind of a mode that we've been in the past.
We have been listening to a press conference from the Emergency Operations Center of Dade County.
I'm talking about the things that they're doing and the things that they plan to do today
to help in the recovery of South Dade, the area ravaged by Hurricane Andrew.
We're going to take a break here.
When we come back, there's a story coming up that I think is going to benefit a lot of you.
Carmelca Farrow is going to have some tips on how you can make life at least a slight bit easier
as long as you are living without electricity,
some things that you can do to make yourself and your family more comfortable.
It is 22 minutes after 11. We'll be right back.
The jobs of tomorrow are here, thousands of them, waiting to be filled.
You have to know the fields they're in, and you have to have what it takes to master those fields.
Because you can't get the jobs of tomorrow until you get the skills of today.
We'll start by calling ITT Technical Institute.
We'll send you a copy of 10 things every high school graduate should know about today's job market.
Call 1-800-942-0088.
When my clients call, I always take the phone call.
If for some reason I can't, then I make sure I call them back as soon as possible.
It's as simple as that.
The clients are entitled to compensation for their injuries and the lawyer they can trust.
The client that calls our office can be sure that he's going to be represented by me, Alan Taliesin, or me, Howard Gross.
For a free consultation, call the offices of Gross and Taliesin today.
We're the ones to call.
Cliff here at IHOP.
Some people feel just too silly ordering IHOP's Rooty Tooty Fresh and Fruity Breakfast.
I mean, it is a goofy name for two eggs, two bacon, two sausage, and two pancakes with your choice of fruit topping,
but it has to be a real wimp to be embarrassed by something like that.
I'll have the Rooty Tooty Fresh and Fruity Breakfast.
Nobody does breakfast like IHOP does breakfast.
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Rooty Tooty Fresh and Fruity, just $3.99.
That's $3.99 Monday through Saturday. It's your IHOP now.
Hurricane Andrew causing havoc in South Florida.
A frightening situation. That is why Love 94 and Channel 7 News have teamed up to guarantee you'll know exactly what to do.
Love 94 and WSVN will make sure that you'll never be without the information you need.
In an emergency, Love 94 will continue to simulcast Channel 7's updates, live reports, and news broadcasts.
So if you can't see us on Channel 7, you can hear us on Love 94.
Together, we'll help you survive this storm.
Good morning. I'm Penny Daniels back here with Joan Lovett.
We are continuing our continuing coverage of Hurricane Andrew.
It's aftermath and recovery at this point.
It is 1124 a.m.
We would like to remind you that we are being simulcast on Love 94 radio.
That's WLVEFM 93.9.
We would also like to remind you that we have a Channel 7 news information number that you can call.
You will get a recorded message.
It has information on many, many things, including what the power company is up to and those kinds of things that people want to know.
That number is 930-5627.
That's 930-5627.
Speaking of what the power company is up to, it's up to its neck in trying to get power restored to people.
And I think we've still got something like 800,000 people in Dade County who are without electricity.
That can be very difficult.
I mean, you've got to consider yourself lucky if that's the only problem you're dealing with.
But, you know, if you've got children at home or you're trying to sleep at night and it's very hot,
those are things that can pretty much wear on your nerves after a few days.
To provide some tips on what you can do to make life easier until your power is restored, here's Carmel Caferro.
By day, things are bad enough.
But at night, life without electricity is a challenge.
Sergeant Bill Kuhn of the Miami Shores Police Department told me security is a major concern for many of us.
It's very difficult.
Most of us aren't used to being in total darkness, which is what we have.
Of course, we don't want people to leave lights on when they go to bed and candles or anything like that,
which they really shouldn't be using anyhow.
But animals, like a dog or something, if you'd like to leave him in the house, this might be a good time.
Even if he's an outside dog, then?
Well, I think your peace of mind is probably a lot more important than perhaps some physical problems
that you might have due to having an animal inside.
If it gives you comfort, I think you have to take care of yourself first and deal with the other problems later.
Now, what about windows? It's very hot.
I think maybe there's a temptation to keep the house opened up, but that's really not a good idea, is it?
No, it probably isn't.
In some areas, we don't know what we're going to have fowling around.
I would not leave windows open throughout my house at night.
If you have to have windows open to sleep, absolutely the minimum, and preferably right where you're sleeping so you can hear people.
You know, you might want to rig up some cans or something around the window or something.
You know, so you'd feel better.
It probably wouldn't do a whole lot of good, but it would alert you to somebody.
This is really a frightening time, isn't it?
Do you find that your department getting calls from people who live in your community who are just unsettled by everything?
I know that Miami Shores was pretty lucky in terms of damage, but are people frightened?
Oh, yes, and we get a lot of people, they call asking other questions, but I think in reality they're just reaching out.
Number one, making sure that they can still reach the police department.
So even if they have to ask an ambiguous question, I think it makes them feel better knowing that there's somebody on the other end of the line.
And does their psyche somewhat of a lift?
Also, when it comes to providing light after dark, do so with caution.
Firefighter Lieutenant Richard Taylor of Hialeah warns charcoal and candles used improperly can kill.
Inside the best bed is flashlights, but of course flashlight batteries are only going to last a certain period of time.
And if there are ones that weren't wise enough to then get batteries, then there's candles.
But candles should not be left unattended.
Tyrosine lanterns really shouldn't be run inside because of the fumes that they give off.
The tame lanterns, if they have those, those are good, but they also give off an odor.
So basically, flashlights are number one priority, and candles probably would be second.
As far as cooking, no charcoal in the house. The fumes given off by charcoal will kill you in a closed area.
They can cook outside, of course, from the back porch, like have a barbecue.
We've got a long road of rebuilding ahead, but Sergeant Coon has a suggestion.
I would think the kindest thing that somebody could do to somebody is if you're okay,
even a guy that you don't talk to next door, you gotta go over and give them a hand.
Probably would do a lot towards making a lot of our lives a lot better somewhere down the road.
And things will get better. Carmel Cofero, Channel 7 News.
Nice to say that there is a lot of that going on in terms of helping your neighbor,
and it's very impressive the way that South Florida bands together in a time of crisis
and abandons all previously set up barriers of all kinds and just gets together and does what needs to be done.
It is impressive, and we hope it continues as we continue our recovery.
We are going to check in now with Channel 7's Rick Leventhal, who is live for us in Cutler Ridge. Rick?
Penny, we've been out and about. We've been going to some of the neighborhoods around here
to check on the damages and how people are surviving.
And I guess the thing that strikes me first and foremost is the fact that everyone has suffered.
Everyone has lost a lot in this area.
But I guess the most disturbing thing at this point to me is those people who started out with so little,
the people who started out with not much at all, and now they've lost what little bit they did have.
We've got some very sad stories to bring you, and I start with a woman named Betty Jean Johnson,
who lost everything in this Hurricane Andrew. Let's roll that tape.
We wanted to find out from you how you're managing at this point.
Well, we're just staying in the beds we can.
Ain't nowhere to go, nothing to do. All my stuff gone.
What are you doing for water and for food?
We're getting water from the houses down there.
From another house?
Yeah. No, down here in this water thing there.
Yeah. So you're getting some water. What about food?
Well, we had a lot. I had a lot of canned goods, and I bought canned goods, so we're eating on that.
I have a gas stove.
Your roof, obviously, is completely gone.
Yeah, the roof is gone.
And all your possessions, I can only guess where they were.
Well, I don't know where they were for me.
It was because a lot of them I had on my druggles, and I guess we didn't kid the most of them when.
Can we step inside and take a look at what's left of your home?
Go ahead.
Why don't you go first, Eddie? Why don't you step here?
Why don't you step from the other end?
How long have you lived here?
Oh, since 1961.
You've lived here for 31 years.
Mm-hmm.
How many children have you raised in this home?
Six.
You raised six kids here.
Were you in the home when the hurricane hit?
Yeah, we was in here.
Describe it for me.
We was in this part first.
Then we left out there, we came in here.
Then we left there, we went in here, and we could hear the roof leaving.
So then we ran back into the back room back here where we stayed until the storm was over.
What did the wind sound like when it was taking the roof off?
Oh, it was terrible. It was terrible.
It sounded like something, a big something just hitting the house.
Boom, boom, like that.
I was so scared I didn't know what to do.
And you ran towards the back here, which I guess is the only place where there's any roof left.
We went in the back room, back here where the kids were in.
Do you have any hopes of rebuilding this home?
Yeah, I hope so.
I hope.
Do you have any insurance?
No, no insurance.
Do you have any money?
Not a lot of money. I don't have no money that much.
I live on government things.
Do you think your kids can help you through this?
I think they can.
We had to survive in the bathroom.
My two twins, my granddaughter, two of my granddaughters and one of my grandsons,
used the bathroom. That's how we survived.
As the storm ripped your roof off?
Ripped the whole roof off.
The only spot we had just around it was in the bathroom.
Other party that took the whole roof off.
That's how my whole bedroom was set.
My baby's room, my den, everything was gone.
It was not just you, your whole neighborhood.
Just like this. Very bad.
Did any of your possessions survive the storm?
No. How could it?
Lost it all?
Does your room have a roof over it?
No, no roof. Good in there, look.
We are having to stop Rick Leventhal's tape.
We will get back to Rick Leventhal in just a few minutes.
We're stopping though because we have an opportunity to talk to Ted DeMille,
who is the mayor of Homestead.
He is up with our pilot Maurice Johnson in Skycam 7.
Mr. DeMille, first of all, let us say how utterly devastated we all are
at what's happened to your town.
This must be a very difficult thing for you to see.
It's extremely difficult.
It's difficult enough for a person in the mayor's position,
but I've grown up here in Homestead
and I've never in any dreams thought I'd see anything like this.
How is your home personally and your family?
In pretty good shape.
We lost some of the roof, windows, but everybody's healthy
and nobody got cut by flying glass and we're very thankful for it.
Mayor, I understand that roughly 70% of the people of Homestead
did evacuate their homes.
I've been curious and haven't had the chance to ask anyone this question.
Where did they go? Did they go to shelters in Homestead?
And if so, were those shelters damaged as well?
No, the shelters, we didn't have shelters open in Homestead.
The shelters were north of us.
Homestead in the category 5 planning maps is a floodplain,
so we did not have shelters available here.
So in other words, the people, the 70% of your town that did evacuate
went to shelters north and they should be relatively okay at this time.
Again, the most important thing as I look down on this devastation
is that people's lives were saved.
In buildings where normally one would think they would be safe,
they're built to 120 mile an hour storm standards here in Dade County.
Even those buildings that one would assume would be safe
have lost roofs and walls, etc.
And considering that, then it is truly remarkable that fewer people were killed.
Do you agree with assessments that about 90% of Homestead is a total loss?
Yeah, I would agree with that.
I don't know about total loss, but certainly substantial damage.
Do you even, at this point, how do you foresee rebuilding?
It will not be possible without a great deal of assistance
from both the federal government and the state level.
The governor was in town with us yesterday
and has assured us that we're going to be a priority for his administration.
I've not had a chance to talk to President Bush yet,
but I'm understanding that he's also declared as a disaster area.
Mayor, are you comfortable with what many public officials are saying,
that people are getting the supplies, the food and water
and the medical services that they need?
Or would you agree with some of our reporters who are saying
that there are many people who are totally alone at this point
and are not getting the supplies that they need?
To answer yes to both questions is kind of in Congress,
but I think both have a yes answer to them.
I don't think that anyone anticipated a disaster of this magnitude,
and it's taking a period of time to really bring the services to the people.
City Manager Alex Muckman and I were speaking this morning.
We're going to be sending police officers into the streets
with information for the general public.
One of the biggest problems we've had here is communication.
For the first day and a half we had virtually no communication
out of the city as far as phones and things.
So it's a matter of coordination at this moment
and getting the supplies to those that need them.
I know that the Air Force Base is very important there,
and they've called us with concerns about what the future of the Air Force Base is.
It's certainly probably too soon to tell exactly,
but how hopeful are you that they can rebuild it and re-employ these people?
I would think that the only real hope that we have,
I had an opportunity to go to Washington this February
and meet with General McKeek and General Lowell regarding Homestead Air Force Base.
The city of Homestead Air Force Base was a geopolitical location.
If those mission objectives still stand,
Fidel Castro, the importance of the Caribbean basin,
if those objectives are still strategic to the national interest then we'll be rebuilt.
If they're not as strategic as the dollars and the economy or the budget dictates,
then I do think we have a problem with Homestead Air Force Base being rebuilt.
Well, the first thing you need to do, I know,
is to get the homes and banks back on working conditions.
Mayor, I want to pose a question to you that I asked of Craig Stevens,
who's with the emergency management folks in Dade County.
He was going to check on it and get back to us,
and what it is is why do you think that they haven't brought in supplies
to some of these people by helicopter?
It seems so obvious of a thing that they would do
when these people are sitting there without food and water that they need.
I don't know that the helicopter is necessarily the way to bring it in.
The arterial, one of the things that we concentrated on,
I think that Dade County concentrated on,
was opening the arterial accesses to the community.
Those are generally open, so we are receiving over at the armory now
semi-truck loads of supplies.
So I don't know that helicopters is, you know,
that's pretty much an emergency way of bringing things to a community.
I think that we can now accept in well-coordinated manners
semi-truck loads of materials.
And the looting situation, Mayor, has that pretty much curbed off?
Well, our people, you know, we're very blessed in this country
when we have emergencies.
We have men and women here from South Carolina, from North Carolina,
from Monroe County, from other areas, Seminole County.
When the disaster first occurred, we could have arrested 400 looters,
which, again, speaks to the other side of our society.
But we couldn't do anything with them.
So we couldn't, by not doing anything with them, we couldn't house them.
We didn't have the facilities here in the community.
But in the last day and a half, we have arrested probably 120 to 150 looters.
And, you know, the message that we want to send to anybody
that's attempting to come into this community to loot
is that they will be arrested and they will spend a great deal of time in jail.
We have no tolerance and no patience for that type of activity.
One more thing, Mayor.
We have heard reports of people packing guns to protect their homes against looters.
It's no secret that many, many people in Dade County own guns
and have them all ready to protect their homes.
Have you heard of any incidents like this of people fighting back
against looters with firearms?
Fortunately, I've not heard of any shootings.
I've understood that people have in fact carried firearms
to protect themselves and their businesses.
And I can understand it.
And, frankly, I don't disagree with them.
Is this the first chance you've had to have an aerial view of Homestead since this happened?
Yes, this is the first time I've been up.
The city manager, Alex Musso, has been up a couple of times
and had an opportunity to view the devastation.
Are you looking for anything in particular?
Landmarks, I guess.
It's just absolutely astounding to see the things that we're seeing.
I'm looking at the old seaboard railroad tracks,
and I see a railcar rolled over, which, you know,
it's just amazing to see the devastation.
Okay, Mayor, we will let you go ahead and direct our pilots
into the areas that you need to see.
We appreciate very much your taking the time to join us.
That was the Homestead Mayor, Chad DeMille, joining us by air from Skycam 7.
We're going to go back now to Craig Stevens
with the emergency management people in Dade County.
Craig, what's new?
Just to answer your question, Penny, to answer your question from a second ago,
I asked somebody here why not talk about flying in these supplies,
and they say their primary emphasis at this point is setting up these distribution centers,
food and water, that is their main objective at this point.
They're working on it as we speak.
They do not have specific locations they can tell us about for these distribution centers,
but of course, as we get that, we'll give it to you.
Right now, I want to talk to Gus Alfonso. He's with Southern Bell.
And, you know, we've talked about how most of us have experienced a power loss,
but at the same time, most of us have telephone service at this point.
Let me start with the question I'm not sure you're able to answer.
Can you estimate how many people are without telephone service?
Unfortunately, I do not have a figure to say.
What I could basically say is the majority of our customers
have had telephone service throughout the storm and then after the storm.
And what I can say is that our network, 100% of our network,
all of our central offices are working.
Of course, there are areas that have been hard hit,
and there are certain areas where our customers may be experiencing service interruptions.
And you know what these areas are, you say.
You don't know how many there are without power, but you know specifically where these areas are.
Exactly. And we've appealed this to our customers in the past,
and we must continue stressing this.
You don't need to call us at 611. You don't need to call Repair.
We know the areas that have been hit. We're working on it.
We can't go into areas to assess the damage.
That's one of the reasons we can't pinpoint an exact figure of how many people are out of service,
is because we cannot go into the areas until we get clearance from Florida Power and Light
to make sure that all the power lines are free of danger.
So we're waiting to get clearance.
The good news is that we have started to get increased clearance in many areas.
We're basically following FPL, and as they open up the areas,
as they open up the areas that they can go in, we've been following them and repairing.
Now in South Dave, we're talking about several structures, homes that have been completely destroyed,
but you told me a remarkable story about how, I guess it's your sister-in-law,
whose home was completely leveled, and yet she still has telephone service.
Evidently there's still a jack or something, and if she had a phone to plug in, or I guess she does,
there's still telephone service there. Tell me about that,
and is this a situation with many of these other places that no longer exist, these structures?
Well, what's interesting to note is that, of course, the hardest hit area is in South Dave,
and 80% of our major trunks are underground in that area.
So that is why there are cases where there's no home, but there's a telephone that works.
And I've heard of more than one case, from personal experience that you just mentioned,
but I've heard of other cases where the houses have been leveled, but they still have telephone service.
And Craig, as I was telling you earlier, this is a testimony of Southern Bell's insistence that we maintain,
we establish a modern telecommunications network.
And I think this has been a very unfortunate testimony,
but nonetheless it has been the case in point for a modern telephony network.
This is a mixed blessing, because since all these people do have telephones,
those who are getting back into their homes, they don't have power, they can't watch television,
they have nothing to do but talk on the phone, and you said that is leading to some problems.
Yes, correct. And again, this is another thing that people have been hearing time and time and time again,
but we must continue to stress this.
People are experiencing delayed dial tones.
Please don't call 611 to report that you're getting delayed dial tones.
That's caused by an overload in the network.
Please use the phone only if it's an emergency.
If you need to check up on your loved ones, call them,
but don't stay on the line too long.
Most people are at home, and they have few diversions,
and the temptation is there to use the phone all the time.
Please try to limit your telephone calls, because we are experiencing an overload in our network,
and we must allow others the opportunity to use the telephone lines for emergencies.
Okay, Gus, as we're talking here, we're looking at pictures of some of these areas that have been completely ravaged.
Let me let you do one thing here, and hopefully the folks who are listening and watching,
we've asked a number of times to have paper and pen to take down some phone numbers.
Right now, Gus, it's a list of six or seven locations where if you have nowhere to go,
if you do not have a telephone available to you,
Southern Bell has set up a number of locations where you can go,
and if I understand correctly, use these telephones for free,
and I'll let you go through and give these addresses and locations.
Yes, correct. We've set up seven public telephone banks at the following Southern Bell locations.
These are Southern Bell central offices, by the way.
And we will provide, even though these are pay phones, we're providing the local calls free of charge.
The addresses are as follows.
2301 Southwest 100th Avenue in Miami,
45 Northwest 5th Street in downtown Miami,
75 Civic Court in Homestead,
14475 Southwest 264th Street in Naranja,
16645 South Dixie Highway in Perrine,
10701 Southwest 88th Street in Kendall,
and 15000 Southwest 88th Street in Kendall as well.
Again, so these are locations where you can make free local calls.
All right, Gus, Alfonso, thank you very much for taking time from Southern Bell to join us here this afternoon, I guess it's just about.
Now, again, you're home, you're bored, you're listening to us, you may not have television,
you may not have a paper to read, but the plea has gone out from Southern Bell.
They're jammed up. Please do not use these telephones unless you absolutely have to,
because things may seem like they're getting back to normal, but they're far from it.
So again, lay off the telephone for as long as you can.
That's all from here. Unless you have any questions, I'm going to let Gus go. Penny and Joan?
No, that's okay, Craig. We'll check back with you in a little while. Thank you.
We're going to go to Charles Malinow now who is at our news desk with some new information on food drives. Charles?
Absolutely. Channel 7 is going to be getting involved, trying to gather some food for people who need it
and who take over for some of the operations that find dealing with individual donations of food a little difficult.
We'll be getting to that momentarily.
We'll get to that momentarily. First we have an announcement that I mentioned for you a little earlier,
but it is very significant and it bears repeating.
We've been hearing that there is a good possibility that Dade County Schools
will not be getting into session on Monday as they are scheduled to.
No official word has been announced yet.
However, this afternoon at 3 o'clock, Dade School Superintendent Octavio Visiedo will be speaking to school employees.
That will be broadcast on WLRN radio and Channel 17.
All employees are asked to tune in to one or the other.
We could be seeing some significant news from him at that point.
It is up to the superintendent whether or not the schools will be back on on Monday.
So we'll be waiting to hear once again.
At 3 o'clock this afternoon, Dade County School Superintendent Octavio Visiedo
will be making an announcement to school employees and he'll be hoping that everybody is tuned in to that.
Meanwhile, we have words from Coral Springs.
The water there is now safe.
That is except for the 200 people in the Royal Utilities District.
They will have to continue boiling their water otherwise.
The water in Coral Springs is now safe to drink.
No more boil water advisory there.
For those who are still having to boil their water, we're getting a hand from the folks over at Winn-Dixie.
The company is bringing in 20,000 gallons of bottled water to assist after Hurricane Andrew.
The company is offering two free gallons of fresh bottled water per family.
All you have to do is show up.
In fact, Winn-Dixie is asking for volunteers to come help give some of it out.
The additional bottled water will be made available to families at 2 o'clock this afternoon at several Winn-Dixie's locations.
Here we go, 30346 Old Dixie Highway.
That is in Homestead.
12107 Southwest 152nd Street.
They'll also be giving out at 27359 South Dixie Highway.
That is also in Homestead.
Winn-Dixie is providing some free bottled water for people who need it.
We have word from South Miami Hospital.
They are approaching a crisis stage.
There are simply too many patients there.
They are no longer taking over full from over the hospitals.
They are at full capacity.
Any non-emergency situations will be turned away.
It's actually more severe than that.
They're turning away anything except life and death situations.
Now, they are also sending out a reminder if you have managed to get yourself hurt out in the aftermath of Hurricane Andrew.
The reminder is going out.
Tetanus injuries will require tetanus shots no later than 72 hours after you suffer them.
If you have gotten stuck with a nail or something, you are in danger of contracting tetanus.
You've got to get a tetanus shot within 72 hours.
That is very severe.
And the folks at South Miami Hospital will be treating that sort of thing.
But any lesser injuries should go to Red Cross Centers.
Otherwise, South Miami Hospital is unable to take any more people.
We have word of one possible bright side to all this destruction.
There's a lot of work ahead for everybody, and that means that a lot of workers will be required.
Labor World is putting out a call for workers.
Because of all the damage, there is an opportunity for people who will have to go out and get on the job to do some good out there.
Labor World is between North Miami Avenue and Northwest First Avenue and 29th Street.
If you show up at 7 o'clock any morning, you'll probably be able to find work.
We all know an awful lot of it out there.
The Marriott Hotel at Daedland.
9090 South Daedland Boulevard needs water.
The hotel is full of employees and homeless people who have been thrown out by Hurricane Andrew.
They need water or the hotel will have to shut down.
If you can get any water to the Marriott Hotel in Daedland, call Tim Weller or Annette Martiz.
The number there is 663-1035.
One more time, the Marriott in Daedland, 663-1035.
They need some water.
We have word of a problem for people with mobile phones or two-way radios.
Service is out, you probably noticed already if you try to use yours, if you subscribe to Advanced Radio.
Advanced Radio used the transmitter tower that used to work for Channel 6.
As we saw, it has been destroyed by Hurricane Andrew.
Advanced Radio along with Channel 6 is out of business for the time being.
However, most of the broadcasting equipment was not damaged
and they are trying to come up with a new site to broadcast from
and get your two-way radios and mobile phones back online.
The FAA is offering to help out any of its employees who are having trouble.
FAA South Florida relief efforts have food, clothing, water, building supplies, housing and so on
available to all South Florida FAA employees.
If you are an FAA employee and you need any of those items or any other kind of assistance,
they want you to give them a call.
They have the number set up, 592-9770-871-2670.
One more time, this is for FAA employees in need of assistance or supplies,
592-9770-871-2670.
The City of Fort Lauderdale's fire stations are available as drop-off points
for anyone who has goods or supplies to help out.
Likewise, Deerfield Beach Baptist Church is also taking donations.
They are located at 701 Northeast 2nd Street in Deerfield Beach if you want to pitch in.
Meanwhile, for those of you who might want to help out, Channel 7 is also getting involved in the act.
We have been hearing repeatedly stories of people offering goods, supplies, whatever,
and frequently agencies like the Red Cross really have a hard time handling smaller donations from individuals.
They need the big ones or they need simple cash.
That's where we're going to step in.
Channel 7 is starting these seven food drive drop-off.
And we're going to have locations all over South Florida where you can come and drop off anything you can provide.
For example, in Southwest Broward, the seven food drive drop-off location will be Palm Springs North Elementary.
That is 17615 Northwest 82nd Avenue.
By the way, Dave Capretta from Love 94 will also be there.
We are working with Love 94 to get this going here.
That is Palm Springs North Elementary, 17615 Northwest 82nd Avenue.
For people in Miami Springs, Hialeah, Hialeah Gardens, Opalaka, and that area,
you can drop stuff off at the Hialeah Miami Lakes Senior High, 7977 West 12th Avenue.
That is a Hialeah address, don't get confused.
For people in Central and South Bay, the Tropicare Flea Market will be a drop-off point at 7751 Bird Road.
Also, for people in Northwest Broward, the Tamarack Fire Department is open.
Dawn Agney from Love 94 will be there to help out and also if you need her, say hello.
That is the Tamarack Fire Department 4901 Commercial Boulevard.
For people in Northeast Broward, you can stop off at King Toyota in Federal Highway.
That is in Deerfield Beach. We have word also that there will be a Love 94 personality on the scene there.
We don't know any word on which one that will be.
Whoever it is, say hello there too.
That's King Toyota South Federal Highway in Deerfield Beach.
Right now what folks really need is baby food, diapers, baby supplies and canned goods.
And any other locations who have been collecting things,
if you are collecting supplies and contributions and you can't get them to the area where they're needed,
bring those supplies to one of our 7 food drive drop-off points and we will be able to get them to the people who need them.
And that is if you have managed to collect some things except you're having trouble getting them to the people who need them.
I've got a couple things that have just been handed over to me.
This comes from Miami Police. We've got a lot of warnings about for people to stay away.
But once again, the cops are advising if you get to an intersection with no lights, you must slow down, stop.
Any intersection where there was a traffic light and it has now been knocked out should be treated as a four-way stop sign.
And motorists are being urged to be careful.
We have word of problems and people going right through those intersections without stopping.
That is extremely dangerous and it's only a matter of time before we start hearing about serious accidents because of that sort of thing.
And the police are urging us once again, if you come to an intersection that had a traffic light and it is now out of commission,
that means there's no regulation there.
Treat it like a four-way stop sign. Everybody stops no matter where you're coming from.
Look both ways and then proceed across the intersection.
We also have several calls from kidney patients seeking dialysis.
Miami's Victoria Hospital is open for dialysis patients.
You can call them at 547-4374.
Also the Olijune Dialysis Center is open as well.
The number there is 448-9888.
We will have, of course, all the latest information coming in.
For now, I'm Charles Molina at the Channel 7 News Desk.
All right, Charles, thank you. We do want to remind you that it is about two minutes until noon.
We are being broadcast simultaneously on Love 94, 93.9 FM.
And as you heard, Charles, they are also very generously helping out with the 7th Food Drive.
So it's been a nice cooperative effort.
We're going to take a short break. We'll be right back. Stay with us for more news.
We'll be right back.
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And good afternoon once again from Channel 7.
It is high noon Wednesday, August 26.
Jim Berry here with Kelly Mitchell.
As Channel 7 continues its nonstop coverage of the aftermath of Hurricane Andrew.
And today is a day of recovery for most of us in this community as we try to regain some sense of normalcy
despite this storm which has ravaged our community.
We'll be with you for the next hour, not only on WSBN Channel 7, but also on Love 94 Radio.
That is WLVE 93.9, Miami, Miami Beach.
And we've been hanging together for, gosh, I guess since about Sunday morning.
So I know a lot of you folks are really dependent on that.
And it's a pleasure for us to be able to accommodate you guys without power.
And while we're talking about all those kinds of things, we want to talk to you about what the situation is with the utilities.
I know that's a prime concern for a lot of you folks out there.
So here we go with that.
In the water situation, the boil water order still remains in effect in Dade County.
If you have power, of course, you boil that water for three to five minutes.
If you don't have power, you get your regular old chlorine bleach and you add eight drops of that to each gallon of water.
Now, the boil water order in Hollywood has been lifted.
We just heard also coral springs, most of coral springs, but keep tuned to that.
There's still a two-block area that's under boil water effect.
Water officials say check your tap every once in a while because pressure in the lines is building.
Let's go on to power.
600,000 FP&L customers in Dade still without power.
But good news is most of Broward County has now been destroyed.
No, I'm sorry. Let me redo that one right away.
Most of Broward County has now been restored.
Please, let's stop that right there.
They are saying, though, don't call FP&L unless you do have an emergency or you see downed power lines.
They do think they know where most of those are.
Let's go on to the telephone.
You want to not call anywhere unless you have a particular emergency.
Southern Belle is saying just stay off the line, and that's a problem because a lot of folks are really bored
and the only thing they have to do is call on the phone.
That's the only thing that's working, so don't do that if you can keep from it.
Phone banks, just to help you out, if you've got an emergency, in Homestead 75, Civic Court in Perrine,
16645 South Dixie Highway in West Day.
That is at Kendall Drive at Southwest 150th Avenue in Naranja,
14475 Southwest 264th Street in Silver Oaks.
It's 10701 Southwest 88th Street in the canal area.
It's 2301 Southwest 100th Avenue in downtown Miami.
All you need to do is go to 45 Northwest 5th Street,
and that's the very latest information that we've got for you guys right now,
and of course, that's changing hourly, so that's why we're continuing to update you.
It is because folks are working very, very hard.
A couple of transportation advisories.
One thing, if you're planning to go fly out of Miami via Miami International Airport,
I would strongly urge that you call your airline because, just relating a personal story here quickly,
I'm scheduled on a flight out of here tomorrow morning out of Miami International
and was told yesterday by that airline that everything was okay.
I called back just moments ago to learn that that flight has now been canceled.
There may be a whole lot of stories like that, so I would strongly urge that you follow up,
even if you're flying out of Fort Lauderdale Airport, which probably has a better circumstance,
but Lauderdale is taking some of the overflow and overload because of the Miami airport situation,
so I would strongly urge you to do that.
Also, the roads are clogging up pretty badly.
There's a lot of people who vacated South Florida, who headed north,
they're trying to get back to see what their situation is,
so if you don't have to be out on the roads, by all means, try to avoid them
because you're going to run into probably a lot of anarchy out there
because a lot of traffic lights are still out and it's pretty much heavy man for himself.
With more on exactly what is going on in terms of the county's effort to get things back to normal,
let's check in now with Craig Stevens.
He is the Dade County Emergency Management Office.
Craig, what's the latest?
All right, Charles.
Well, we're still in very busy mode here.
If you look behind me, you can see just the swell of people just continues to grow here this afternoon,
and I'm joined now by Dade County Commissioner Charles Dussault,
who has obviously had a very busy couple of days.
Commissioner, I want to thank you for taking time out to join us.
Thank you.
First of all, I want to get your impressions.
I think we may have some tape shortly of some of the devastation in the southern parts of the county,
your impressions of what you've been able to see, and tell me how much of it you've been able to see.
Well, I've obviously seen quite a bit of it.
It's a disaster beyond the proportions most people can imagine.
No one would have really anticipated that a hurricane like this could have caused this much damage.
We saw Hugo and what it did up in the Carolinas.
Obviously, it wasn't quite as strong, it was much broader,
but the level of damage in some of the neighborhoods is beyond comprehension.
Now, some of the places we're seeing today, we're seeing lots of traffic,
we're seeing people begin to go home, but yet we're very much in an emergency mode here still.
Is that a message that you want to keep in mind for some people who perhaps are not as serious about this
as they were just 24 hours ago?
Once again, I really want to implore the public that if you don't have a real need to get out on the road,
to stay home.
It is imperative that we keep the roads clear for emergency vehicles,
we keep the roads clear so our public works, people can get the signals back in place,
and that given that the signals are out in most places, that we don't have additional accidents.
It's been shown repeatedly that the greatest number of deaths from a hurricane occurs
subsequent to the storm actually passing.
People are on the roads and there's no signals, people falling off of roofs, people with chainsaw accidents.
I really implore people to take it easy, slow down.
The disaster, the emergency is not over, and it won't be over for a long time yet.
Life will not be normal in Dade County for a good long time.
Federal dollars, relief dollars are on the way.
Can you tell us when we expect to get the check and what specifically, where is this going to go?
I mean, I would expect that some of this would go to long-term redevelopment of some of the ravaged areas and elsewhere.
Can you give us any indication about some of that?
Well, the initial declaration of disaster has taken place by the President, obviously, some time ago.
Now begins the long, laborious process of documenting every individual cost incurred by local government
in rebuilding Dade County.
Every guy who is out there directing traffic, we need to document that.
The problem we have right now is that FEMA, the Federal Emergency Management Agency,
only reimburses on an existing basis 75%.
We need a special 25% allocation from Congress.
Senator Graham has been here, I know other members of Congress have been working on it,
to get that other 25% allocation that the Charleston area received at Trafugo
because Dade County and the state of Florida certainly don't have resources available at this point to compensate for it.
As far as just the business of getting back to business, Dade County government, where are we with that?
Have you been able to even sit down and think about when you all as commissioners will be able to sit down again
and get about the day-to-day running of county government here, or are we just not at that point yet?
Well, as I say, we are still in the midst of a major emergency.
We will be having an emergency meeting tomorrow, the county commission,
to just sort of bring everyone up to date that hasn't been too much involved in this.
Also to take any measures that are necessary in relationship to the emergency,
to give the manager any power that he may need to continue doing his job.
Local regular business is not going to happen for a good long time.
Another aspect of the FEMA grants federal government is that very soon people who are in business
should be able to apply for low interest loans from the federal government, as will individual homeowners.
Offices are in the process of being set up now.
I know the media has been getting some numbers out on that,
and people are going to begin that process of application.
I think the most important thing here, though, is the human side of all this.
We have people, and Channel 7 has been here and shown people down here in this pit that have been working,
people out there in the field where many of those people have lost their own homes.
Many of those people have had their lives totally disrupted, and yet despite that, they're here serving the public.
And I can tell you, I'm very proud of all those individuals from county government who have been doing that,
from state government who have been out there.
This community has responded in a valiant fashion,
and I'm hopeful, despite the incredible level of suffering and damage we have here,
that we're going to pull together and we'll come out of this stronger than before.
Alright, Commissioner Charles, I know you have a lot to do today.
Thanks for spending just a few minutes with us here.
A couple of things I want to pass along before we go back to you.
The American Red Cross has three shelters where they are accepting people.
Let me tell you where they are.
They're in the southwest section of the county.
Green Glade Elementary School at 3060 Southwest 127th Avenue.
Kendale at Lakes Elementary at 8000 Southwest 142nd Avenue.
And in Homestead, Homestead Middle School at 8th Street and Northwest 2nd Avenue.
And if I've got the time here, and please tell me if I don't,
a couple of quick blurbs that we've got here.
I don't know if we've had a chance to pass them along.
Victoria Station Restaurants near Daedland announces that it is reopening for business.
It opened about 10 minutes ago and it will be open until curfew at 7 o'clock tonight.
The Sedano Pharmacy and Supermarket at 3915 Palm Avenue in Hylia is now open for business.
The Navarro Pharmacy and Supermarket in Caglioccio at Southwest 39th Avenue is also open for business.
The Palm Water Company will be open for business selling one and five gallon bottles of water at 12106 Southwest 114th Place in South Dade.
That's from, actually it's open right now until 4 o'clock.
And one other reminder, the room or control number here is 596-8735.
That's about all we have for here right now.
We're going back to the studio.
And who do we have there?
It's Jim Barry.
I know I sound a little bit like Charles Molinova.
We get mixed up all the time, Craig.
Question for you.
What about the curfew?
We had heard talk earlier that it might be relaxed or even pushed back a few hours.
What have you heard about that?
Last we heard, that was this morning's news conference, about 930.
We're considering easing it up in some sections of the county where things seem to be getting back to normal, but they have not decided that yet.
Some of the people we heard from in that news conference are behind closed doors in this sort of powwow right now, assembling information together.
And we expect when they finish with that, whether it's in a formal news conference or just one by one, they'll come out and give us an indication.
However, those restricted zones we've told you about, they will remain that way.
They don't want people there because it's just such a mess.
Curfew right now looks like it's in place until we hear otherwise for tonight anyway.
We're hearing reports that the looting has dropped substantially.
Is that what you folks are hearing down there as well?
Last word we had, Kelly, was just a figure.
Eight arrests altogether.
Again, those people who were here with us this morning, that would include the sheriff and the others, they're all behind closed doors.
So we haven't had any updated information as far as that.
We expect, however, just with daylight and with a strong National Guard presence, and they are out there, at least during the afternoons anyhow, during the daylight hours, it's probably not so much of a problem at this point.
But we'll check on that as well and get back to you.
Okay, Craig Stevens reporting live from the emergency management office in Dade County.
You know, it's funny, all of us in this community are trying as best we can to get back to normal.
And being a sports guy, I've been trying to keep a close ear on what's happening sports-wise in this town.
The Dolphins are getting ready to take off this afternoon for their preseason game up in Baltimore against the New Orleans Saints.
And talk about irony, Hurricane Andrew blows through here.
Heads for New Orleans, those two teams are scheduled to play each other.
The hurricane series.
Yeah, no kidding.
But I've also heard that some Dolphin players are planning to organize a food drive.
In fact, Mark Clayton, who had already pledged this season to donate five tons of food for every touchdown he scored, is planning to accelerate that effort.
So that's good news.
As for the Miami football Hurricanes, they're planning to bus up to Vero Beach and start their practices.
Their season opener, September 6th, at Iowa, they can't practice at UN because of the extensive damage there.
In fact, Coach Dennis Erickson's home lost part of its roof in this storm.
And I understand what U of M not delaying its classes at least two weeks on something like that.
So it's kind of nice to have a little diversion when you think about sports.
It proves life goes on.
And we want to say at 12 after 12 that we are also simulcasting on WLVE radio.
That is Love 94, 93.9 on your FM dial.
And that's Miami, Miami Beach.
And while we're doing that, we're going to take a little break and come right back.
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We are back. Kelly Mitchell along with Jim Berry,
who brought us some sports information there for just a second.
But primarily what he's been doing is helping out because, as you know,
when you go 24 hours a day, you need everybody you can get.
So we're all pitching in General Manager, Station Owner, everybody is there.
So I think what we want to do now, we understand that Senator Bob Graham
is visiting the Dade County Emergency Operations Center.
That's where Craig Stevens is.
And we'd like to hear what the Senator has to say, Craig.
Yeah, Kelly, if you're with us here, we are going to try and maneuver
and get to the Senator real fast.
We're stuck. There we are. We're free.
The Senator just walked in a few minutes ago.
We understand he came here on his own this morning.
We're going to try and sneak over here.
He's talking to some other reporters here.
We're going to make our way over and participate in this discussion here.
So why don't we do that?
An average of three people per home.
You're talking about 180,000-plus persons out of their homes
for an extended period of time.
Senator Graham, I don't mean to interrupt.
We've got you live here on Channel 7 News.
I want to ask you how much of an opportunity you've had to tour
some of the areas that have been ravaged
and your impressions of what you've seen.
I toured by helicopter and yesterday visited some of the shelters.
I'm going to do some more of that today.
It's just warlike conditions, the amount of devastation,
the extent of it and the intensity.
Over 60,000 homes in Dade County have been destroyed.
That means probably 150,000, 200,000 people who don't have a place to live.
Did you have time to stop and talk individually with anyone?
Yes, at the shelter.
Yesterday we talked to people and there are some real heroes there.
A young man named Carlos Garcia who came as a volunteer.
They said, we need somebody to run this shelter.
He took it over and has been for the last three days, day and night,
providing the basic organization and support to what had been over 1,000 people.
People have been very, very interested, of course, in federal dollars
that are making their way here to help.
Can you give us a clear indication of what we can expect
and what fashion that aid might take, in other words, what it might do for South Florida?
The young man's name is Carlos Gomez.
That was at Miami Suns.
Hey, Connie, how are you?
Senator Connie Mack.
We're joined now by Senator Connie Mack.
If you'll notice here, Mike, I think you can get a shot of him who's also joining us here.
We were just talking with the Senator about some of the devastation and his impressions of it.
Were you touring together or individually?
We toured some together on Monday.
Which seems like a lifetime ago.
Can you give us your impressions of what you've seen?
I'm overwhelmed with what I've seen,
but you know the message that's starting to come out to me is how neighbor is helping neighbor.
I've heard stories of 20, 30 people working on one house
to try to protect it as much as they can against the elements,
and they move to the house next door.
I've heard a story about a bank that said,
don't feel like you have to make the payments for the next couple of months.
Take those resources to buy hammers and nails.
There's a real human story that's coming out of this that is a great statement about Dade County and about Miami.
I think I would make an appeal at this point.
There's an opportunity for the private sector to kind of step in here and provide additional resources as well.
I think that, again, the bank that made that gesture is kind of taking the lead on it.
The last couple of days have been somewhat overwhelming by all of the disaster that we've seen.
The story that's starting to come out is the real human element here of neighbor helping neighbor.
When we're talking about appeals from the private sector,
Senator Graham, what can we expect in terms of your family business?
We know you're a prominent business family in this community.
Have you had a chance to sit down and map that out?
I have had a brief conversation with some of my family members who are involved in the business,
and we are looking to see what kind of shelter we can provide
for people who may need a place to stay for an extended period of time
and whatever else we can do to be of assistance.
How's your property there?
North Dade generally was very fortunate in terms of we had a lot of tree damage,
a limited amount of structural damage, nothing like South Virginia.
Senator, either one of you, what did people say to you in terms of their personal needs
when you walked down the street, when you stepped out of the automobiles or whatever and talked to them?
What personal pleas did they make of you?
Well, I just walked in the door here and ran into a lady.
Her plea was to find her husband.
Her husband worked at an animal shelter in South Dade,
had gone down to tend to some of the animals and hadn't been seen since Sunday night.
There's now an emergency crew going down to that site to see if they can find where he
and a couple of his other coworkers may be, but it's as basic as where is my husband?
Senator Banks?
There are two things.
One, again, we both heard this the first night.
We were here, people saying just the basic requirements,
whether that's food or water or medical attention.
Senators Bob Graham and Connie Mack making an unexpected visit here to the Emergency Operations Center,
both of them issuing an appeal for, again, continued patience as the community attempts to rebuild itself
and also appeals from those outside the public sector to try and help this process along.
Live at the Emergency Operations Center, I'm Craig Stevens.
Back to Jim and Kelly.
Craig, before you go, have they said anything about the government's role in this at all?
We talked with Connie Mack a little bit about that,
but I had not heard what Bob Graham had to say as far as what we can expect from the federal level.
A lot of concern that there's not going to be the money there that we need.
As you heard, I just tried to get that question in and didn't get a chance to get that answered,
but I'll stick around here and try and get that for you and we'll get back that to you as soon as we can.
All right, sir. Thank you.
I think that's the real key here because, as we know, the bureaucracy can move very slowly
and the red tape needs to be cut very quickly here because people need immediate relief.
And they need it on the west coast of Florida, I'm sure,
and whatever damage Andrew has now done to Louisiana, they'll probably be wanting some help as well.
Absolutely, and you have to wonder about the disaster relief funds.
I was just reading a report this morning that said those funds might be depleted
as a result of Hurricane Andrew.
So the question is, how do they prioritize and who gets the money and, above all, how soon?
And that may be why he was so heavily stressing the private sector aspect.
They made down deep know that what they'd like to do is just not possible at this stage of the game.
Yeah, it's 1222. We're going to take a short break. We'll be back in a minute.
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And welcome back to Channel 7's continuing coverage of the aftermath of Hurricane Andrew.
It is 1224 Wednesday afternoon. I'm Jim Berry being joined by Kelly Mitchell.
And we are glad that a lot of you can now see us for the first time today.
We know it's been a long ordeal for a lot of you who have been without power.
We know that about 400,000 folks in our area still don't have power.
And we hope that a lot of you are able to listen to our simulcast on 93.9 Love 94.
Yeah, that's WLVE Miami, Miami Beach.
Now, we want to go quickly to Olga Villaverde, who's at our news desk.
And apparently, Olga, you've got some information on what we were just talking about,
that wonderful thing called electricity.
That wonderful thing that a lot of us don't have, especially me.
Now, Jim, you said 400,000. It's actually 600,000 people that are still without power.
We started with 1.4 million. That number has decreased to 600,000,
a significant decrease in only two days.
Now, we do know that 90 percent of Broward County will be fully restored by this evening.
That's 90 percent. The problem still lies in Hollywood.
We also know that Palm Beach, Naples, and Collier counties will also be fully restored by this evening.
The biggest problem, Dade County. It was a direct hit. They've been very affected.
Of course, FPL has been working round the clock,
but they still tell us that the road to recovery is still a long one. Let's listen.
The improvement is going to slow down as we move forward,
because the toughest part of the job is clearly still ahead.
We will be getting crews into the areas where the damages have been the heaviest,
and of course, that's going to take the most work.
So we've completed the easiest part of the restoration effort.
The tough part is still ahead.
And the tough part is obviously in areas like Kendall and everything south of Kendall,
Homestead, Cutler Ridge. We've been seeing the video. We've been seeing the damage. We've seen it all.
Now, we'll have more on the specific areas and the percentage of people that still don't have power.
A little later on, we're getting it edited. For now, most of you have already laughed in the news desk. Back to you.
Okay, Olga, I know you're there at the update desk.
I'm wondering what kinds of assistance offers we're getting from people who might have generators
and other alternative forms of power to get people through this rough spot.
I know Charles is getting a list of things in terms of people donating generators.
There are people who are selling them at great prices and sears and all these auto places.
So we will have that list for you, and we will bring it to you as soon as we can.
Yeah, we've been warned to watch out for price gougers, but it almost seems like it's the opposite.
People are really reducing prices and trying to do what they can.
Everybody pitching in.
I know you specifically. Your South Dade, your family got hit in a big way. How are things going?
Well, we have no power. We are living without power.
We have a lot of candles, a lot of flashlights, and I am out right now probably to go buy a couple of batteries
because we're running out. But all in all, we're just waiting, and weathering out this tragedy.
Yeah, it's really affected all of us in some way, shape, or form.
We appreciate your update, Olga, and for the time being, we're going to call it 1227,
and we're going to run to a commercial break, and then we're going to come right back.
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It's more like a vanishing cream.
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You'll see.
This Myoflex penetrated deep down into the soreness and made it vanish,
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All right, welcome back to Channel 7's continuing coverage of Hurricane Andrew and the aftermath of it.
I'm Jim Berry, being joined live by Kelly Mitchell in our Channel 7 studio
for what has become a marathon for us here and certainly, no doubt,
a marathon for all of you in South Florida.
And I can tell you that the folks in South Dade who are really suffering right now
are very grateful for all of the outpouring of support that they're getting all throughout our community,
but we've got to keep it coming because all the stories we've been hearing all morning
indicate that the need is still great.
And we'll be here for as long as you need us on both WSV and Channel 7
and also WLVE, as that is 93.9 on your FM dial,
better known as Love 94, Miami, Miami Beach, and it is now 1231.
First, the utilities now as we check the update of the situation in our community.
Here's the very latest, the boil water order remains in effect in Dade County.
If you've got power, boil your water for three to five minutes to make it safe.
If you can't do that, add eight drops of chlorine bleach to each gallon of water.
The boil water order in Hollywood has been lifted.
Water officials say if you haven't checked your tap in a while, please do so.
All right, on to power, 600,000 SP&L customers in Dade are still without power.
Most of Broward County has been restored.
The latest on that is please don't call SP&L unless you have an emergency
or unless you see downed power lines.
Don't go up to those lines, please, because it's a very dangerous situation.
The telephone situation is this.
Southern Bell asks that you stay off the line unless you have an absolute emergency.
Free phone banks have been set up at these locations in Homestead,
75 Civic Court in Perrine at 16645 South Dixie Highway
in West Dade, Kendall Drive at Southwest 150th Avenue in Naranja,
14475 Southwest 264th Street in Silver Oaks at 10701 Southwest 88th Street
in the Canal area at 2301 Southwest 100th Avenue
and in Downtown Miami at 45 Northwest 5th Street.
We hope some of that information is useful to you and helps you get through this ordeal.
Besides utilities, the other thing people want to know about food and water,
those types of things, when is the baby food coming, when are the diapers coming,
what can we expect, and we've had Carlos Harrison out
and really the major damage areas and he's got a report on the relief surprise.
You're finally seeing the relief coming in.
You said that you just got your last pack of diapers?
I just got them at the Red Cross last patch.
Wonderful, happiest day I've ever felt.
Where did you weather the storm and what is your situation now as far as food and water?
There's barely any food or water at all.
I mean, unless you had water delivered to your house, it was very hard to find.
We were over near Robert Morgan.
We came back down, which was awful.
We came back down to the villages.
No one has homes. We're the only ones.
My dad once took a point.
He's going to let people come in and move the house over and over again.
How old is your baby?
16 months.
How is your baby holding up?
It's really good. She just doesn't understand not having toys or TV.
It's really good.
It's a stress. I haven't cried until I got out.
When you realize you don't have diapers or sewing hands, you just fall.
I mean, there's really nothing out here.
I mean, Red Cross is doing the best they can.
What do you need?
People need water, dry milk, diapers for babies is a must.
If you don't have water, you can't use washcloths.
I mean, even cannabis, they give hands, but what if people don't have cannabis?
The kitchen's blown away.
Everything.
I'm pretty desperate.
Awesome.
It's hell.
You're bringing the food down.
What was your first reaction seeing this when you pulled into homes?
It's unbelievable.
We came down from up north Florida Lakeland with trucks, with food and water.
We'd seen news footage. We had no idea.
We had no idea.
As we got off the third pipe in Florida City, there were people trying to flag us down.
They're living on the sides of the street.
We've got trucks, planes, people bringing food from all over the country trying to get down here.
So we can tell them that the food and the water and things are on the way.
It's coming.
We've set up a distribution center in Miami at 2005, Northwest 70th Street.
But they're bringing it down here.
They're bringing it down to that distribution center.
Also, anyone in the northern areas that have food to give, water, ice.
We just had emergency medical crews stop us and tell us they need ice for patients.
We're bringing it to that distribution center in Miami.
We've got 50 trucks donated, and as soon as we have enough to bring it down,
we're going to be bringing it all day, every day, for as long as we can.
We've got volunteers coming from all over the state of Florida to help.
When you look around you and you see the people living on the side of the road and things like that,
what do you say? What do you think?
It's just unbelievable. I don't know what to say.
I've seen news footage for the last two days.
It doesn't even come close to showing what's happened here.
Already the people are lining up as the trucks are coming in.
People have been without food and water for...
Excuse me, ma'am, how long have you been without food and water?
For three days, but it will survive.
It will survive. It's devastating.
We don't have anything, we need help, but I think we're getting...
When you see this arriving...
They know that we need help, and they're thinking about it.
That means they feel a lot better.
Mr. Mami, are you getting some water now, some food?
How have you been doing so far?
We're doing good, puppy.
You're doing good?
We're going to have plenty of water and food now.
The supplies are finally coming in.
They're bringing in pillows, blankets, donated clothing, and food.
Baby wipes that the people have been asking for down here,
because remember, they have no water.
There's no way to help.
They're bringing it in.
A nearly empty warehouse with the people lined up,
waiting to see what supplies they can get outside.
A little bit of food, a little bit of water.
And a city 90% devastated, waiting for relief.
You're hungry?
We have nothing at all.
Whatever you have, you're giving them.
Do you have any water at all?
We have a little bit of water.
How are you holding up?
What do you think of all of this?
What do you think when you see food and water coming in now, blankets?
What do you need?
We need food.
We got water.
As this woman here is telling me,
another thing they need very much down here is gasoline,
because they can't even go to Miami.
There's no way to leave for many of these people who want to leave.
The little gas we got, we're using it to go get food and water.
And if we use it all the way to Miami, we're going to get stranded over there.
What about the children down here?
You can't go that way.
We've got to find a place over here where they can get food and water.
They're bringing in food and water.
They may be bringing in gas later.
What do you need most right now?
A little bit of everything.
All we got now is hope.
A little bit of everything.
How are you doing right now?
Are you spending a rough time?
Do you need food?
Do you need food? Do you need water?
Tell me about how these last few days have been.
What have you been thinking and hoping for?
I can't tell much.
These are the faces of the people affected by Hurricane Andrew,
children who don't understand and worried mothers.
The JCs are bringing the supplies in.
They say they have 50 trucks just like this one,
50 empty trucks that are waiting at 2005 NW 70th Ave.
They have a distribution center.
You can go there if you want to donate food.
You'll see the JCAID signs and the people waiting to bring it down.
And you'll see over here the people who are waiting for those supplies.
Okay, what you're going to get again is a bag of groceries
and a gallon jug of water per family, depending on the size of your family.
Okay, the larger the family, we'll try to work it out with you.
Just be patient. We'll try to get you through as quick as we can.
You said you are with the Cleveland Indians.
I'm with the Cleveland Indians and volunteering here for the city
to handle the food distribution.
And basically what we're going to do is we're going to load.
Thank God we've got the JCs coming from all over the state,
bringing food in here as you can see by the tractor trailer load.
It's going to go into the armory storage area here
and eventually this will become a staging area
and we will distribute through the churches in the homestead area.
The stadium itself didn't hold up very well.
Were you down here for this one?
Yes. The stadium took a pretty good hit,
but nothing in comparison to what this community took.
And that's really kind of the last thing on our mind right now.
We'll get that taken care of eventually.
As you look around and the devastation you've seen here,
have you ever seen anything like it?
What could you compare it to?
Never. I've never been in personally a natural disaster like this before
and there is no description of it.
When you look around at the buildings
and you look at the numbers of loss of lives, it's incredible.
It's like seeing a bad car accident
and wondering how anybody ever walked away from it.
The faces of pain yet and still, as one lady said, all we got is hope.
And they are hoping that things will get better soon down there in South State
as they are struggling with a very difficult situation.
The faces seem to say more than the words.
And sometimes it's really difficult to hold onto that hope
no matter how much you keep reminding yourself.
And that's one reason why we have Dr. Raquel Cohen from the Red Cross.
She is a psychiatrist and she's going to kind of give us a feel
for what these people should be going through,
what are the obvious responses to something like this,
and what can you do to sort of keep your spirits up.
Dr. Cohen, are you there?
Yes, I'm here.
Oh great, we really wanted to talk with you
because we know sometimes I guess people are in shock
and they get through the first couple of days,
but as time goes on it's harder and harder to deal with this.
What can people do to make sure that they've got the energy
and they've got the mental spirit to come back from this?
Well, let me first point out that with a very positive note
that their human spirit is amazing in its endurance.
But I think it's very good to anticipate what is normal,
what is a normal human response.
Because most people very soon, I would say within one or two more days,
are going to feel unusual reactions for them,
because people that were always very, you know, sort of passive or tranquil
are going to feel furious or angry or depressed
and they wonder, am I getting psychologically sick?
What I like to tell you after 20 years working in disasters,
that that is a phase.
It will pass, and it is normal.
Is it a good idea not to suppress that?
I mean just kind of go with it?
Are you doing more damage to yourself as you try to keep yourself from feeling that way?
Well, you're going to feel it.
There's a difference between feeling and action.
You're going to feel that inside your body.
There's no way to suppress this type of feeling in most of us,
except some people will try to push it away.
But you're going to feel and you're going to wonder,
am I getting sick psychologically?
My answer is no.
This is normal and it will pass.
It's very unpleasant, but it is a normal reaction to the terrible situation all of us are in.
Dr. Cohen, many of us have so much emotionally wrapped up in our homes.
I wonder if you could address that issue a little bit
and what advice you would give someone who, in losing their home,
feels that they have lost everything.
Well, I tell you, the other normal emotion is going to be a sadness of loss
and mourning that you will mourn the home,
not so much, you know, in some ways certainly the physical,
but the things inside the home.
I have worked with people who were very upset
because they lost photographs of years and years
or documents that were in the family
or mementos that somebody would say,
but how could you cry for this little picture?
And people will realize that what surrounds us in our homes are very symbolic.
And when we lose it, we are going to mourn.
A lot of people are going to go through a mourning phase, but it ends.
That's what I want to leave you with.
It will end. It will not stay with you.
So that's really the thing to do is just realize that this is going to happen to you
and then not worry about it, know you're going to go through it.
Anything that people can do, anything that you would suggest?
Well, I tell you, the answer is really a lot of physical answer.
One is drink a lot of water if they have it
because the dehydration can affect your emotions.
Take rest. If you're working hard to get your health in order,
just stop so many, you know, every hour in the hour.
Walk around. Do something that's a prayer.
Spiritual getting together is very important.
Do things that will take care of your body
because that's really the most important thing you can do right now for your emotions.
And just also, Dr. Cohen, you should try to focus, if you can,
about what you do have, your family and your life.
Yeah, anything that consoles you, that brings you close to people that you love or love you.
Any consolation that you can gather, which I know is very difficult right now.
But remember, we're on our second day, ten days from today.
Everybody's going to feel different.
This is going to pass emotionally.
It's going to be tough for all of us, but I just want to remind people this is not going to stay.
You will feel different in a few days, in a few weeks.
Well, perhaps some of that water is now getting through.
Of course, you know, the one thing that you were suggesting was one of the things that people did not have.
They just didn't have any water, but we're hearing more and more supplies are getting down there.
So not only will that maybe help them physically and mentally,
it probably should lift their spirits as well, just knowing that people are caring.
I have no doubt there will be an outpouring of gifts and food.
The community is just beginning to, the ones that can do it, are just beginning to reach.
And I see an outpouring of every comfort that anybody can give to the people, especially in the South.
What about the children? What should parents do for the children?
What kind of responses should you expect in them?
Well, first of all, talk about it.
Tell the children to tell you how they feel about what happened that night.
And also, one thing I'm going to suggest, hopefully speak with the school board,
is that the teachers during the first days of school gather the children
and discuss their reactions and their emotions that Andrew left in them.
So helping the children understand the phenomena,
helping the children understand that they're going to be more frightened, more worried,
accepting and tolerating the fact that children may be more regressed, as we call them.
They may lose a few of their functions, like going to the bathroom and little ones.
They will be afraid to sleep alone.
Just tolerate it for a few more days, because again, that will pass.
Is there anything that you should look for, either in yourself or in somebody else,
that lets you know you are not handling this well at all?
I mean, the vast majority of us, like you say, will realize that it will pass,
but there are going to be some people that, for them, for whatever was going on in their lives prior to this,
this is the last straw.
Anything that should really signal that this is a danger?
Well, one of the worst, most difficult symptoms is insomnia.
They will not, they will have great trouble sleeping.
If three, four nights go without sleep, they should get some help.
Memory, when you begin to not remember what you were doing,
things don't register in your mind, get some help.
If you feel like crying for hours and hours, I don't mean crying for half an hour, that's normal,
but if you feel like you cry for three or four days, then get some help.
If your stomach hurts for many hours, your headache hurts for many hours, you need some help.
We, hopefully, at the Red Cross, are going to develop some cycles.
With the South Florida Psychiatry and with the State Psychology Association,
are in the process of developing psychological help and, hopefully, for many months to come
because this is going to be needed for months, not just a few days.
Well, Dr. Cohen, we're certainly glad that we have someone like you in our community
who knows so much about handling a situation like this,
and that was exactly what I was thinking, that a lot of people who are trained in your field
probably need to know, if they don't already, some of the things that you pointed out.
We thank you very much for being with us.
Thank you for giving me this opportunity.
Okay, and we certainly know that a lot of people here in South Florida
will take your very good advice to heart.
I'm pleased to say, though, that from what I've seen and heard,
that the vast majority of folks have stayed relatively calm.
We haven't seen a situation where there has been insurrection or anarchy
with people fighting over supplies or fighting over diapers.
I mean, there seems to be an order like, hey, we're in this together,
and if we pull together, we can deal with it.
And a lot of the supplies, as they continue to come in, that will reduce that threat.
Sometimes it's a week or so later when you're just so fed up,
that's when you can't deal with it.
Right now you're rather numb, so if some of that stuff is hitting you the wrong way
and either you see it in yourself or somebody sees it in you,
apparently you will be able to soon call the Red Cross
and perhaps they can direct you into the help that you might need.
I think also it helps to know that there are people who care about you,
and I think that all of those relief trucks that come in,
those supplies can be personified.
They know that there are real people behind those goods and supplies
bringing those goods in there so they don't feel like they're just out there all alone.
It's a boost. It certainly is.
At 1252, we are going to take a break and come right back with you.
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Welcome back to Channel 7's continuing coverage of the recovery from Hurricane Andrew.
It is 1254 this Wednesday afternoon.
South Florida, we are trying our best to put our best face on and deal with this very horrific situation
and do the best we can to pull together and deal with it.
And I think that's what you're seeing today, story after story, of folks trying to deal with it.
Yeah, I don't think you could pull us off of this if you really even asked us.
A lot of people here in the newsroom are tired.
There's no doubt about it, just as you are out there.
But it's not something that you can turn your back on and say,
well, I'm just going to go home and not worry about it anymore.
Because it's not only a story, it's our lives as well.
So we really do understand in a lot of cases what you are going through.
So we're just trying to give you all the information we can.
And one of the people who's doing just that is Charles Molino.
He is at the news desk with, I'm sure, valuable hints.
Charles?
Well, yes, Kelly.
We also have an appeal for help.
We here at Channel 7 are doing our best to pitch in and help out in the wake of Hurricane Andrew.
What we're pulling off is what we call the Seven Food Drive.
Now, this is going on right now.
It's still in full swing.
Food and supplies.
Let's go into, if we could come back out here to the newsroom for just a second,
some of the logistics that we're actually talking about.
What we are doing is collecting food and supplies at locations around Dayton-Boward County.
You'll see those momentarily.
They'll be taken to Opalaka and airlifted by the Coast Guard down to the Tamiami Airport.
And the National Guard will be directing drivers and trucks down to National Guard stations,
which have been set up to help people in the areas hardest hit.
Florida City, Country Walk, Homestead, and Cutler Ridge.
Here's where we're asking for help.
They need volunteers, volunteers with trucks, to come to the Tamiami area, to the airport.
To assist in making deliveries.
For example, Jay Byron has donated 30 trucks for us.
We need more.
We need more trucks.
We need more drivers.
If you were to go to the Tamiami Airport area with a truck to help out,
the Coast Guard will be there, the National Guard, rather,
will be there to direct you to where to go.
And then you can help out, pick up some of the supplies,
and then carry it down to where the people really need it.
Now, if you're hoping to contribute supplies, we need them.
Let's take a look now at our locations.
The Seven Food Drive drop-off locations for people in Southwest Broward
and there on the Day Broward line.
You can come to Palm Springs North Elementary.
That is 17-615 Northwest 82nd Avenue.
If you're coming from Miami Springs, Hialeah, Hialeah Gardens, Opalaka, and that area,
come to Hialeah, Miami Lakes Senior High.
It's 7977 West 12th Avenue.
That is highly addressed, so that's why it's West 12th.
For people in Central and South, they come to the Tropicare Flea Market.
That location for food donations, 7751 Bird Road in Northwest Broward.
Please come out to the Tamarack Fire Department at 4901 Commercial Boulevard.
Dawn Agney from Love 94 is going to be there to help out,
say hello to her when you get there.
And also in Northeastern Broward, come to King Toyota.
That is on Federal Highway there in Deerfield Beach.
What we really need are items like baby food, diapers and baby supplies, as well as canned goods.
However, if you are not actually participating but you have your own food drive going
and you're collecting things and now you can't get them down to where they're needed,
that's where you come to us.
Take whatever you've managed to collect to one of our locations
and we will make sure that it gets down to the people who are needed in the areas hardest hit by the hurricane.
So if you have donations to make or if you have been collecting donations
and now you don't have anywhere to take them, bring them to us at any of those locations
and we'll make sure they get to where they are badly needed.
We have some potentially interesting information here.
Federal Emergency Management officials are coming to town.
In fact, Southern Bell is now setting up phone lines for them
at the old Eastern Airlines facility near Miami International Airport.
The word is that FEMA is going to be establishing headquarters there
and we're going to get more exactly on where that new headquarters
for the Emergency Management Agency is going to be.
The government is coming to the rescue now.
Federal officials will be on the scene to get us more help.
The area has already been declared a disaster area which makes possible federal funding
to help us rebuild some of the mechanisms that will actually make that happen.
Bell South Mobility says it still has no cell phone service in the Keys.
Engineers are working around the clock.
They're hoping to get things started up again by this weekend.
Dade County has only about 65% of cellular sites working.
Most of the problems obviously are down in South Dade.
We got slammed.
They hope to be at full capacity by this weekend as well.
We're also getting word from the City of Miami about drinking water.
A couple of things.
First off, the City is in the process of setting up sites
to distribute 36,000 gallons of drinking water to people who need it.
As of 1 o'clock this afternoon, right now a total of 6,000 gallons of water will be ready.
For free, pick up first come first serve basis at African Square Park.
That's 1400 Northwest 62nd Street and Roberta Clemente Park, 101 Northwest 34th Street.
Each person can get up to three gallons.
You have to bring your own containers.
Keep that in mind.
We will have more on other sites as the City comes along and announces them.
We also have a warning from the City of Miami.
The City is reminding restaurant owners, if you are now open for business,
don't forget all water used for drinking and cooking must be boiled.
Restaurant customers, if you're going to eat out, this is of your concern too.
Ask.
Make sure that the water you're drinking has been properly sanitized
because we have the possibility of bacteria contamination
with all the water line breaks caused by the storm.
Meanwhile, the City of Miami Fire Department is asking all sworn and civilian personnel
who have not yet contacted the department to give them a call.
Call Gianna Greco at 350-7800 to report on your present situation.
Likewise, City of Miami Police Department civilian personnel
are being asked to come to work immediately.
They want you because they need you.
We have word from Homestead that curfew, which is coming on tonight,
Dade County has been under a curfew 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. overnight.
Past couple of nights it will be implemented again tonight except in Homestead.
County Manager Joaquin Avenue has pushed that back from 7 p.m. to 11 p.m.
So the curfew in Homestead is 7 p.m. rather make that 11 p.m. to 7 a.m.
That applies in Homestead, 11 p.m. to 7 a.m.
That is the new time for the curfew.
We have heard that Metro Rail, Metro Bus and Metro Mover have been taken offline
because of damage caused by the hurricane.
But the Metro Day Transit Agency is asking employees to report to work.
These are the ones we're talking about.
Metro Bus, bus operators are supposed to report to their respective divisions
at report times beginning today.
Bus maintenance personnel, report to your assigned divisions at your regular shift times.
Metro Rail and Metro Mover, rail operators, call the yard tower today for your instructions.
Maintenance personnel, come to work on your regular shift today.
All transit information clerks and public services personnel should report
to the Northeast Division in Public Service for your assigned shifts beginning today.
And all communications personnel should also report for the regular personnel
of regular shifts rather beginning today.
Once again all those public transits are closed.
They're not in operation today but obviously we have an indication here
that we could perhaps see some of it getting back online soon.
That's the way it is right now.
I'm Charles Mullin reporting live from the News Desk.
All right, Charles, well we wish you had a little more for us
but we know you'll probably get some other stuff together
and get back to us real soon. Thank you very much.
One thing about Charles, he's certainly thorough and comprehensive.
He is. I like that about him.
All right, we ran a little bit over this hour.
We're going to take a little break.
Penny Daniels and Joan Lovett will join you next to continue our continuing coverage
of the aftermath of Hurricane Andrew.
See you soon.
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Hurricane Andrew causing havoc in South Florida.
A frightening situation. That is why Love 94 and Channel 7 News have teamed up
to guarantee you'll know exactly what to do.
Love 94 and WSVN will make sure that you'll never be without the information you need.
In an emergency, Love 94 will continue to simulcast Channel 7's updates,
live reports, and news broadcasts.
So if you can't see us on Channel 7, you can hear us on Love 94.
Together, we'll help you survive the storm.
Good afternoon, Joan Lovett along with Penny Daniels in the Channel 7 newsroom.
We continue our round-the-clock coverage of Hurricane Andrew and its aftermath.
Want to remind you, if you do not have power, you can listen to us on Love 94.
That's 93.9 FM on your radio.
The time now is 1.05 PM.
We are reminding people of that in case they don't have their electricity
and can't plug in their clock.
So in case during this time you're not knowing what time it is, it's 1.05 PM on Wednesday.
We want to tell you a little bit more about utilities
and things that you need to know right now.
About water, the boil water order remains in effect in Dade County.
If you have power, you can boil your water for three to five minutes.
If you do not have power, you should add eight drops of chlorine bleach to each gallon of water.
The boil water order in Hollywood has been lifted.
Water officials say if you haven't checked your tap in a while, please do so,
and you'll know what the situation is.
The pressure in the lines is building,
and many more people now have water service in Dade County than before.
As far as electricity, there are still 600,000 FP&L customers without power in Dade County.
The good news is that most of Broward County has been restored,
so those people working up there can now come down and help them in Dade.
Do not call FP&L unless you have an emergency or unless you see downed power lines.
They know your power is out. They know the areas they need to get to.
Regarding telephone service, Southern Bell asks you to please stay off the phone
unless you have an emergency.
We've been telling you this all morning. We mean it.
It's very serious. They can't deal with the telephone problem,
and they can't deal with the electric problem if you stay on the phone.
Also, there are free phones.
If you need to use the phone just to let your relatives know you're okay or something,
they are set up at the following locations in Homestead, 75 Civic Court,
in Perrine, 16645 South Dixie Highway,
in West Dade, Kendall Drive at Southwest 150th Avenue,
Naranja, 14475 Southwest 264th Street,
Silver Oaks, 10701 Southwest 88th Street,
Canal Area, 2301 Southwest 100th Avenue,
and in downtown Miami, free phones at 45 Northwest 5th Street.
These are public telephones that they are making available to you free of charge
so that you can make the phone calls you need to make.
Every hour, at least, we're going to update you on the state of the utilities
so that you know what to expect today.
Right now, we want to take you live to Rick Leventhal,
who is in South Dade with the latest on relief efforts today
and the damage done as we begin to assess that. Rick?
Good afternoon, Joan and Penny.
I have some good news to report this afternoon.
It looks like some of those people the most desperate in need
are getting some of the food and some of the water
that they've been crying out for all day long and all of yesterday as well.
Right over here, there are two tanker trucks.
Each one is a 5,000-gallon tanker truck.
It's a sugar on the side, but it's not filled with sugar.
They're both filled with water.
That's 10,000 gallons of water that is parked here
in the parking lot of the Cutler Ridge Mall.
It's being given away by the Salvation Army,
and all you have to do is come out here with your own container
and fill up as much water as you can carry away.
They're also giving out 900 to about 1,000 sandwiches,
again, on a first-come, first-serve basis.
So there is food and there is water here at the Cutler Ridge Mall
in the parking lot.
Also, we went to a public across the street there
that is giving away all the food that it can.
It's cleared its shelves right out into the parking lot,
and it's giving that away to people who need it.
We'll show you those pictures,
and we're also going to bring you another very touching story,
a story of a young physically disabled man, a young boy,
whose father wheeled him here to the parking lot earlier this afternoon
in search of just a cold drink.
Let's go ahead and roll that tape.
Say hi, Glenn.
How you folks doing?
Terrible, terrible.
Worst storm I ever been in.
Just out trying to get some food for the kids, you know.
And some milk and ice.
You know where we get any?
Ice, especially.
No, I don't, sir.
How you doing?
Okay.
How did you manage through the storm?
I don't know.
He thought he was going to die.
Yeah.
My daughter's house all blew apart.
And my son, well, we got him over our house now.
We're just out trying to get him something to eat, you know.
I bet that drink tastes pretty good right now, doesn't it?
Yep.
Tastes good.
If you drink that up, I'll give you some more.
All right.
It's the only thing we had in three days, isn't it, Glenn?
I didn't let you storm.
No?
No.
Give me some forks.
They were in the bathroom.
That's the only place we had to go hide.
You ever seen anything like it before?
No.
First hurricane.
He kept saying, we're going to die, we're going to die.
Is that right?
Yep.
You got to take care of yourself.
What were you saying?
What were you thinking?
We're all going to die.
What did it sound like to you?
What do you remember most about it?
It hurt.
It hurt?
My ears bombed.
Didn't feel too good.
We're at a public store right across the street from the Cutler Ridge Mall where National
Guard is passing out food to anybody who can get over here and get it.
What kind of food did you get there, ma'am?
Ma'am?
What kinds of food did you get there?
Plenty of eggs, cereal, fish steaks, you name it.
First fresh food you've seen in a while, huh?
Yeah.
What do you got there?
I got food.
Yeah, you're pretty happy about it too, aren't you?
Yeah.
Yeah.
Looks good.
Looks real good.
I guess it would be out of the question to actually open the store.
Is that right?
It's too dark.
The roof is done.
The roof, no power.
No power, no roof.
And yet you've got some food that you can still eat.
I just walked down the line, Eddie.
The food is 10 or 15 cents.
Yeah.
And yet you've got some food that you can still eat.
Well, I see some people have them.
Why don't you hear some guys leaving with diapers right here?
Yeah.
They keep running out.
They keep everybody, you know.
Talk to the guys in public.
There's a couple guys right down here that work for Publix.
I don't know.
But I'll tell you what.
Go down here and talk to a couple guys that work for Publix right down there.
They can probably help you out.
Right down the line.
Come on.
Let's go see if you can get yourself.
Is this a potentially dangerous situation?
There's a lot of guards down here.
No, not really.
Not that I know of, anyhow.
But people could, I would guess, start to get a little agitated and pushy in line and,
you know.
Yeah.
But from what I've seen, there's a lot of food.
And that's what everybody's been saying.
There's more food than enough to go around.
So I don't see any problem.
Okay.
Thank you.
You're welcome.
They are waiting patiently.
They've got their bags.
They're giving out bags right here.
People who once came to the store to shop, who once walked the aisles, are now waiting
in line for a bag and a chance of whatever they can get.
Cookies, tissue.
Do you have a shopping list, so to speak?
Do you have something that's most important to you?
Just getting some food.
Yeah, we need some food.
Any kind of food.
Any kind of food.
I have nothing in the house to throw it out.
Nothing at all.
Are you getting everything you need, ma'am?
I'm getting what I can.
Thank you.
God, I was just blessed because I got three kids.
You look so happy to get this food.
Oh, dear.
I am.
You just don't know.
I didn't have any money left.
My parents heard my food and we ran out today and we just had a little water and the police
just came to the house and told us to come and get food and we had them.
It's like striking it rich.
It's like a goldmine.
Yes.
Yes, exactly.
You said the word.
It's a goldmine.
I bet you never thought you'd feel that way about raising brand and cookies and crackers.
No, no.
I'm so happy.
Well, we can come back live now.
I did speak with the manager.
I spoke with the manager of that public store and he says that that grocery store chain is
now trying to work with the Red Cross.
They're going to donate several truckloads of food and goods for the people out here.
That will be distributed, I'm told, from the shelters.
One other thing I wanted to mention, and there is a far more pharmacy here at the Cutler Ridge
Mall and I spoke with the pharmacy manager who wants everyone to know who, if you had
a prescription that you had filled at the pharmacy here, the far more pharmacy at the
Cutler Ridge Mall, you had a prescription filled but weren't able to pick it up before
the storm hit.
You can pick it up, but you can't pick it up here.
You're going to have to go to the Hialeah Far More.
That's on Okeechobee Road in Hialeah.
It's a long way away, but if you need that prescription, you can go up there and get
it also.
If you need a refill for a prescription that you got at this particular store, this Cutler
Ridge Mall Far More, if you have a prescription you need refilled, you can take the bottle
to that same Hialeah Far More on Okeechobee Road and get those refills.
The store is open from 9 to 9.
Any questions?
Yeah, Rick, I don't know if you can answer this.
It's kind of specific, but we have had a couple of people wondering about these prescriptions.
A lot of people cannot get in touch with their doctors to reissue the prescriptions, you
know, the refills and stuff, and so if you're going to one of these few pharmacies that's
open and you can't get in touch with your doctor, are they going to honor you with one
refill?
Are they going to give you a break there or what do you need to prove that you're entitled
to a refill?
Well, the manager of this particular pharmacy told me that it was very important that people
have, you know, this is regulated by the federal government, you have to have the bottle or
you have to have the prescription.
So, you know, there's a lot of these kinds of issues that are going to come up that I
don't know if I can address them, but in this particular case you need that refill bottle
or you need to have the prescription already filled.
Okay, well if you take the bottle then maybe that'll work out for you.
If you're allowed refills on that prescription.
Okay, thanks.
Rick Leventhal reporting to us live from South State.
We are going to take a couple of minutes break and we'll be right back.
Stay with us.
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We are back now with our continuing live coverage of Hurricane Andrew,
its aftermath and the recovery at 1.19 p.m. in the afternoon on Wednesday.
We're going to take you back now to a couple of hours ago in case you are just joining us
and you want to be filled in on what's happening today.
Dade County emergency personnel held a news conference to sort of brief us on what went on overnight
and what they plan to do today.
And here is that news conference.
Okay, this morning we are looking at today's objectives being getting a lot more food and water out
into the community, setting up staging points where people will be able to go and access those resources.
The additional roads will be cleared today,
but we're still asking people not to get out in the areas if they don't need to.
It is impeding the relief effort.
We need those areas clear if you don't belong there in order to get the resources in
to help the people who are in that particular area.
If you have any questions of the Emergency Operations Center that are not available through the media,
and I know the TV and radio stations are providing this information repeatedly,
but we are being inundated here with calls for information that is widely available,
so we ask you please be very careful about making sure you have a valid, serious question
and not inundating us with questions that you can have answered by the media routinely.
The community should start seeing a little more normalcy today, and that's a good sign.
So we'll be back with you later today after we get some reports on some of our agencies
and what they're going to be doing.
But most of the agencies in the community will very shortly be returning to delivering services.
So there's a large portion of this community that is elderly,
that is dependent on services coming out to the community.
Those agencies are now assessing when they'll have those services back online.
We will be reporting that information as soon as possible later in the day.
We've been inundated with offers of services and supplies,
and we are going to be setting up some systems to help direct your calls
and your donations and your offers to those agencies that are in charge
of delivering these to the community.
So please bear with us.
We'll be back with you very shortly this morning.
Thank you, Kate.
Let me bring you up to date about what occurred last night.
In the restricted area south of Kendall Drive, we only had to make four arrests for looting.
In North Dade, we made four more, so there were only eight arrests last night for looting.
That's way down compared to the night before and compared to the day.
We had to make 70 arrests for curfew violations, but of course they were minor things.
We've increased one death last night.
We're now up to 14, plus one from the city of Miami,
which brings the total to date that we are aware of to 15.
Fire will talk today about them and the Guard starting some serious search kinds of missions,
and so that number may rise, but it only went up one last night.
We have blockaded the south part of Dade that is working.
There are many crews out now going up and down the streets, clearing the roadway,
clearing the lights, doing all the things that needed to be done.
The Guard Sheriff's Department has sent a contingent of 70 police officers.
We're using those today to work our serious major traffic signal intersections in South Dade
to facilitate the flow of cars.
We also have about 200 civilian volunteers that will be at different traffic signal intersections
helping you get through those lights.
I know it was a mess yesterday, but I think in some of the major ones
you'll see somebody there today to assist you through.
We're getting a number of requests of how they can help the Metro Dade Police Department,
and we set up a phone bank, 471-1753 through 1757.
If you think you have skills that will help the police department,
if you'll call that phone number, they will take your name and your skill,
and they will assess that against our needs,
and we'll try to find things for you to do to assist if that's what you'd like to do.
So we have set that up, and basically that's what we went through during the night.
Today we're going to be looking very carefully, as power is restored, to doing two things.
One is in the areas where we can lift the curfew, we will attempt to do that.
In areas where we can move it back, we will attempt to do that,
but it will be later today before we can make that decision.
In the restricted area, of course, we will be in the same kind of a mode that we've been in the past.
You've been listening to the news conference held by Fred Taylor and Kate Hale
with the Dade County Emergency Relief Organization,
and they are filling us in on things that are happening today.
We expect to hear from them again later on this afternoon.
We are going to take a look at some pictures now of some of the damage from South Dade.
We have been looking at this all morning, but some of you are just now getting your power on
and may be seeing these pictures for the first time.
We understand that a lot of folks in Broward have finally had their power restored,
so you will be seeing some of these pictures for the first time today.
We now have a live interview on the phone with Louis Diaz from London Insurance.
Mr. Diaz, are you with me?
Yes, I am.
One of the things that I think a lot of people are concerned about
is that they will not get their claims processed perhaps as quickly as they would have
if it were not that the insurance system is perhaps going to be taxed
by having Louisiana in the same predicament and possibly tax this.
Is this going to be a problem for people in South Florida
that all these insurers are going to have to answer questions and claims from Louisiana as well?
Okay, what they are going to go ahead and do is they are going to fly in from all over the country
a whole bunch of more claims adjusters to handle the excess of claims
and they are going to try to process it as soon as possible.
What I want to stress though is that whoever has a claim needs to call their insurance agent
and let them know that they have a claim.
And also another thing that is extremely important is that if they have a situation
where they can stop any further damage from occurring,
they need to go ahead and prevent from any further damage from occurring.
Like if you have a hole in the roof, suppose, and you have water seeping in through there,
you need to try to plug that hole in because if you neglect to do that
they would refuse to pay for any excess damage that happens on top of that.
Isn't that kind of unfair considering that a lot of people aren't even able to get to their homes
because they are being told by public officials they are not allowed in the area?
That's understood, that's understood.
It's just the people who are able to do that who do have a hole in the roof
and can do it or have a situation similar to that and can do it should go ahead and do it.
Also if they have damaged property they should go ahead and take pictures of it as soon as they can.
Mr. Diaz, I know this varies from company to company,
so please answer us about your company in particular.
Will you cover people the cost of renting or buying generators
so that they can get to their homes to repair these minor damages?
That varies from policy to policy.
What about, so you do have policies that do cover that?
Again, it varies from policy to policy and it can be added on by endorsement.
I do not want to go ahead and say that yes, so go ahead and cover that.
You need to specify it to a specific policy.
I cannot answer any questions like that.
If you're interested in something like that you need to go ahead and call one of the claims officers
and have them answer that for you.
Justin Insurance has two offices that are open now and taking claims
and also open for business.
We have one in Hialeah at 1935 West 60th Street.
Well, Mr. Diaz, I'm certain that if people don't have insurance
or those particular riders now the time is much too late.
We were trying to get an idea in general whether this was available
and you're saying it varies from policy to policy,
so I'm assuming that some people may have this coverage.
A lot of times we're hearing that people will have a motel room
or whatever paid for if their home is unlivable.
Now, I know that this varies from policy to policy whether it's covered,
but what in general does the insurance business define as unlivable?
Is not having power unlivable? Is not having water unlivable?
I mean, does your roof have to be caving in? What's unlivable?
I cannot answer that question for you. That would have to be answered by a claim to judge.
All right, Mr. Diaz, then we'll have to get with someone
who's going to answer these more general questions.
We do appreciate your joining us.
You're welcome.
We are going to take a little break and we'll be right back with more after this.
Thank you.
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Working at ACI is a challenge in career.
I never know what to expect,
but every time I walk in the door, I feel better about what I did.
As you can see, these facilities are ideally suited to the business of automotive training.
From the classroom, where we start with the basics,
and progress to the hands-on training,
at ACI you're treated like you're on the job from the day you start.
Our students are eager to learn,
they enjoy working with their hands and accomplishing their own automotive career goals.
And that's why we're here.
How about you, Jerry?
Well, I'm here for the technical end of the training so I can make more money.
There's a lot to be made in this field.
And I've already started working in it for a nationwide franchise.
I'm here for more than just a paycheck.
I get satisfaction just seeing students make something of themselves.
And you can't beat the training experience.
Do like I did. Pick up the phone and make the call.
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That's 563-5899.
In Miami, the number is 573-1600.
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We are back now with our continuing coverage of Hurricane Andrew
and its aftermath and the cleanup and the recovery, we hope.
The time now is 1.30 p.m. on Wednesday afternoon.
We are simulcast, by the way, in case you didn't know, by Love 94 Radio.
That's 93.9 FMWLVE.
You can listen to us on the radio if you don't have electricity.
Again, the time on Wednesday afternoon, 1.30 p.m.
We have some information for you on utilities.
Updated information, here's what you need to know.
The boil water order remains in effect in Dade County.
Once again, if you have power, you should be boiling your water
for three to five minutes because it's just not clean.
If not, add eight drops of chlorine bleach to each gallon of water.
That's if you do not have power and can't boil it.
In Hollywood, in Broward County, the boil water order has been lifted.
The water is okay to drink without boiling it.
Moving on to our next group of information for you.
As soon as the screen changes, we want to talk about the power situation.
FP&L tells us that 600,000 customers in Dade are still without power,
although the good news today is that most of Broward County has been restored,
which means a lot of those folks can come on down here
and help us in Dade County in restoring.
FP&L is asking you not to call them unless you have an emergency
or unless you see downed power lines.
Don't bother to call to report an outage.
They already know where those areas are
and they need the phone lines to be as clear as possible.
We have some information on telephone service.
FP&L asks you to stay off the line unless you have an emergency.
That's part of what Joan was just saying
because it's just screwing things up for the people trying to get relief
to the people who have serious problems.
Pre-phone banks, if you need to use the phone desperately
in order to get relief or get word to your relatives,
are at the following locations.
In Homestead, 75 Civic Court.
In Perrine, 6645 South Dixie Highway.
In West Dade, at Kendall Drive at Southwest 150th Avenue.
In Naranja, 14475 Southwest 264th Street.
In Silver Oaks, 10701 Southwest 88th Street.
In the Canal area, 2301 Southwest 100th Avenue.
And in downtown Miami, the free phones are located at 45 Northwest 5th Street.
We are going to take a look now at some recent pictures of damage in Florida City.
There you have it.
Overnight, well, early morning hours, obviously.
It still looks like it's just starting to get light out.
Boats overturned.
I understand also that in this area there was some pretty heavy damage
to some Southern Val telephone poles.
This is an area where they're trying desperately to restore phone service to people.
We have some updated information on deaths from Hurricane Andrew.
Joan, as you know, the death toll has been updated to 15 today from 14 yesterday.
We have some information about how people died.
It seems that several of the people died because they were in mobile homes
and either refused to evacuate or maybe didn't get the word
and didn't have anywhere to go and the mobile home simply collapsed on them.
We have other instances where people were in prefab
or other perhaps not well constructed homes and the homes collapsed,
the roofs collapsed on them.
One or two instances where they were in larger homes
but a beam fell on from the ceiling or something like that.
One man was killed when he was trying to get some wood,
some lumber out of his garage perhaps to try to patch up the rest of his home.
But if you will recall, a lot of the folks from Hurricane Hugo
said that in their aftermath is when they experience the most death and injuries.
So at least we can say that we haven't seen too much of that.
Not yet, luckily.
People begin to rebuild.
Let's hear from some of the people today that we've talked to
about what they're doing to start setting their lives back up.
We need milk for the baby.
We don't have no milk for none of our kids and nothing.
The ice is going too fast.
We need ice to keep the food cold and to have something to drink
because the water is no good and we need milk.
The kids are going to get sick if they don't get some milk
because it's already been two days now.
The stores have been closed and sold out.
We don't have no milk and we need it.
This ice was $1.50 and you've got this fighting and everything in line.
We've got plenty of ice going in the run.
If you start coming in line, you're going to find a lot of people
who will be taken out alive.
We need everything, food, blankets, anything, anything.
It's just the same.
A lot more people come now than there was five minutes ago.
Well, they're not bringing anything into our community.
They're taking it on one side of the community.
They're not bringing anything to the black neighborhoods.
We're not getting any services.
They put it on one side.
These people don't have any transportation to get to those areas.
We need help in these areas in the black neighborhoods,
Palm Drive and 3rd Avenue.
A lot of these people had to get over here the best way they could.
Some people walking miles to get here for ice.
But in the black areas, they're not bringing any help.
And then they're announcing that you can't get in the homestead.
And then you've got friends and relatives that live in the North Dade area
in Broward County that are afraid to come down because they said they can't get in.
We have bread that's for sale, and we just got that today.
A lot of people got bread and ice.
And a few other little things, you know.
That's it. That's it.
Maybe some six, seven, eight hours, man.
And we need some of the state.
And we need some money, man, to start life all over again
because everything is dark.
You've been listening to people talk in Florida City, I believe,
about the problems that they're experiencing getting food and water right now.
There is concern that some supermarkets might be raising prices
because they can take advantage of people.
We were just talking about whether there's a law or not.
And as you mentioned, Joan, it's very difficult to enforce it or track it down,
even if there is a law at this point.
There's just too much else to worry about.
We're going to take a commercial break at 1.37 p.m. Wednesday afternoon,
and we will be right back.
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We're back in about 20 minutes till 2.
On Wednesday afternoon, Joan Lovett with Penny Daniels
as we continue our round-the-clock hurricane coverage.
Olga Villaverde has some updated information for us.
She's live in our newsroom right now.
Olga?
Penny, we are talking now about our Channel 7 food drive.
We've started it. It's really going very well.
People helping the victims of this hurricane after the hurricane.
For those who want to know some of the points that we are leaving off this food,
for people in Southwest Broward, you can help us by dropping off food
at Palm Springs North Elementary at 17615 Northwest 82nd Avenue.
That's 17615 Northwest 82nd Avenue.
Also, Hialeah, Miami Lakes Senior High, 7977 West 12th Avenue.
That's 7977 West 12th Avenue.
Also, Miami Springs, Hialeah, Hialeah, and Opalaka.
Also, in Tropicare Flea Market at 7751 Bird Road.
Tropicare Flea Market, 7751 Bird Road.
And finally, for those in Northwest Broward, we have another drop-off point.
Drop-off point.
Tamarack Fire Department, 4901 Commercial Boulevard.
That's 4901 Commercial Boulevard.
If you can help, it would really help us.
And there is one more Northeast Broward at King Toyota, 1441 South Federal Highway.
That's 1441 South Federal Highway.
Anything you can do, it would be much, much appreciated.
Also, ONJ Produce in Miami called,
and they are delivering a truckload of corn and other produce to be distributed to South Dade
and the United States JCs are sending a trailer truck from Georgia, South Carolina, and Florida
loaded with food, donations, and supplies.
They supported Channel 7 during Operation Homefront.
They saw our plea and they're going to help.
So again, anything you can do for us, it would be much appreciated.
What we're going to do is these food and supplies will be taken to Opalaka Airport
where it will be airlifted by the Coast Guard to Tamiami Airport.
There, the National Guard will direct drivers to National Guard stations
in Florida City, Country Walk, Homestead, Cutler Ridge,
and obviously helping all those people who have been affected by this horrible, horrible hurricane.
Also, some very important information for those of you who have been calling
regarding Dade County Public Schools.
At 3 o'clock this afternoon, WLRN FM 91.3 as well as Channel 17,
they will broadcast a live update from Dade County Public Schools Superintendent Octavio Vicedro.
Again, that is WLRN FM 91.3 or Channel 17.
That broadcast will be at 3 p.m. today,
and I'm sure he will announce finally when Dade County Public Schools will begin.
Royal Palm in Hollywood has no more ice. Please don't head on over there.
They've had to station police there. They tell us it's gotten just way out of hand.
They've got no more ice, so please don't head there anymore.
Royal Palm in Hollywood, they've got no more ice.
The City of Miami is distributing free water at two locations if you're in need of water.
They're asking residents to bring their own containers.
These locations now, Clemente Park, Northwest 2nd Avenue and 34th Street.
Again, Clemente Park, Northwest 2nd Avenue and 34th Street.
And finally, African Square Park, Northwest 62nd Street and 15th Avenue.
We understand also that City Fort Lauderdale is offering free water also
to people who bring their own containers to 1500 South State Road 7, 24 hours a day.
Again, that's the City of Fort Lauderdale offering free water at 1500 South State Road 7, 24 hours a day.
So if you are in need, please head on down that way.
In terms of jobs available, here's some information.
Uniforce Personnel Services has jobs available in affected areas of the hurricane.
These jobs pay up to $5 an hour, and that number to call is 820-0531.
That's 820-0531.
Again, we're getting all this information minute by minute.
We are bringing it to you.
As soon as we get more, we will let you know.
That's it for now.
I'm going to give everybody life in the news desk.
Back to you.
Thank you very much, Olga, for that information.
Good information.
Something we've been talking about off and on throughout the day is the idea of price gouging.
Stores and businesses raising the prices of things like ice and generators
so that they can profit from our devastation.
Carmel Cafero has been out investigating these reports, and this is what she has found.
We've been doing a little price comparison on some of the items that are in high demand and short supply,
and one of those things is a generator.
Now, we're across from Daedland, and we've found a guy who's got his truck out here.
He's got Coleman PowerMate 4000, okay?
And let's see how much he's selling them for.
We just found another guy down the street who was selling them one of these for $600.
The man over here in the blue jumpsuit is the one who's got this enterprise going.
Let's ask him what his price is.
Sir, sir, excuse me.
Can I ask you how much you're selling your generators for?
$800.
Now, we've got a fellow down the street who's selling them for $6.
Well, see, it might be the watts. How many watts does he got?
It's exactly the same generator as you've got here, the Coleman 4000.
Where did he buy his?
Well, I don't know where he bought his, but what I'm trying to say to you is we've got a real serious situation here.
Are you trying to take advantage of people who are desperate?
No, no. I brought these from North Carolina.
And how much did you pay?
I paid, let's see, $695.
So you're telling me that a guy on the street down here who's done essentially the same thing and selling his for $600
is selling them for less than it would cost you to buy them brand new in North Carolina where there's not a crisis like this?
Probably. It may be, but see, I don't know.
I've been out for three days, you know.
It cost me to come down here for three days, you know, living in a truck and all.
I ain't trying to price count nobody.
You're not trying to take advantage of people here?
No, no.
Excuse me. We need to go.
Oh, okay. All right. Good luck to you.
Chop carefully.
Well, we're going to continue on the road here and see what else we find.
This man insists that he's not ripping people off, but at least that one customer anyway has decided he's going somewhere else.
So are we. I'll be back to you when we've got more.
Where are we going?
All right, generally what Carmel found as she's been on the road all day is that, well, what her report was,
what she found according to the phone survey that we've done in the newsroom is that the price for a Coleman 4000 generator is ranging from five to six hundred dollars normally.
And that guy was charging over seven hundred saying that he had bought it for six ninety five.
Exactly. So, you know, this will give you an idea of what, you know, if you're willing to pay it, it's up to you.
But those are a couple hundred dollars over cost.
Yeah, I mean, it's a good point if you're willing to pay it.
And a lot of you out there are so desperate that you are willing to pay these prices and that's a choice you have to make.
But we're just trying to make you aware that you may be paying too much.
OK, we're going to where? Craig Stevens?
All right.
Who is with the emergency management people in Dade County. What's going on, Craig?
Good afternoon, Joan and Penny. A lot to tell you about here, so I'm going to try and get right into it.
First of all, let's start off and talk about some information relevant to those folks on Miami Beach.
To tell you about some free drinking water that will be given out to residents there at several locations.
First at Sixth Street Community Center, that's at Sixth and Meridian, at the Police Athletic League at 11th and Jefferson,
the Miami Beach City Hall, which is at 17th and Convention Center Drive, at the North Shore Bandshell at 73 and Collins.
Those are locations for free drinking water distribution.
Now, residents are told to bring their own containers and they should be sterilized and not be made of metal, this release goes on to say.
That distribution goes on between 9 and 530, so you've got some time left.
Also, distribution of food to take place in the city, also at the Community Center, the Police Athletic League, which is at 11th and Jefferson,
and also at the Bandshell, which is at 73rd and Collins.
Because of low water pressure out at the beach, you are again urged to conserve water.
Don't use it to wash your cars, to try and clean anything outdoors, just use it only when you really need to.
Residential curbside collection at Miami Beach will resume Thursday the 27th, Thursday the 27th for garbage collection.
Commercial service from Waste Management Company will resume Wednesday the 26th.
All streets should be kept clear of debris, this goes on to say.
Beaches, a reminder, are closed until further notice on Miami Beach.
The city's building department will be open this Thursday to issue permits for hurricane-related repair work only.
Now looking at Metro-Dade, more information about garbage collection service beginning Thursday the 27th.
Residential garbage collection will resume for households north of Flagler.
In addition, garbage collection service will resume for households south of Flagler, except in areas where street access is limited.
Now residents in those areas with limited access should place their household trash on the right-of-way of a major open street.
Residents are encouraged to place only garbage, food, and kitchen waste at curbside for collection.
Garbage, which rapidly decomposes, is the priority for collection.
However, all containerized garbage and trash will be collected, including yard waste.
The waste should be placed in a standard bag.
Also, tied bundles of trash will be accepted, but should not exceed three feet in length.
Let's move on to other information now from Metro-Dade.
Mayor Stephen Clark has called a special meeting for Thursday at 1 o'clock in the commission chambers at 111 Northwest 1st Street.
The county manager will brief the commission on the operation of Metro-Dade, government, and the post-hurricane recovery efforts.
The county manager has also pushed back the curfew in Homestead.
This is to help the folks out there from 11 p.m. until 7 a.m.
The regular curfew is from 7 to 7.
The extension brings it from 11 p.m. to 7 a.m.
It's a result of the feeding effort by the South Baptist Convention Center.
The curfew extension will now allow volunteers to feed as many people as possible affected by the hurricane.
Just a short time ago, we had an unexpected visit here.
Senators Connie Mack and Bob Graham came by to check up on the efforts here.
I believe we may have some tape. There it is.
They both shared with us some of their first impressions of what's going on
and also addressed the concerns of some that Homestead Air Force Base, which has been leveled, concerns that it might be closed.
Here's what they had to say about that.
In reality, it is going to take a long period of time leading up to a decision about what the future is.
That decision was going to be debated in 1993 anyway, so a storm or no storm, that's a debate that's going to take place.
The question really is, is what effect is it going to have on that decision?
It's too early to tell that yet.
It's the closest Air Force Base to Cuba.
I think as long as there is the instability and uncertainty from Cuba that exists today,
that Homestead Air Force Base will continue to be an important part of our national security system.
On another matter, the matter of federal reimbursements from FEMA,
that is the federal agency that is helping coordinate bringing money down here from the federal level,
they basically underwrite about 75% of what goes on under law.
That's all they're allowed to underwrite.
The remainder of the 25%, that's supposed to come from state and local governments.
Of course, Florida, with its budget situation most locally and the state level,
can't really afford to make up the difference,
and Senators Mack and Graham tell me they're hoping to work out a similar arrangement
that was worked out in South Carolina after Hurricane Hugo,
where a special appeal and exemption was allowed,
and basically the feds picked up almost 100% of some of those repair costs,
and they say that there's a pretty good shot that Dade County and South Florida will be able to work out
a very similar arrangement here to pick up those costs.
So that's about all we have from the EOC right now.
We're expecting another briefing on how things are working here at about 5 o'clock, I was just told,
so we'll be keeping on top of things until then.
For now, back to you at the studio.
Thank you very much, Craig.
The red tape on all this is pretty mind-boggling when you think about it.
You wonder how you're ever going to sort through it all, don't you?
It's about 10 minutes until 2 o'clock Wednesday afternoon, and we'll be right back.
We'll be right back.
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Good afternoon.
It's about six minutes until two o'clock on Wednesday afternoon.
You've been looking at a live picture of Homestead.
I'm Joan Lovett with Penny Daniels as we continue our coverage
of Hurricane Andrew and the aftermath.
We have been talking with our reporters all morning
who are out covering South Dade, the badly affected areas there.
We have a story now that Rick Leventhal put together.
It's just about people and what they're doing to try to put their lives back together,
how they're getting food, how they're getting water.
Let's take a look at the story.
Hi.
Hi.
We wanted to find out from you how you're managing at this point.
Well, we just staying in the beds again.
Ain't nowhere to go, nothing to do.
All my stuff gone.
What are you doing for water and for food?
We're getting water from the housing down there.
From another house?
Yeah.
No, down here in this water thing there.
Yeah.
So you're getting some water.
Mm-hmm.
What about food?
Well, we had a lot.
I had a lot of canned goods, not both canned goods.
So we eating on that.
Yeah.
I have a gas stove.
Your roof obviously is completely gone.
Yeah, the roof is gone.
And all your possessions, I can only guess where it went.
I don't know where it went for me.
It's got a lot of them.
I had all my drugs and things.
I guess to me and them kids, most of them went.
Can we step inside and take a look at what's left of your home?
Why don't you go first, Eddie?
Why don't you step here?
Why don't you step in there?
How long have you lived here?
Since 1961.
You lived here for 31 years.
Mm-hmm.
How many children have you raised in this home?
Six.
You raised six kids here.
Were you in the home when the hurricane hit?
Yeah, we were.
Describe it for me.
We were in this part first.
Then we left out there.
We came in here.
Then we left there.
We went in here to hear the roof leaving.
Then we ran back into the back room back here where we stayed until the storm was over.
What did the wind sound like when it was taking the roof off?
Oh, it was terrible.
It was terrible.
It sounded like something, big something just hitting the house.
Boom, boom, like that.
I was so scared I didn't know what to do.
And you ran towards the back here, which I guess is the only place where there's any roof left.
We went into that room back here where the kitchen is.
Do you have any hopes of rebuilding this home?
Yeah, I hope so.
I hope.
Do you have any insurance?
No, no insurance.
Do you have any money?
Not a lot of money.
I don't have no money that much.
I live on government pension.
Do you think your kids can help you through this?
I thank the kids.
We had to survive in the bathroom.
In the bathtub.
My two twins, my granddaughter, two of my granddaughters, and one of my grandsons.
We was in the bathroom.
That's how we survived.
As the storm ripped your roof off?
Ripped the whole roof off.
The only little spot we had was around here in the bathroom.
The other party that took the whole roof off.
That's how my whole bedroom is set.
My baby's room.
My den.
Everything's gone.
It's not just you, your whole neighborhood.
The whole neighborhood just like this.
Very bad.
Did any of your possessions survive the storm?
No.
How could it?
Lost it all?
Does your room have a roof over it?
No roof over it.
Good night, Luke.
What's that you're washing there, sir?
What's that you're washing there?
Full occasion in your sheet?
Do you have any clothes left?
Well, it's just about everything, huh?
Any idea what you're going to do now?
Pretty sad stuff from Homestead that we've been seeing from Rick Leventhal and our reporters down there.
And that's just one of very, very many stories that we're going to be hearing about in the next few days.
We are going to finish it out for this hour.
It's nearly 2 o'clock on a Wednesday afternoon.
We will be back in about an hour from now.
And our replacements will take over.
Kelly McBerry joining you in just a few minutes.
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Good afternoon, everyone.
It is 2 p.m. Wednesday afternoon.
I'm Jim Berry being joined by Kelly Mitchell.
As Channel 7 continues its coverage of the aftermath of Hurricane Andrew.
Thank you for watching us on Channel 7.
Thank you for listening to us on WLVE Love 94 as we continue that simulcast to try to keep you updated with all of the very latest information.
And the very latest information we have, in case you're curious about Andrew, is that it is no longer a hurricane.
The National Weather Service has downgraded it to a tropical storm.
The winds have now diminished to about 65 miles an hour.
As apparently it blows its way to a slow death through southern Louisiana.
Apparently now the only danger is flooding if the storm itself stalls and continues to dump water on that part of the country.
But I think we're all glad to hear that that guy no longer exists.
And he certainly, unfortunately, left his mark here in South Florida.
And because of that, we have been doing round-the-clock coverage of the storm.
We know a lot of you are, little by little, are getting power.
Many of you are still without it.
And we know that we are your lifeline to let you know what is going on.
And that is why we are staying with this kind of coverage here at 2.03 in the afternoon on Wednesday.
Okay, we want to give you the particulars right now.
Let's talk water.
The boil water order remains in effect in Dade County.
If you have power, be sure and boil that water at least three to five minutes as a rolling boil.
If not, add eight drops of chlorine bleach to each gallon.
The boil water order in Hollywood has been lifted.
So some good news there for folks there.
As for power, 600,000 FP&L customers in Dade still no electricity.
But most of Broward County has now been restored.
So good news there.
They are asking that you don't call FP&L unless you have an emergency
or you happen to see more downed power lines than most of those lines they are now aware of.
Southern Bell saying, please, please, we know you want to call, but don't do it unless you really, really have to.
By now, most people have probably gotten in touch with the folks that they need to.
So if you have to call, here are free phone banks in case you don't have phone service.
Homestead, 75 Civic Court, Perrine, 16645 South Dixie Highway,
West Dade, Kendall Drive at Southwest 150th Avenue,
Naranja, 14475 Southwest 264th Street,
Silver Oaks, 10701 Southwest 88th Street in the Canal Area,
2301 Southwest 100th Avenue,
and Downtown Miami, you can make a phone call for free at 45 Northwest 5th Street.
And that's pretty much the situation as far as the utilities go at this hour.
Okay. President Bush has promised $10 million right off the bat
to help with the cleanup from Hurricane Andrew.
Based on what we've seen, that's probably going to be a drop in the bucket.
He's also freeing up federal funds to create 5,000 short-term jobs to help us deal with this situation.
And the President apparently is on his way to Louisiana this afternoon
to check out the damage that Andrew may have caused over there.
We understand basically just one death from Andrew in that particular area.
Our death count is now up to 15, but they don't think they're going to find too many more victims,
but there's still the chance always that that could change.
All right. Carlos Harrison is out in the field, I believe.
He's with some people on the front lines who have had to deal with this hurricane.
How did you get here?
Thank God.
He saved more than our house.
He saved more than any other house on the block.
Where did you live?
Outside the base.
Oh, my God. Yeah, the base got destroyed.
And that's it. We start all over. We work and we start all over.
I'll take you back to your office.
We just start all over.
We're working to help each other. Don't worry.
You live here, too, and you're feeling it, too.
We're homeless. I mean, but we're here. We're alive.
And all I know is that if anybody...
The only message that I can tell people is if you hear hurricanes,
I don't care what, you know, what, even if they say it's not that strong, whatever,
go to safety, because we didn't think it was going to be that bad,
and we stayed in our house, and the only thing that stood was the bathroom,
and that's where we were. We walked outside, and it's like,
you know that there's somebody watching you,
because the whole house was destroyed except where we were in the bathroom.
What kind of problems are you facing right now as far as coordinating everything?
Well, I don't really think... I think everybody's doing such a great job.
I don't really think we're having a problem.
To me, if it is a problem, we don't know there is a problem.
We're just, you know, everybody's helping everybody.
Are you coming from Tampa?
Fort Myers.
Come on down.
Listen, the one thing I've got to tell you is there's no place to sleep down here.
I can feed you.
Here at City Hall, they're manning the phones,
trying to coordinate the relief that's on the way,
trying to help evacuate people.
A truck of water that's coming in from up north,
trying to figure out where to take it exactly,
coordinating where their department heads are.
We need disposable diapers.
We need water, blankets, batteries.
More calls are coming in. More donations are being accepted.
People are offering help, but the trick is to get it out where it's most needed.
Another call coming in now.
Take the turnpike on 312th Street.
How many people are coming to volunteer?
Five.
Okay, the only thing I want to tell you, we don't have no place for people to stay.
You know, if you come, I'm just letting you know that I don't want to give you false hope or anything like that.
So volunteers are coming also, but they've got to remember that they're in the same conditions that everyone else is
as people trickle into City Hall to offer their help and to ask for help.
Homestead needs it desperately.
As you look around Mayor DeMille and see Homestead now, can Homestead ever come back?
Yeah, Homestead will be back.
The people of Homestead are determined people, and we will be back.
We're not the first community to suffer a natural disaster such as this.
Ninety percent of the city is gone?
Yeah, but we will redo it.
The outpouring of love and affection and offers of help are just overwhelming.
With good coordination and the resources that are coming forth, we'll put it back together.
We've gotten the water restored a good little portion of the city.
Electricity, of course, is going to be a long time coming.
You guys are seeing how the poles are down.
When you're trying to help, what do you do?
Well, you pray a lot.
You thank God that those that stayed in what they thought were safe homes,
and of course, we have the strongest building poles in the whole country here in Dade County.
When you see those houses absolutely devastated, you thank God that nobody else was killed.
Yeah, that's the bottom line, isn't it?
It really is.
Lives were saved even though lots of property destroyed.
Buildings can be rebuilt, but lives cannot be regained.
We are certainly fortunate even though 15 fatalities that we know of,
we are certainly thankful that the death toll at this point is not even higher.
So peculiar, the path of this storm, no one expected it.
Just got off the phone with a friend from Miami Beach.
As you know, the beach had to evacuate because of this,
and we haven't been able to reach a lot of people over there.
Their homes sitting right on the beach, right on the water, staring down the face of Hurricane Andrew.
They finally were able to get back in their home not too long ago to check it out.
A pot, a couple of pots and pans knocked down, that's it.
Yeah, and then for this thing to do what it did so far in England, it just doesn't make any sense.
But I guess that's why it's a disaster.
I mean, you can't plan for anything like that, no matter really what you do.
And again, that's been the discussion among a lot of people.
After you see what it has done that there aren't 30, 40, 50, maybe even 100 people dead.
So all things considered, we came out pretty well.
Again, there's lots of information coming in here to Channel 7, right and left.
And as you heard, all the folks in Dade County and Broward County have been really using us
as a way of getting that information out.
And we've got some new stuff for you.
So let's go to Olga Villaverde at the news desk right now.
Olga?
Kelly, this is some stuff that we've just gotten in.
The City of Highlanddale has been given the all-clear.
Highlanddale residents are now being allowed to return home, which is good news.
The water is safe to drink.
Sanitary sewers are now working.
Garbage collection is back to the normal schedule.
I wish that was a safer day.
That's where I live.
Residents are responsible for cleaning their property and getting rid of yard waste.
And they're asked to call the Sanitation Department at 457-1616.
Again, that's 457-1616.
So some good news for Highlanddale residents.
Mercy Hospital has also reopened its emergency room and is admitting from the ER.
They have also reopened their outpatient pharmacy to fill prescriptions.
They're also opening up to get blood donations beginning tomorrow.
So bit by bit, we are getting back to normal.
Dade Christian School will be open Monday for students and teachers.
The first day's schedule will be in effect.
Once again, Dade Christian School is open Monday.
And finally, at 3 p.m. today, a very important WLRN will broadcast a live update from Dade County Public School Superintendent Octavio Vestelio.
We should know by 3 o'clock today when Dade County Public Schools will reopen.
That's it for now.
I'm Olga Villaverde live from the news desk.
Back to you.
All right, thank you.
Okay, Olga, thank you very much.
Well, of course, with all of the damage to property, many people, of course, are frantically trying to reach their insurance companies to get their claims processed.
Of course, insurance companies swamped with requests already.
In fact, just saw an advisory from regarding Travelers Insurance had received 1,500 claims by late yesterday.
It had 11,000 from Hugo, which costed 45 million bucks, so probably will exceed that.
Joining us now live, I believe, on the phone is the State's Insurance Commissioner, Mr. Tom Gallagher.
Tom, are you there?
I am here.
Tom, what can be done to expedite the claims?
And, of course, there are going to be so many of them, but what can be done to expedite the claims for those who need immediate relief from their insurance companies?
Well, of course, the insurance companies adjusters are trying to get to those damaged areas that are the worst.
We are in the process, of course.
One of the things you want to do is make sure you're dealing with a licensed adjuster, not just somebody that walks down the street and says they are.
They have to go through a licensing process, which, of course, we have an emergency situation on how we're handling those.
They're bringing the ones in from around the state first.
But quite a few companies have sent us the forms and everything, and they're bringing in maybe 100 to 200 additional each company.
They're in the process of getting those licensed now, and they're going to be hitting the streets as we speak.
So the companies are responding so far.
And, again, in order to get – I don't know about expediting anything.
The truth of the matter is everybody wants their claims expedited.
We're trying to do everything we can to make sure that the companies do have the experts on the ground going by and checking on the properties and getting some money to these people as soon as possible.
Some companies are making arrangements for their insurances in certain hotels.
They're basically taking the whole hotel and moving their insurance into those hotels and then contacting those insured as best way they can.
Obviously, so many people don't have phones and communications.
It's been hard for them to call out to get their insurance agent knowing that they need help,
although I will say many of the companies already know where they are and where their insureds are and that they do need to get a claims person there.
But communications has been a problem with no phones, as you well know.
And I can tell you that they are working on it to the best of our knowledge.
We haven't had any company that looks like they're not working on it.
We've put a little fire under some of them to let them know just how horrible the situation really is.
Oh, that's good. I understand from past disasters that a lot of times the insurance companies actually just move mobile communications and command centers right into the area
and they are there on the spot to make things easier for people.
Are you seeing that here yet or is it just too soon?
Yes, they are making arrangements for that.
One of the problems with on the spot is that there isn't any phone service on the spot, no electric on the spot,
and they need to be hooked up to their computers and everything else.
They're going to have a problem with the mobile units that they bring in sometimes and the trailers.
You know, some companies have already ordered 1,500 trailers we've brought down for people to stay in.
They're doing a lot that you don't see yet because it does take a little while to get some of these things up and rolling.
Just as you see, the federal government agency that's down there right now is just today putting up their main office.
They're going to get their other offices up in the next day or so.
So it's not easy to get these mobile things in and up, but they are in the process of mobilizing.
And of course, the problem with no phones in the areas where they'd like to have a headquarters is a problem.
Tom, let's say I'm a homeowner whose home has been damaged severely by this hurricane.
Walk me through the steps that I should take to make sure that whenever I reach my insurance company and my adjuster and agent,
that things will go smoothly from there on.
Well, you're right. You need to reach the adjuster or the claims people or your agent, preferably both if you can.
You want to have your policy number there. You want to basically tell them when you can be where you need to be.
They'll ask you the questions. It's not a matter, but I would have your policy if you can.
It's not an absolute must to have it sitting in front of you, but having your policy number and having your policy is a plus.
There's no doubt about it.
I see a lot of people taking pictures of their property. Good idea?
Very good idea. Anything that you can take that shows a record, especially if you have to do some emergency repairs
in order to keep them basically covered to keep it dry, whatever you can take to demonstrate the kind of damage, the damage,
it's always to the plus. It's not necessary, but anytime you can document things, it does help.
Have you gotten wind of anybody who's down here and up to no good doing things that they shouldn't be or everybody keeping their nose clean so far?
No. Unfortunately, when there's a disaster, there's always people that want to take advantage of that.
Yes, we have had some wind, as you want to call it, of some things that are going on.
There are some people that are out there recruiting people to let them be adjusters. They may not be licensed adjusters.
In other words, instead of coming from the company, they are public adjusters going to the people saying,
let us adjust your claim for you. You don't have to do anything. We'll do it all. We'll get you more money. We'll do this. We'll do that.
My advice to people is to let the company adjuster come work with them first. If, in fact, they have a problem there,
they can come to us. They could end up with a public adjuster to get in the middle and help mediate.
But I think that the first thing you want to do is to work with the company adjuster. I think that probably will save you some time and effort.
And make sure that whoever you deal with does have a license with the state and they have been approved to come in and be involved in adjusting.
What will they have, like photo IDs or what?
Well, all agents have photo IDs. That's a requirement. And unfortunately, when we license these agents,
we are not able to give, you know, in a situation like this, able to give them all photos.
But they will have an ID from their company as well as a license authorizing them from us to with it.
Tom, we are looking at pictures now of areas that have been particularly devastated by Hurricane Andrew.
Is there enough insurance money out there to rebuild these communities?
Yeah, I think that at this point isn't something that we need to worry about.
There are some small companies that with Hugo basically became insolvent.
There are some small companies that that could happen here or some companies that may not have the reinsurance.
But remember, companies that write this type of business recognize that there are tragedies like this that happen.
They reinsure for those tragedies. In other words, basically, when you have something like this that has this huge amount of loss,
these companies have written and reinsured. In other words, they bought a policy from around the world to basically have another word.
This is the kind of you have this kind of catastrophe.
Lloyds of London, all the reinsurers in the world will be sending money to these companies to help pay these claims
because they've basically taken a piece of the action type thing.
They've agreed to take some of the risk and now it's time for them to pay the risk.
Tom, would a typical homeowners policy cover a loss of your home because of a hurricane?
I know there are a lot of loopholes.
Well, most policies don't carry windstorm themselves.
The basic homeowners policy does not carry windstorm.
You'd have to be part of the Florida windstorm pool, which your company would get for you.
Your agent would get for you when you buy a policy.
In most cases, your agent would make sure you had that because you're in a hurricane prone area.
The other thing that isn't covered normally is flood and water damage.
We didn't have, you know, inland, we didn't get as much surge as we were concerned about.
But there still were some property that were damaged by water.
Again, you'd have to have the flood insurance, which is underwritten by the federal government.
But you, again, would buy that through your agent and your company,
which basically reinsures it through the federal government program.
So, so far it sounds like maybe by the end of the week,
things will be in place for people to start getting those claims taken care of.
Yes, I can tell you there are a lot of agents on the ground right now, working with people right now.
We were in a mobile home park yesterday,
and the agent that had about 80% of those mobile homes in that park insured,
told me that he had insured them with a domestic company.
He'd been talking to the domestic company.
They were to be there today, some adjusters directly from the company with a checkbook.
And so he expects them to write the checks for the mobile homes that were there.
Now, the personal property that was inside,
they'll have to file a specific claim and itemize all of the things and those kind of things.
So that'll take a little bit longer.
But they'll actually be able to have cash for their mobile home that's been destroyed.
So far, are you pretty pleased with the way things are being handled?
Well, I'd always like it to be better.
You know, we're pushing the companies pretty hard.
I've talked to some of the executives and some of the representatives of the companies
about letting them know that I know they think they've seen it on TV in Chicago and in Connecticut
and all these places where these home offices are,
but they just haven't really seen or felt the devastation that exists unless you're really there
and you can feel and touch it.
And one of the things that I plan on doing is having some of these executives have an opportunity to feel and touch it.
Tom, looking down the road, and it might be difficult to do when we're still in the face of the situation now,
but what can the insurance payers of the state expect?
Can we expect much higher premiums to help pay for rebuilding our community?
Well, it doesn't really work that way, although obviously there will be some costs to all the premium payers
because, you know, these kinds of losses, you know, this is only the first hurricane, too, which is sort of scary.
These kind of losses sometimes do justify higher premiums, but that won't happen right away.
We'll have to shake through this and see how it goes.
Sure.
Many of the companies are prepared for these kind of losses because they do prepare by buying the reinsurance.
They handle all the small, regular, everyday claims themselves, but any kind of catastrophe,
they have an excess policy written around, as they say, written around the world
so that they're going to continue covering their part that they're used to,
and then that reinsurance kicks in and takes care of the rest of it.
So it shouldn't be the kind of thing that will cause the industry to go insolvent or anything like that,
but it certainly is a major hit to the insurance industry, there's no doubt about that.
Yeah, they probably look at it as a disaster as well, don't they?
It is, just as I can promise you, in their minds, especially those guys that, you know,
look at the profit bottom line and all those other things,
the property and casualty business has not been a very profitable business these last few years.
This kind of thing will guarantee that it won't be for a few years to come.
Well, we appreciate you taking the time to speak with us.
What we'd like to do is periodically, as we continue our 24-hour coverage,
is check back with you, if you don't mind, if you can still be available throughout the day and tomorrow.
I'll be glad to do it. You just contact us up here and we'll just break loose and try to talk to you as much as I can.
Okay, Tom Gallagher, the Florida Insurance Commissioner, telling us exactly what to expect
and some good news, it looks as though lots of the machinery is in place to deal with this situation as best we can
and forgive me for asking the question about it being expeditious, but I think that's on the minds of everybody right now.
How fast can they pay?
That's absolutely right.
Absolutely. We're going to take a commercial break, but as we do, we want to give you the locations of the Seven Food Bank.
We're starting up our own food drive here, so this will give you an idea.
If you've got extra things, please, if you're in Southwest Broward and near the Day Broward line,
take it to Palm Springs North Elementary at 17615 Northwest 82nd Avenue
and the other location, Miami Springs, Hialeah, Hialeah Gardens, Opalaka.
Take it to Hialeah, Miami Lakes High and that's 7977 West 12th Avenue.
We'll be back.
The biggest bedroom sale of the year is here, Waterbed City's anniversary sale.
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Benadryl Maximum Strength Cream or spray.
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Hurricane Andrew causing havoc in South Florida.
A frightening situation.
That is why Love 94 and Channel 7 News have teamed up to guarantee you'll know exactly what to do.
Love 94 and WSBN will make sure that you'll never be without the information you need.
In an emergency, Love 94 will continue to simulcast Channel 7's updates, live reports, and news broadcasts.
So if you can't see us on Channel 7, you can hear us on Love 94.
Together, we'll help you survive this storm.
And welcome back to Channel 7's continuing coverage of the Hurricane Andrew aftermath.
I'm Jim Berry.
I've been joined by Kelly Mitchell.
It is now 2.25 Wednesday afternoon.
And we are pulling together as best we can in South Florida to deal with this situation.
And little by little, we are taking baby steps.
We are slowly trying to right ourselves and move forward with life.
Well, it takes a lot of things to get back on our feet.
You need the supplies, you need the utilities, you need money, you need all sorts of things.
But you also need a helping hand.
And sometimes that goes a lot longer than some of the tangible goods that we want to get our hands on.
So Rick Leventhal went out and found out there are a lot of people out there just helping other people.
I have some good news to report this afternoon.
It looks like some of those people the most desperate in need are getting some of the food and some of the water
that they've been crying out for all day long and all of yesterday as well.
Right over here, there are two tanker trucks.
Each one is a 5,000-gallon tanker truck.
It's a sugar on the side, but it's not filled with sugar.
They're both filled with water.
That's 10,000 gallons of water that is parked here.
It's being given away by the Salvation Army, and all you have to do is come out here with your own container
and fill up as much water as you can carry away.
They're also giving out 900 to about 1,000 sandwiches.
Again, on a first-come, first-serve basis.
So there is food and there is water here at the Cutleridge Mall in the parking lot.
Also, we went to a public across the street there that is giving away all the food that it can.
It's clearly not filled with water.
We're also going to bring you another very touching story,
a story of a young, physically disabled man, a young boy,
whose father wheeled him here to the parking lot earlier this afternoon
in search of just a cold drink.
Let's go ahead and roll that thing.
Hi, Glenn.
How are you folks doing?
Terrible, terrible.
Just out trying to get some food for the kids, you know.
And some milk and ice.
You know where we get any? Ice, especially.
No, I don't, sir.
How are you doing?
Okay.
How did you manage through the storm?
I don't know.
He thought he was going to die.
Yeah.
My daughter's house all blew apart.
I don't know.
I don't know.
I don't know.
My daughter's house all blew apart.
And by the time I'm home,
we got them all over our house now.
We're just out trying to get them something to eat, you know.
I bet that drink tastes pretty good right now, doesn't it?
Yep. It's good.
If you drink it up, I'll give you some more.
All right.
What do you think we had in three days?
I didn't like the storm.
No? No.
No? No.
Never seen anything like it before?
No. First hurricane.
He kept saying, we're going to die.
Is that right? Yep.
What were you saying?
What were you thinking?
We're all going to die.
What did it sound like to you?
What do you remember most about it?
It hurt.
My ears bombed.
Didn't feel too good.
We're at a public store
right across the street from the Cutler Ridge Mall
where the National Guard is passing out food
to anybody who can get over here and get it.
What kind of food did you get there, ma'am?
What kinds of food did you get there?
Plenty of eggs,
cereal, fish steaks,
you name it.
First fresh food you've seen in a while, huh?
Yeah. What do you got there?
I got food.
Yeah. Yeah.
Looks good. Looks real good.
I guess it would be out of the question
to actually open the store.
Is that right?
The roof is done.
The roof, no power.
No power on that roof.
And yet you've got some food
that you can still salvage.
Let's walk down the line, Eddie.
The food is kind of what this is.
It's amazing.
Let's go.
What's your statement?
Well, I see some people have them.
Why don't you hear some guys living with diapers right here?
Yeah, they keep running out.
Talk to the guys in public.
There's a couple guys right down here
that work for Publix.
I don't know, but I'll tell you what, go down here
and talk to a couple guys that work for Publix right down there.
They can probably help you out.
Come on, let's go see if we can get you some.
This guy needs some diapers.
What's up?
My house is a disaster.
I cannot deal with everything.
And I feel very upset about the situation.
Is this a potentially dangerous situation
and there's a lot of guardsmen out here?
No, not really. Not that I know of any.
But people could, I would guess,
start to get a little agitated
and pushy in line.
Yeah, but from what I've seen,
there's a lot of food, and that's what everybody's been saying.
Other than enough to go around.
So I don't see any problem.
Okay, thank you.
You're welcome.
They are waiting patiently.
They've got their bags.
They're giving out bags right here.
People who once came to this store to shop,
who once walked the aisles,
are now waiting in line
for a bag
and a chance of whatever they can get.
Cookies, tissue.
Do you have a shopping list, so to speak?
Do you have something that's most important to you?
Just getting some food.
Yeah, we need some food.
Any kind of food?
Any kind of food.
And I have nothing in the house
that's sold out.
Nothing at all.
Are you getting everything you need, ma'am?
I'm getting what I can. Thank you.
God, I was just blessed because I got three kids.
You look so happy to get this food.
I am.
You just don't know.
I didn't have any money left.
My food and we ran out today
and we just had a little water
and the police just came to the house
and told us to come and get food
and we're happy.
It's like striking a wrench. It's like a goldmine.
Yes, exactly. You said the word, it's a goldmine.
I bet you never thought you'd feel that way
about raising bran and cookies and crackers.
No, I'm so happy.
I spoke with the manager
in that public store
and he says that that grocery store chain
is now trying to work with Red Cross.
They're going to donate several truckloads
of food and goods for the people out here
that will be distributed, I'm told, from the shelters.
One other thing I wanted to mention
is there is a far more pharmacy here
at the Cutler Ridge Mall and I spoke with the
pharmacy manager who wants everyone to know
if you had a prescription
that you had filled at the pharmacy here,
the far more pharmacy at the Cutler Ridge Mall,
if you had a prescription filled but weren't able to pick it up
before the storm hit, you can pick it up
but you can't pick it up here.
You're going to have to go to the Hialeah Far More
that's on Okeechobee Road in Hialeah.
It's a long way away but if you need those,
that prescription, you can go up there and get it also.
If you need a refill
for a prescription that you got at this particular
store, this Cutler Ridge Mall Far More,
if you have a prescription you need refilled,
you can take the bottle to that same
Hialeah Far More on Okeechobee Road
and get those refills.
The store is open from 9 to 9.
Okay, Rick Leventhal
with a lot of useful information, folks
dealing with it as best they can.
Looked like pictures from the old Soviet Union.
Yeah, really did, but that is true.
I've done that call, I had a prescription
order wait a day or two and then
something like this happened so it is nice to know
exactly if you need the medication, where you can go get it.
No question about it.
We want to go now back to Craig Stephens
who's at the Dade County Emergency Management
Services office and
boy, you've really been doing a good job
of keeping us posted. I'm sure you're about to do the same
thing again. Well thanks Kelly, I'm going to do
my best. First thing I want to tell you, I just talked to
some folks here and they want to stress
the biggest problem they are still having
is with traffic in South Dade.
They say they just have too many gawkers,
rubberneckers with their instant
cameras, their polaroids, their video
cameras, what have you. They don't want these people
out there, they're all over the place,
they're clogging up the roadways and the people who need to get
through cannot. And they are
asking us to appeal once again, if you don't have to be
on the roads anywhere, don't be, but
especially South Dade because
it's just a mess down there. Just got this
from the Salvation Army, they are accepting donations
at its collection center which is located
at 7802
NW 103rd Street in Hialeah.
No pickup however is available at this
time. The Salvation Army
needs donations of non-perishable food
and baby supplies such as disposable
diapers and baby food.
I also want to tell you
about the curfew which has been
extended for Homestead.
It's been extended from 11 PM
until 7 AM. The regular curfew
hours are from 7 PM to 7 AM.
That extension is a result of the feeding
effort by the South Baptist Convention Center.
The curfew extension will allow volunteers
to feed as many people as possible
affected by the hurricane. So again
that curfew in Homestead is
11 PM to 7 AM.
I can quickly review
some of the details of this morning's news
conference here at EOC.
There is another one scheduled for 5 o'clock
at which time we'll be updated on their progress.
But let me flip through some of my notes here
and find some information that I can share
with you from this morning. First of all we'll talk about
arrests. Police say they have arrested
8 people, a total of 8 people for
looting, 70 others for
violating curfews. So when we say they mean business
about this curfew stay inside between 7 PM
and 7 AM, they mean it,
70 arrests. The death toll
we have right now, 14 people died
in Dade County, hurricane related deaths,
1 in the city of Miami for a total
of 15.
Police, Metro Dade Police still want
your help if you think you can volunteer in any
way at all. They will match your
skill to an area in which they think you'll do some good.
The number you can call, 471-
1753 or
471-1757.
We're hearing from Florida Power and Light, this is
from a while ago,
a total of about 1.4, 1.5
million people without power.
They've restored 800,000.
This is throughout those communities,
counties affected by the hurricane
Dade, Monroe, Broward,
Palm Beach and Collier. But there
are still as many as 590,000
customers in Dade County
without service and they are working on that
right now.
We told you earlier about those monkeys, about
300 of them which somehow
escaped from
the zoo. Well, we
checked just a few minutes ago, I just got off the phone, I
hope to get a call back. And as far as we
know, they have, from what they told me, they've been deluged
with calls from people who've seen these
monkeys. But at this point, I do not know
how many, if any, of them have been
captured and taken back into
custody. And again, we had early reports that
some of these monkeys were used
in some sort of AIDS
testing and some had been
subjected to the virus in terms of
using them in terms of testing. But that is not the case.
They were quarantined
but they're part of other medical research
so we don't need to worry that they have been exposed
to the AIDS virus. These 300 monkeys, which
still, as we know, are out there.
Also, those two baboons haven't had an update
on them either, aside from the fact that they were
spotted near the correctional facility in South
Dade. And if you should see them,
you are asked to not try to approach them
because they're dangerous.
And that is what we have there.
Now, I believe we're about to get something here so as we keep
looking at this video here, let me
see if we're going to get something here and I'll
continue on with some notes.
Very quickly, some folks
at Miami Beach, this will be of interest to you.
Free drinking water distributed
to residents there. Here's where you'll
find it at 6th Street Community Center, which is at
6th and Meridian, at the Police Athletic
League at 11th and Jefferson,
at Miami Beach City Hall, 17th
and Convention Center Drive, and of the
North Shore Banshell, 73rd and Collins
Avenue. You can get food at
the same places, food that you will take
home. So these services are available
to the folks at Miami Beach. Apparently, we are not
getting anything else new. We
are not. So we're going to sit here waiting
for other information to come to us. Again,
5 o'clock is our next briefing from all
the folks who are working in this room to coordinate
services. So, of course, we'll see you before
then, but we expect most of our new information
at about 5 o'clock. So that is it. Kelly,
hope I lived up to my reputation.
Back to you. Yeah, Craig, I don't think we could have
absorbed any more anyway. So you did
a nice job. Thanks so much. Alright, Craig.
Thank you. And right now, let's go right over to Ogilvie
Everdee at the news desk who has some more updated
information about goods and services
provided and needed. Go ahead, Ogilvie. Well, Jim,
if our viewers haven't heard already, we here at Channel 7
are having a very special food drive
for those people who were affected so much in
this horrible tragedy, the Hurricane
Andrews. What we plan to do is we're taking
some food and supplies and we'll be taking
them to Opa Locker World. We'll then be airlifted
by the Coast Guard to Tamiami Airport.
They're the National Guard. We'll direct
drivers to the National Guard stations in
Florida City, Country Walk, Homestead,
Cutler Ridge, all those areas that were so
affected by Hurricane Andrews. If you'd like
to help out and help us out here, there are
four drop-off points for people in
Southwest Broward and those who live in
Dade Broward Line. You can drop off some food
at the Palm Springs North Elementary
at 17615
NW 82nd
Avenue. Again, Palm Springs North Elementary
17615
NW 82nd Avenue.
Another drop-off point is Hialeah
Miami Lake Senior High
at 7977 West
12th Avenue. Again,
7977 West
12th Avenue. That's in Hialeah.
Again, another drop-off point,
Proper Care Flea Market at
7751 Bird Road. That's
7751 Bird Road.
And for people in Northwest Broward, another
drop-off point is Tamarack
Fire Department at
4901 Commercial Boulevard.
So if you can help out, please.
We are getting a lot of people who are helping out
and going for all those people who were so much affected
by Hurricane Andrews. Other
information, this is for employees of the
Department of Agriculture.
All employees are supposed to return to work.
You are asked to call your office first
for more information. This
message is for all Dade County hospitals
that are overloaded with
emergency room patients. The North
Broward Hospital District has four
hospitals that are ready and
willing to take any patients
that you cannot get to. And then
you can call Kathy Nelson at
344-3000.
That's 344-3000.
Also, South Miami Hospital has
established a temporary message center
for patients trying to reach South
Miami Hospital physicians. You can
call at 662-533-0.
Again, that number,
662-533-0.
And something on a more lighter note,
Gregory Von Hausch has called
and told us he is the director of Fort Lauderdale
Film Festival. He is offering
to take old movies and show
them to you at the shelter locations
in Miami. So again, if you
don't have anything to do, just take the time and go there.
That's it for now. I'm Olga Villaverde live
from the New Test. Back to you.
All right, Olga. Thanks a lot. And you know you talk about therapeutic
things. Sometimes things to take
your mind off of what you're dealing with
are as valuable as
talking to your insurance adjuster
or going to the makeshift
post office. I mean, I think we all
are going to reach a point where we need
a break. And you can certainly
attest to that because you've been working awfully hard
with this. And so it's good to see
that people are thinking of that and
trying to think about the entertainment
side of what people may need right now.
Yeah, if you don't have some sort of diversion, I mean
you really don't physically have the energy
to do what needs to be done.
And it is a gargantuan effort
that a lot of us are facing. So
that's kind of a nice deal on the part of the
Fort Lauderdale Film Festival. I'm sure they'll
probably get taken up on that offer. I know
in other disasters
that I have covered, people have
volunteered to go call bingo
games. So there are certain things
like that that
are not a bad deal if
people have the time and
have things that they want to do.
That's certainly not a bad way
to go. Okay, on the
phone now we have a guy that I sure want to
talk to because I'm hoping
that I'll be able to travel tomorrow.
Mark Henderson from Miami International
Airport is on the phone with us.
Mark, I know the airport reopened yesterday
afternoon, I believe around 530
or 6 p.m. What's the situation?
Are most flights going out on schedule or not?
Right now, Jim, we're
at a reduced schedule, to be honest
with you. We're not
really back up to full speed yet in the
airport. We've asked all airlines
to sort of pare down
the number of flights that they have going out
of here until we can gradually build back up
to where we used to be before the storm
hit through. We do have a lot of
passengers in the terminal
that want to get out of here. We're
again trying to emphasize to people
if you don't have a ticket,
you don't have a confirmed reservation,
please don't come out. All you're doing
is adding to the crowd that's already out
here. We're trying to get
people out of here as quickly as we possibly
can. I think your listeners
know that we had a good 2,000
folks here during the hurricane.
We're trying to make sure those folks are getting
out of here and we're getting more people
now that we said we were open.
So we really don't need anybody additional
out here that really doesn't need to come out
here right now.
Seeking a ticket and walking around
in the terminal, what have you, is not really
what this airport wants at this
point in time. Once we go back to full
speed, then
maybe others will be able to come out.
Is there any damage to the airport, Mark?
Yeah, there has been some damage.
We have loading bridges that
are inoperable, unusable
at this point in time, and that's one of the reasons
why we've got reduced
flights down because when you have a loading
bridge out, you can't use the gate, you can't pull the
plane up to it, you have to shift planes
around.
Data's still being repaired.
Our security fences, which were, some
of them were down during the storm, they've all
been restored because that was an FAA
requirement to have them back up. There's
some other damage that's being repaired.
So once we get everything done,
then we can build back to where we should be.
Did the airlines fly their jets out of
here to protect them? Are they just
not around, or did they just put them in hangars?
That's correct. They did fly them out of
here on Sunday night, about 9.15,
which was the last passenger flight,
a British Airways plane going over to London.
That was the last commercial plane out of here.
Then we pushed out like two
cargo planes a little bit after that.
So there was no planes physically here
on the airport
that could handle people immediately.
They had to fly planes in
from other locations
to start taking people off.
Any idea when you're going to be up to speed?
Not right at this
particular moment. We hope soon.
But I really don't want to
put a timetable on it because we're working
as hard as we can
to bring things back up to speed.
We're appreciative of the airlines
bringing in portable water.
All of them are beginning to do
that for us. Iberia from Spain
is going to be bringing in this afternoon
almost 900 gallons of water
for us that we can distribute here
in the airport. If we have some
left over, we can give to Red Cross to give out
to the community. Mark, it seems
that the situation with
the flights is changing
almost hourly because
just relating a personal situation to you,
I'm booked on a flight that was scheduled
to leave tomorrow morning.
I called yesterday. They said it was fine. I called today.
They say the flight is canceled.
Are things changing that rapidly
and even if you check once, should you
double check again
before coming out? I would suggest that you do.
I would suggest that you continuously
check. Even under normal conditions, Jim,
it's advisable for people
to double check to make
sure that their flight is
still scheduled to leave
or if you're meeting somebody, that
flight is actually going to
arrive before coming out of here
so that you're not frustrated
so we're not having to deal with
extra people that
are overloading the system. So yes,
I would advise people to double check, maybe even
triple check if they're unsure.
I know people should probably just deal with their own
personal airline if they are holding
tickets, but if those flights have been canceled
or not yet operational,
there will be arrangements later on,
correct? They will not just be out
money because of this, will they?
I'm not sure what the arrangements are
with the airlines. I would imagine that
they should not be and there should be
some sort of honor system, but
I don't have definite
information on that and that's something everybody
needs to check with the individual
carrier on as to
if their flight isn't going to leave today,
will they have to pay additional
money or so forth?
Okay, well I guess, yeah,
I don't want to put you on the spot there, but I thought you might have a
general feel for what's ahead,
but a lot of this stuff, I guess a lot
of it just depends on how long it takes you guys
to get back online. That's correct.
The quicker we can come back online,
the more flights we can
have over here. There's one point
I'd like to stress
as possible. We were having
earlier a lot of people coming over to
one of our concourses and over
to the old Eastern corporate
building
under the belief, I understand, that FEMA,
the Federal Emergency Management
Agency, was going to be setting
up over there to handle
those that needed relief. FEMA,
in fact, is going to be setting up a facility
over there, but it's only for
administrative purposes, and they won't be
giving out, to the best of my knowledge,
any checks, they won't be giving out food, they won't be giving
out clothing, so forth.
So people please don't come
to the airport and don't go
over to the 36th Street
old Eastern facility expecting
to get some sort of relief. That will just be for
administrative purposes. Everybody needs
to go to the
state agency. Mark, two questions.
One, I saw yesterday where
a British Airways flight that was scheduled out
of Miami. They instead bused the
passengers up to Orlando so they could fly out of
there. Are we seeing more airlines
do that? Let me ask you that
question first.
I'm not aware of any for today.
Yesterday was some of that.
Yesterday, because again, we were closed
and we were trying to get people out of here, so at least
they could get them on flights
at other airlines. I believe
there were also some people that were going up to Fort Lauderdale
to catch flights.
I'm not aware of that happening today.
Alright, second question quickly.
Are incoming flights being canceled
because of the situation?
That I'm not aware of, Jim, to be very
honest with you. Okay. So you can get in
but you can't get out. Well,
you can get out but it's just going to take you a little longer.
Well, at least you have one of the more comfortable airports
in the country in case you're stuck.
That's one good thing. That's true.
Well, we appreciate you being on the line with us, Mark.
Thank you very much for some valuable information.
Thank you. Bye-bye.
Alright, Mark Anderson from Miami International Airport.
Were they, like everybody else, just doing
the best we can? That's all we can do right now.
It's 2.48. We'll be back after a short break.
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We are back with you as we
come to the end, pretty much of the two o'clock
hour. We got about nine minutes left.
So those of you who don't have the watches
and don't have the clocks, it's two fifty one
and it is Wednesday, August twenty
six. Sometimes you kind of lose track
of that with all that's going on. And you are watching
Channel 7's continuing coverage of the aftermath
of Hurricane Andrew and you may be
listening to it as well on Love
94, WLVE,
Miami and Miami Beach.
Thankfully, we're glad to report that many
more people have had power restored
today. Of course, right after the storm,
1.4 million people without
electricity. That number has dwindled.
I say dwindled. Still 600,000
people at last count. Still
without power and many of them, of course,
in the hard hit area of
South Dade. When you look at the
damage and all the lines that we know are down,
I'd say that's a considerable improvement
in a short amount of time. So keep
effort, guys. We know you're working hard. Absolutely.
The big effort right now, of course,
is bringing help to those people
in South Dade County that need it.
They need supplies and certainly
they need food. Well, we here at Channel 7
have started a food drive and right now
let's go to the man who thought
of this idea, Mr. Rick Sanchez.
Rick, what's the latest on the food drive?
I can't even begin to tell you how happy
we are. Things are going very, very
well and it's turned into
a massive relief effort at this
point. You know, we had to
bypass a few things so now we have
everything in place to
get the food down to
the folks who really need it down in Homestead
and Cutler Ridge.
There are still items that are needed.
They need water, they need baby wipes,
they need diapers, they need baby food.
If anyone has spare
batteries, we need to get these to these
locations. Yesterday we told you we were
trying to work through the auspices of the Red Cross.
The Red Cross is just so tied up
they weren't able to help us. So we at
Channel 7 got together with some local people
and some local businesses and the folks
over at Love 94. Their DJs
are now out on the streets at
these relief centers that we've set up trying
to make sure that they process the food
properly before it gets out. You're looking
at pictures now from Cutler Ridge where
some of the food is already being
distributed to the people who need it
but we can't tell you how happy
we are to hear that so many of
you in South Florida have heard our call
and have responded in such a
magnificent way. These are live pictures
of helicopters dropping off relief
efforts right now or supplies
we should say in Cutler Ridge.
Let me tell you what we've done to
bypass the Red Cross so that we
can give them time to do their thing.
We've set up locations throughout South
Florida and we are
in conjunction with several businesses
Jay Byron's for example who donated
the fleet of their trucks. We're
picking up these foods and these supplies
and then taking them to Opalaka
Airport. From there we
are flying them to Homestead
using the Coast Guard's
helicopters. In some cases we've
also got planes that are taking the supplies
to Tamiami Airport and
another fleet of trucks are driving
them down to Cutler Ridge and down into the
Homestead area. So
everything is in place. All we need is
for you to help us out by bringing the supplies
to these locations. Let's start
with Southwest Dade first of all
again I mean pardon me in Southwest
Broward area and let's call
it the Broward-Dade line
just under Joe Robbie Stadium. You folks
there if you can get over to
Palm Springs North Elementary School
the contact there is Carl Dasher
that's at 17615
Northwest 82nd
Avenue. A helicopter just
left from the
ball field of Palm
Springs North Elementary School loaded with
supplies we're happy to say. It's heading
to Homestead right now as we
speak. Also in that area
for those of you who can't make it that far
north but live around Opalaka
Hialeah, Medley
that region Miami Springs
perhaps Hialeah Gardens is a
very densely populated area. We
know you folks are having a tough time getting your
electricity restored but your response
has been fantastic as well. If you can
continue to take these supplies over
to Hialeah Miami Lake Senior High School
7977
West 12th Avenue. Hialeah Miami Lake
Senior High School
7977 West 12th Avenue. The
coordinators at this place have told us that
they need some they need some volunteers
We were told that there's a line there about three blocks
wide now with people delivering
stuff at one point and they need
more people to go there. If you can volunteer
your services we might need you to help out
there. We'll be sure the food that's collected
gets over to the
Coast Guard station in Opalaka. The Coast Guard
incidentally is doing a magnificent
magnificent job for us. Let's move
down to the
other location. This is for
Central and South Dade. If you can get over to the
Tropicare Flea Market for us
we would really appreciate it. That's at
7751 Bird Road. That's
off the Palmetto. We know that this
is a location that's real close
to the area that's been devastated.
We understand in this area you
might need more than you can give
but if you have anything you can spare and if there's
a way you can help please
be you know please help us out in
this area. Let's move further north now
we've got a location in Northwest Broward
for those of you up that far north
and a little bit more west the Tamarack
Fire Department. They've been going non-stop.
4901 Commercial
Boulevard. Just continue bringing your
things there. Water at this point is
essential for those of you around
that location. 4901 Commercial
Boulevard. If you need directions this is
right off the turnpike. I mean as
soon as you get off the turnpike you're going to see it. You can't
miss it. That's why we chose this location.
We got another location in
Northeast Broward for you. This
one's a little closer to the coast and
it's an area that wasn't hit so we should be
able to get a lot of relief from you folks
in this area. It's King Toyota.
King Toyota at
1441 South Federal Highway.
Now we've had a hard time communicating
with officials because of the phone lines
from King Toyota. So if somebody at King
Toyota can give us a call we need to
talk to you as well just to find out how
things are going and find out what you need
from us so we can make sure
that everything is coordinated, that we can
send you the trucks, pick up the supplies
you have, get it to the airport, coordinate
with the Coast Guard, fly it down to Homestead
or take it down to Tamiami.
So that's what we're doing
so far. It's going exceptionally well.
We are so proud to say that we are
South Floridians because of the response
that most of us in this town
have provided for us. I mean we're
only too happy to do this but you're the one
who's making it work so far and we just
are, we're just encouraging you
to stay with us on this and continue
the drive for us. Take it back to you
guys. I don't know if I've left anything out. I'm just trying
to... Yeah, Rick, let me ask you one question.
What if I've got food sitting at home but I don't have
a way to drive it to one of these locations?
That's a fantastic question, Jim, because the United Way
has also just called us. The United Way of
Broward has contacted us
after they heard that the relief effort was going
on and they say they're willing
to go to your
house in Broward County,
pick up whatever supplies you have,
whether it's a bag, and they will deliver
it to the location that we've set up
so we can fly it down for you.
You can either call the United Way of
Broward or call us here at the
helpline that we've established for you
and we will
create a list, a list of addresses.
We will turn that list over to the United
Way. They will come by with their trucks,
pick up your supplies, and they'll move it
for you in case you can't get out. Now,
if there's a way you can move your own car,
please do so because the United Way is going to be
swamped trying to do this for all the folks
in South Florida. But if you absolutely
can't, if you have no wheels, if you have no gas,
if you can't get out of your house, but you have things you want to
give to people who need it, give us a call.
We'll make sure we can get to your house and pick it up for you.
Okay, that's good. I'm glad I asked that question.
Thanks, man. Great job there, and
let's keep it up. Just too happy to help. Let's just
make sure that everything keeps going
and those folks in Florida City and Homestead get some water
and, you know, think of babies that
don't have formula.
That's really all I need to say.
Right. You're right. Alright, man. Thanks a lot.
Yeah, that's terrific too about the United Way because
we're asking people not to get on the roads if they don't have to,
so that will help out there, no question about it.
And by the way, that number that Rick referred to
is 7562-500.
We have been showing it and saying
it a lot, but we can't repeat it
enough. We're 30 seconds away from
3 o'clock, so we're going to take a commercial break
and come right back.
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Welcome back.
Our coverage of the aftermath of Hurricane
Andrew continues right now.
I like the way you phrase it.
Let's just call it recovery at this point.
Absolutely, because at some point,
really right now, we've got to start
thinking ahead and looking forward
and trying to make things better.
That's thankfully what folks all over South Florida are doing.
We thank you for joining us again.
It's a little after 3 o'clock on this Wednesday afternoon.
Jim Berry here being joined by Kelly Mitchell
on Channel 7 and also on
Love 94, that's WLVE,
Miami, Miami Beach.
We know a lot of you can't see us yet,
but can still join us on the radio.
Again, it is 3.02.
Need to know at this 3 o'clock hour.
First, the water situation
is as follows. The boil water order
remains in effect for all of Dade County.
If you have power, you should
boil your water for 3 to 5 minutes.
The rest
of the water situation is as follows.
If you don't, can't boil it, add 8 drops
of chlorine bleached to each gallon of water.
The good news
for Hollywood residents is that the boil water order
out there has been lifted.
The power situation,
600,000 folks in Dade
still without power. Most of Broward
County, thankfully, has been
restored and FP&L
is working feverishly to get things back
up for everybody. Please do not call
Florida Power and Light unless you have an emergency
or unless you see downed power lines
and please avoid those power lines because
they could be treacherous.
Southern Bell Meantime asks that you stay off the line
unless you have an emergency because they are
reporting that the phone lines are being
jammed. We know lots of you are probably bored
silly, but please try to stay off the phone
as best you can. Free phone banks
have been set up at the following locations
in Homestead at 75
Civic Court in Perrine
at 16645
South Dixie Highway. Also
in West Dade, Kendall Drive at Southwest
150th Avenue
in Naranja, our neighbors
to the far southwest, 14475
Southwest, 264th
Street. Also,
free phone banks set up in Silver Oaks
at the 10701
Southwest, 88th Street
and in the canal area, 2301
Southwest, 100th
Avenue. Also, Downtown Miami
at 45 Northwest,
5th Street.
Well, that's kind of the situation on the utilities
which is really kind of the pertinent
information that most people really want
to know, at least that's what they're calling and telling us.
Now, we want to show you
Cutler Ridge as it is today. We've got
Skycam 7 up there and Maurice Johnson,
our pilot, flying high above
what looks like the National
Guard where they're kind of putting everything
together, trying to
circle the wagon, so to speak, and
get out there and see what needs to be
done, protect the area, make sure
that folks who aren't supposed
to be getting in there don't get in there,
and escorting the vehicles that really
do need to get in, the release supplies,
the water, the diapers, the baby
food, the food itself, all
those types of things. Maurice, this looks like
Cutler Ridge Mall, am I right?
This is Cutler Ridge Mall,
Jim. This is where the helicopters
are coming in from the north and they're landing
here, where they're dropping off their
supplies. Okay.
Describe to us what we're seeing there.
Mr. Kelly, you briefly talked about the National Guard.
Okay, the National Guard are here
in the area, they have a
roped off in the area in front of them.
They have a area in
front of them where
roped off for the helicopters to land.
And then once they drop
off their supplies, some of them are going back
up to make other pickups. Over in
the background, you'll see once
the military machines
drop their load, they're parking over
in the south parking lot.
I guess you can see it in the long range shots,
that's where they're putting the Hueys and
some of the largest civilian aircraft.
I see a pretty big crowd of people there.
Is that a line of some sort?
That's over by, I think that's
where they're making a distribution center.
Yeah, must be, by the record.
Yeah, that's probably
they're probably organizing in one area
that over there something must be going on because
you're right. Or it might just be volunteers,
maybe that's where they're all gathering before they
get out to do something.
Yeah, Mauricio, you're still with us
as we see
a couple of areas. It looks like
a fair amount of traffic that is
flowing pretty freely out there, am I right?
I'm looking at a pretty fair amount of traffic
flowing out there.
I thought folks weren't supposed to be driving
out there yet.
In this area, because you have a lot of
cross traffic, there's an emergency
vehicle just took the road and they have
people, National Guard
in the middle of the street directing the traffic
so they're keeping the flow going.
Maurice, before you left the station
I guess about 45 minutes ago, you told me
that traffic on
U.S. 1 going down to the Quays
was absolutely horrendous.
What's the latest there?
They were stopping it near 104th.
Now they're stopping it
besides Dateland.
And each time they stop a row of cars
a National Guard walks up to the door
so evidently they're trying to ascertain
who need to be going that way
because some of them they're let through
and the others they have to turn off there.
I can't be
helping the flow of traffic. I mean, obviously
they have to do that, but it seems that
that's just making the process that much slower.
What about
the traffic flow once you get
farther south as to where you are?
Okay, it looks like they're turning around
more traffic than are coming through
on U.S. 1.
And you can see the traffic
flow is very low because we're sitting
right next to U.S. 1 now.
The guards up here at Caribbean Boulevard
in U.S. 1 has just stopped
the traffic so they can flow
northbound. And so you'll see
a low backup on traffic
that's going southbound.
Okay, Maurice, we seem to have gotten a pretty good
picture from the air of Cutler Ridge. Now we want
to go to the ground in Cutler Ridge.
We understand Rick Leventhal is there
right now and something's shaking, isn't it, Rick?
Are we live?
Are we live? Yes, you are.
Okay, because I can't hear you right now, but this is Lee Webb.
We've got a bunch of guardsmen right here.
Pan over here, Mark. All these guardsmen are getting ready
to go on a mission right now. We've been waiting to follow
them. And basically where they're going
I'm told, Lee, is to rescue
some foster kids and a couple of adults
who have been trapped. Tell us about that.
Well, our people did an aerial
reconnaissance mission, Rick, this morning.
And they found, they flew over the area
and they looked down and someone was trying to
spell the word help with roof tiles that had
blown off the facility. They landed
and discovered 13 kids
and at least one adult. They had
been trapped in that facility
apparently since the hurricane hit.
A lot of debris, a lot of fallen trees.
They landed, discovered they needed food.
The helicopter took back off and they literally
went grocery shopping with that helicopter.
They brought them food back.
They came for the time being, but now these folks from
1st Battalion of the Florida National Guard
1st Battalion, 124th Infantry, are going
back literally to cut their way through
and rescue these people.
Again, just so we made that
clear, these people are actually spelling the
word help on the ground with
roof tiles, hoping that somebody like
you folks will be flying over and see the message
and come and help them. That's right.
That's exactly what we're going to do. We're going to use
the Department of Forestry
folks with chainsaws to come in there and
cut. These guys are
anxious to do that mission.
It's pretty exciting. These guys have been
protecting this mall for a while.
Now they're going to go out and really
get into this humanitarian relief.
They're just excited about it. Again, we have been
standing by waiting for this mission to get started
as you have been. We're ready to go and they're
ready to go. We're going to go get it and we'll bring
the tape back. We'll let you
go now because I know they want to get a move on
but that's amazing. We expected
to find somebody out there.
It was just kind of one of those things. The odds were really
with us. Rick, you take
off now and please get back to
what we're going to do. All right, Rick.
Good job. There was Lee Webber, a fellow who
I guess used to work here and used
to be a sportscaster not long ago.
He is now working up in the
northern part of the state but also a national
guardsman back here in South Florida helping out.
That's great to see. A lot of folks
very concerned about the situation at
Metro Zoo, the zoo
really ravaged by Hurricane
Andrew. Joining us now live on our phone is
Ron McGill from Metro Zoo.
Ron, give us the
update on what's happening there at the zoo.
First of all, the land damage and
then update us on the situation with your animals.
Well, Jim, I'll tell you, we had tremendous
destruction out here but
fortunately we had minimal
loss of animal life. I can
say documents for sure. We lost
a large ostrich. We lost
a female impala which is a type of antelope,
a very small type of antelope known as
the curtsic dick and also an African
crown crane.
The exhibits are a shell of
what they once were. The aviary
people in South Florida who visited the zoo might
notice it. Remember, it is one of the most spectacular
exhibits in any zoo anywhere. Right.
We had netting on there
that was stress tested to maximum
for hurricane winds and
it looks like it peeled off like tissue paper.
The main welded support iron in the center
the aviaries collapsed.
Ron, if you can speak up a little bit,
this is Kelly Mitchell. We've got kind of a bad
connection so as loud as you can get.
Oh, good. And while you're talking
we are showing old pictures of
metro zoo aerials we took before because we
understand you prefer us.
Helicopters weren't over the area since
it's kind of scaring the animals.
We'll stay away.
The helicopters flying over is just compounding
the situation because there are
some smaller animals that are out.
It's a small antelope that are called
dikers. We have
visuals on them. They're secure. They're fine.
They're on the zoo property. They're not going anywhere.
We're not going to try to chase them down at this time
until we have a facility that we can put them in
safely. We're just putting food out for them
making sure they're okay. There's no
dangerous animal out at all.
People have been hearing about these baboons
and such but I must reaffirm that
these animals are not from metro zoo. They're animals
that came out of the adjacent facility
to us, the University of Miami's primate center
there. Right.
We have, the aviary, as I said, has been
totally destroyed. It's gone as anybody once knew it.
And I suspect
there's going to be some more
mortality in there once we are able
to lift the rubble
out of there because some of those animals must have been
caught in there. But all of them,
the larger animals, the rhinos, the giraffes,
these types of animals,
they're all fine. And it's hard to believe
because you can go into an area like a
quarantine area and you'll see full horse
trailers that were flung
over a hundred yards into the
rhino pen with the rhinos in there.
Metal debris everywhere embedded
into areas and yet there's not a scratch
in these rhinos. One of the
lessons I think all of us have learned here
is that we should never, ever
underestimate nature's
power to destroy and on the flip side
of the coin, it's absolute
will to survive because there
are animals out here that
it's nothing short of miraculous
that they're alive, not to mention
unscathed. But as you can
imagine, they're all extremely nervous now.
We've had the National Guard out here
based, and unfortunately that's
another added element of the helicopter
flying over, but they're trying to cooperate with us
now to try to avoid going over the zoo.
One thing I do want to say, and
I don't have the word to say it, I'm speaking
on behalf of the entire staff.
I am so proud
to live in South Florida. I had never
imagined the kind of community outpouring
that we've had.
We've had everything from refrigerator
to trucks to
all kinds of supplies,
water is donated to us to help
us here with the staff and animals.
Yesterday
you may be aware the Koala building
was destroyed in the sense that
all power was knocked down, part of the roof was removed.
Those are animals that are extremely
susceptible to heat, not to mention
the fact that we didn't have any food for them
because the entire eucalyptus grove
was wiped out. So that was a priority
animal that we had to get out right away.
Bush guards up in Tampa have been
extremely cooperative. They've become like
our sister zoo up there and accepting
any animal that we can send them. So we
came up with the priorities of the Koala
and also a sloth antelope that was born
during the storm. A male that we
of course named Andrew. Of course.
He was born during the storm and
because of the storm and everything, his mother
just neglected him. She's so frightened and
so stressed. There was no way she could care for them.
I put out a plea over the radio
that we needed to get those
animals up there. MIA was closed. We couldn't
use any airlines. We had a pilot
come right down to Tamiyami
with a plane and flew me up there with the
Koalas safely. Two bush guards
didn't even want to thank you.
He said it's expected. This is not a problem.
The guy who just delivered two refrigerator
trucks, he said please, anything you need.
People have delivered food.
Oh, that's great. I guess you
just don't go to the eucalyptus store, do
you? You gotta do something like that. Well, Ron,
we're gonna let you get back to the animals. I understand
you might still need some chainsaws if
anybody has those. They can bring those out
and real quickly, we
just have a little bit of time, but you're looking
at what, about six months before this thing
is gonna be open again? I would say at least
but we've got a great staff and we're gonna make
this place something that people can be proud of again.
We know you will and good luck down there, Ron
and good to hear from you and
glad to hear that most of the animals are
doing fine. Yeah, especially
because of the community and people like yourself.
That's great. Thanks again, Ron, and tell the
animals high four.
All right, a couple of quick things I want to mention.
Rick Sanchez, of course, dealing with the food drive.
Update quickly from King Toyota, they sent
eight land cruisers down to Homestead a couple hours
ago, 150 to 200 gallons
of water sent, all sorts of other
good supplies, batteries, flashlights,
half of a showroom full
of supplies. They have just enough vehicles.
All they need now is
I guess the National Guard transport
escort, I guess, to get them down there.
So that is good news that supplies are
on their way to Homestead. Yeah, and while we're talking
about Homestead, there are people injured
there, no question about it.
And it's not only hard on the people,
it's really hard on the hospitals as well.
It's kind of a tough situation to deal with
because, of course, the people at the hospital
live in Homestead, so they've lost a lot
too, no doubt about it. Carlos Harrison
on that story.
What's your name, first? I'm Roy Alston.
Okay, and you're in command here?
I'm the senior physician from
Special Operations Response Team,
which is a DMAT,
Disaster Medical Assistance Team, and
the National Disaster Medical System.
We're based in North Carolina out of both
Winston-Salem and Charlotte. How much have you
set up here? What kind of operation do you run?
What we have here basically is a
full field hospital.
Right now we're running about
25 beds. What we're functioning
really more like is an emergency room.
The only thing I'm not really running
right now is x-ray capability. I don't have
that. What kind of injuries
are you seeing? We are seeing gametes from people stepping
on nails and small scratches from
debris. I delivered a baby about two hours
ago.
Andrew, I suppose? No, I don't even
remember. At this point, if you would ask me that child's
name, I could not remember it.
It's been one of those kind of days.
We have been seeing
some cardiac, we've been seeing some trauma,
people falling. We've had several people
covered in branches. The only stuff that
I haven't seen that I usually deal with
as a physician in the trauma center
is I haven't had any car accidents.
I understand most of the cars can't get on the road.
I've had a lot of people ask me for...
questions.
.