Hurricane Andrew

Last week, WLRN premiered part of its “Remembering Andrew” radio documentary Thursday to an audience at Miami Science Museum.

Bryan Norcross was an invited guest.  Norcross, of course, became famous for his ongoing coverage of and guidance during the storm.

During a panel discussion following the airing of the first part of the special, Norcross talked about his memories of the people he talked to during the storm and the region’s struggles afterward.

After Hurricane Andrew, ice became a precious commodity and a flashpoint of conflict.

Power was out, food was spoiling/rotting, and federal aid hadn’t arrived yet.

Deborah Gray Mitchell spent those first sticky days cleaning up debris outside her home in Belle Meade.

My friend brought us this gallon jug of ice, and in that gallon jug where it had melted a little bit was a little bit of water that that we could use to whet our whistle. It was just the most refreshing, happiest moment of my life to have a nice, cold drink of water.

Throughout the course of reporting the Remembering Andrew series we’ve been asking a few of the same questions about Hurricane Andrew to virtually everybody we interview. Things like:

When did you know it was time to take Andrew seriously?

When did you know Andrew had truly arrived?

But there’s one question in particular, that seems to trip people up:

What did you see the moment you stepped out of your door after Andrew?

You may think you know how you’d react during an emergency.  Andrea Askowitz thought she did.  Then came Hurricane Andrew.

Askowitz one of the co-founders of the Lip Service series in Miami.  During these performances, ordinary people tell true stories about their lives–on stage. Andrea Askowitz brings us her own true story about August 1992.  It’s called “In Case of Emergency.”

We’re psyched to be able to share a piece of archival Hurricane Andrew ephemera from a familiar voice for some South Florida radio listeners. Joe Johnson  has been a DJ at Majic 102.7 for the last 25 years. He hosts the nationally syndicated “Beatle Brunch” show.

For Susan Holtzman, the really terrifying parts of Hurricane Andrew didn’t begin until the day after the storm.  Susan was nine months pregnant at Baptist Hospital in Kendall.  It was the day before she was due to give birth.

She compares what she saw to a movie:

Geoffrey Philp shared his story and poem about an old transistor radio with Kenny Malone on WLRN.  Philp inherited that radio from his mother, who carried it with her from home to home, even as they moved in Jamaica and later, around Florida.

It was the radio he listened to during Hurricane Andrew. Even though the radio no longer works, Philp can’t bring himself to get rid of it.

Philp is a poet, novelist, playwright and English professor at Miami-Dade College. Below is an homage he wrote to his mother.

My Mother’s Hands
 by Geoffrey Philp