CORRESPONDENCErnLetter From Miamirnby Alan R. TurinrnThe Unreported Story ofrnHurricane AndrewrnOn August 24, 1992, shortly after 3 A.M..rnHurricane Andrew hit the eoast atrnMiami, in South Dade County, Florida.rnA “Category Four” hurricane on thernSaper-Simpson Hurricane Scale, Andrewrnstruck with 145 ni.p.h. winds,rnmaking it the worst hurricane to hit Miamirnsince 1926. In fact, this was thernworst hurricane to hit a major Americanrncitv in recorded history. It was thernfifth hurricane I’ve experienced.rnThe physical destruction caused byrnthe storm has been well and yvidely documented,rnbut it is the response of thernpeople in the Miami area to Andrcvyrnthat now bears attention. There havernbeen acts of great decency, examples ofrngood will, and more than a few instancesrnof heroics. All of this is nourishment forrnthe soul. But there have also been manyrnacts of great indecency and ill will thatrnhave not been reported, let alone discussed.rnThe one thing that linked Miami tornWestern civilization last August 23, thernday before the storm, was electricity.rnElectricity was a weak reed. The nextrnday Miami wallowed in barbarity. Wcrnwere suddenly in the Third World.rnThough legally a part of the UnitedrnStates, we were no longer of the UnitedrnStates.rnMiami is a city of transients. It startedrnout less than a century ago as a winterrnresort for Yankees. First were the retireesrnfrom New York and New Jersey.rnThen came the Cubans in the I960’s.rnCurrently it is the Haitians. After Castrornbut before now, Miami was an amalgamrnof Central and South Americans. In thernlast decade we have had four separaternsets of race riots.rnPediaps because of these quickeningrnwaves of immigrants, Miami has neverrnprovided a sense of community for anyrnone generation. We are not a Southernrntown, nor a Yankee enclave. We are notrnas civil as a U. N. cocktail party, but wcrnare more than a couple of bomb blastsrnbetter than Beirut. Take away a boomingrneconomy, and things get ugly. Takernaway electricity, and things get vile.rnThe looting was a good measure ofrnthe vileness. A Jamaican food store, onernblock from my home, was looted thernmorning of the storm. It is one blockrnfrom, and in direct sight of, the NorthrnMiami police station. Looters struck inrnSouth Dade while the wind was still atrngale force. The police warned lootersrnto stay away, sometimes even arrestingrnthem. Since arrest itself is hardly a deterrentrnin the best of times, it neverrnstopped the looting after the storm. Atrnmy house we were without electricityrnfor nearly seven days. A month later,rn70,000 households were still withoutrnpower, rhe neighborhoods with electricityrnresembled suburban America.rnThose without were in the Third World.rnThere were no shoot-to-kill orders issuedrnby any of the authorities. In thernold days, when natural disasters occurred,rnlocal governments knew thatrntheir capabilities to maintain orderrnwould be strained. Due to their preoccupationrnwith the disaster at hand, officialsrnwould warn looters that they wouldrnbe shot on sight. Since the disasterrnwould overwhelm civil society’s capacityrnto maintain a complete system of criminalrnjustice, they set up an abbreviatedrnversion. This achieved simultaneouslyrntwo salutary goals: first, it preservedrnsome semblance of normalcy with reducedrnpolice; and second, dead lootersrnwould “encourage les aiitres.” Friendsrnof a free society, being suspicious of thernstate, don’t cotton to these notions. Butrnsince such actions were tied to naturalrncalamities, they did not become occasionsrnfor state aggrandizement.rnThe current thinking in Miami is thatrnthe police exist to protect lives, not property.rnShooting looters, therefore, wouldrnmean placing a higher value on propertyrnthan on human life. Unfortunately,rnwhen looters find the pickings easy andrnthe restraints off, they lose other brakesrnon their antisocial impulses. The rehisalrnto shoot looters only increased the disorder.rnRelief convoys were shot at andrnhijacked en route to disaster areas.rnThe looting decreased as neighborhoodsrnreentered civilization—i.e., gotrntheir electricity back. But what ultimatelyrnstopped the looting was a deadrnlooter. From the beginning, people beganrntoting guns and putting up warningrnsigns. (“You loot, we shoot.”) Gun-controlrnrules were widely violated, especiallyrnthe state-mandated three-day waitingrnperiod. Neighborhoods prepared to protectrnthemselves avoided the worst of thernlooters.rnOn one occasion a group of thugs in arnstolen van drove up to a home whosernowner was out front speaking to an insurancernadjuster. The homeowner hadrnposted a sign warning looters to stayrnaway. Thug number one jumped outrnand fired at the warning sign (this is nowrnknown as his “last mistake”). Thernhomeowner fired his .357 magnum atrnless than ten feet and hit thug numberrnone in the head. Thugs number twornand three drove off and abandoned thernvan; thug number one was dead. Newsrnof the event spread across the area as arnwonderful bright spot to counter recentrntravails. The looting stopped. Neverrnhad so many owed so much to one shotrnheard ’round the town.rnWithin a week of the hurricane, Governorrn”Walkin’ Lawton” Chiles had reversedrnhis prior decision not to ask forrnfederal help in the form of the U. S.rnArmy. Many soldiers were sent, includingrnthe Army’s 82nd Airborne. Thern82nd has in the last ten years seen a lotrnof military action. Grenada in 1983.rnPanama in 1989. Most recently, in ourrnwar with Iraq. Here in Miami, onernsquad on a search-and-rescue missionrnwas almost disarmed by a criminal gang.rnThe gang knew—as did the rest of Miami,rnthanks to the thoughtful reportersrnof the Miami Herald—that the Armyrnhad been sent on patrols with weaponsrnbut without ammunition, A gang accostedrnthis squad and demanded theirrnM-16s and other sidearms. The situationrnwas tense. The officer in charge refusedrnto disarm and eventually talkedrnthe gang out of the hand-over. It seemsrnthis officer lied to the gang and said thernsquad really did have ammunition andrnwould use it to defend itself. It was arnbluff that worked. After the incidentrnthe press no longer advertised the ammunitionrnstatus of the assigned soldiery.rnRumor has it that the Army quietly issuedrnammunition.rnMy own forays into the War Zone, asrnwe called the area of total destruction.rnMARCH 1993/35rnrnrn