Nightline (ABC) - 1992-08-26 - 1 of 2

Channel: malgent

Transcript

Language: English (original, YouTube automatic captions)

[0:01] They said, "Everybody out. Gas lines

[0:02] broke. Want everyone to go to the front

[0:05] lobby.

[0:06] Everybody get out. EVERYBODY GET OUT."

[0:09] >> They survived one of the worst

[0:10] hurricanes ever. Now the real test of

[0:14] metal begins. In Andrew's wake,

[0:17] devastated lives, a fight for the

[0:19] basics,

[0:21] and highprofile concern. I have certain

[0:24] responsibilities as president and one of

[0:27] them is to show the concern and to

[0:29] organize the federal agencies to respond

[0:32] as quickly as possible. Tonight, after

[0:35] the storm, the real struggle begins.

[0:45] This is ABC News Night Line reporting

[0:48] from Washington, Ted Cppel.

[0:52] It is like estimating crowds at a

[0:54] pro-life or pro-choice rally. A peculiar

[0:57] mixture of art, science, and politics.

[1:00] How in heaven's name can they know that

[1:02] Dade County in Florida, for example, has

[1:04] suffered 20 billion in damage? Why not 5

[1:08] billion or 50 billion? Has someone

[1:10] really had the time and the resources to

[1:12] accurately count the number of homes,

[1:14] cars, trailers, boats, beds, mattresses,

[1:17] television sets, family heirlooms,

[1:19] dishwashers that have been totally or

[1:22] partially destroyed? Are the estimates

[1:24] of county officials likely to differ

[1:26] from those of federal investigators or

[1:29] insurance estimators? The honest answer

[1:31] has to be that no one truly knows. And

[1:33] anyway, ultimately, each tragedy has to

[1:36] be dealt with one loss at a time.

[1:39] Many hundreds of thousands of people

[1:41] have moved into a fresh phase of

[1:43] survival. Yesterday and the day before

[1:46] they avoided getting killed or badly

[1:47] injured. Now they need a place to live,

[1:50] to sleep, to eat, a place to regroup and

[1:54] restructure their lives. This is a time

[1:57] when journalists focus and politicians

[1:59] respond. Federal disaster relief is

[2:02] earmarked with commendable speed. But a

[2:05] note of caution, the actual distribution

[2:07] of the money is a far more timeconsuming

[2:10] process as victims of Hurricane Hugo and

[2:13] the San Francisco earthquake will

[2:15] testify. So, as Hurricane Andrew, now a

[2:18] tropical storm, heads inland northeast,

[2:21] a look at what he left behind. Dave

[2:24] Marish begins our overview.

[2:28] Hurricane Andrew hit South Florida with

[2:30] the swift, clean knockout punch of a

[2:32] heavyweight champ. But the storm mauled

[2:35] Louisiana, repeatedly battering it with

[2:37] punch after punch like a barroom bully.

[2:40] It left the state bruised and bleeding,

[2:42] but somehow on its feet.

[2:44] >> Unbelievable.

[2:46] I I never seen anything like it.

[2:48] >> Dozens of tornadoes spun off the big

[2:50] storm. The biggest hit reserve west of

[2:52] New Orleans, separating a whole house

[2:54] from its stoop. Putting parts of

[2:57] communities together again will be a

[2:59] tremendous task.

[3:03] The most extensive damage is in Cinjun

[3:06] country. Louisiana's GF Coast lands look

[3:08] like a diary page dotted with discrete

[3:11] tears. Lafayette, the biggest town, took

[3:14] some of the biggest hits.

[3:17] And the Tabasco town, New Iberia, also

[3:20] felt the full brunt of the hurricane.

[3:23] People there who fled the storm had to

[3:25] flee their shelters. One, a hotel that

[3:28] suffered a gas leak.

[3:29] >> Everybody out. Gas line is broke. Want

[3:32] everyone to go to the front lobby.

[3:34] Everybody get out. Everybody get out.

[3:38] >> Smaller towns like Franklin saw their

[3:40] main streets turned into parallel lines

[3:42] of wrecked storefronts

[3:46] and isolated fishing villages like Delro

[3:49] had the roads that connect them to the

[3:51] world disconnected as storm water

[3:54] spilled everywhere.

[3:58] Last night, Morgan City, the destructive

[4:01] eyewall of the hurricane spun and spun

[4:04] over the town like a curwhe caught in

[4:06] the snow. An entire night of raging 120

[4:09] mph winds, scattered street signs,

[4:12] traffic lights, even rooftops around a

[4:14] terrified town.

[4:17] >> One man clutched his Bible through the

[4:18] night.

[4:20] >> Then saw his children and grandchildren

[4:22] home after the storm. His daughter,

[4:24] Marian Brown, found her house almost

[4:27] intact. All I have is a few trees and

[4:30] thing that are down.

[4:32] >> This girl lost everything. Everything.

[4:34] >> But her sister's home just two blocks

[4:36] away was a ruthless wreckage. Gwen Jones

[4:39] was heartbroken.

[4:41] >> When I came,

[4:43] >> I said, "I don't have no roof on my

[4:44] house." She said, "Yes, she Yes, you do.

[4:46] Let's go see." And Miss Dam came through

[4:48] the back door to look, you know, I

[4:50] didn't have a roof. We took our fair

[4:51] share, you know, and that's how I say

[4:54] now people just got to work together now

[4:55] to build it back.

[4:57] >> As many as threearters of the people in

[4:59] Morgan City had fled the town before the

[5:01] storm. It'll be days before they

[5:04] discover that their own best efforts to

[5:06] protect their homes hadn't been enough.

[5:09] Frank Grizzi stayed safely home as the

[5:12] wild winds blew.

[5:13] >> Last night, I was just worried. I

[5:16] petrified. I scared. But when he and his

[5:18] son saw their business

[5:20] >> hit around the corner this thing we had

[5:22] no window so we knew it was big knew it

[5:24] was big. I don't think we could have put

[5:26] sing if it wasn't going to stop this

[5:28] one.

[5:29] >> At city hall leaks from a battered roof

[5:32] were being cleaned up today. But a

[5:34] one-day mopup hardly began to address

[5:36] Morgan City's damage.

[5:38] >> The city does not have the the

[5:40] capability of rebuilding what we have to

[5:42] rebuild to put these citizens back in in

[5:44] whole shape here. Last night I spent 4

[5:47] hours sheltering on this city hall

[5:49] portico. I watched 4 hours of hellacious

[5:52] hurricane rip and tear at these old

[5:55] magnolia trees.

[5:57] The storm took leaves and limbs, but the

[5:59] trees are still here and so is the town.

[6:03] I'm Dave Marish for Night Line in Morgan

[6:05] City, Louisiana.

[6:07] >> For post Andrew Louisiana, the scope of

[6:10] the daunting task before them is just

[6:12] beginning to sink in. But Florida has

[6:14] been living with the devastation a bit

[6:15] longer, long enough to allow a certain

[6:18] desperation to take hold. We'll turn to

[6:20] hurricane victims there when we return

[6:23] and we'll talk with the official in

[6:24] charge of emergency operations in Dade

[6:27] County.

[6:28] >> This is ABC News Night Line brought to

[6:31] you by Time Magazine.

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[8:51] Hurricane Andrews impact sliced into

[8:53] more than concrete, wood, and metal. The

[8:55] brunt of its force swept South Florida

[8:57] and crually twisted innumerable lives.

[9:00] As Linda Patillo found, where once there

[9:02] were thriving communities, there is a

[9:04] growing desperation.

[9:08] >> For many, the day started like it always

[9:10] does in a traffic jam on Route 1. But

[9:13] today, they were waiting to buy gas.

[9:18] >> How long have you been waiting?

[9:20] >> Oh gosh, I don't know. Forever.

[9:22] >> Just down the road, the line to buy ice

[9:24] started at 700 a.m. and soon stretched

[9:27] half a mile. We left at 7:00 in the

[9:29] morning. Took us 2 and 1/2 hours to get

[9:31] gasoline. Now we're waiting for ice and

[9:33] after this for food.

[9:34] >> For decades, Route 1 has been the main

[9:37] artery through South Miami, a commercial

[9:40] strip lined with everything from

[9:41] convenience stores to upscale malls.

[9:44] Now, just 15 miles south of the city,

[9:47] there is little left. Conveniences

[9:50] people once took for granted are gone.

[9:53] the grocery store, the gas station, fast

[9:56] food restaurants, and the closer you get

[9:59] to where Andrew hit, the worse it

[10:01] becomes.

[10:02] >> It's gone. I mean, we used to shop at

[10:05] the shopping center up the street here,

[10:06] there's nothing left. I mean, everything

[10:08] on the highway up here is gone.

[10:10] >> Here, gasoline and ice are luxuries.

[10:13] Concerns are much more basic.

[10:15] >> Long as it's water, it don't have to be

[10:17] cold. Cuz a lot of people don't have

[10:19] water at all. Yeah.

[10:20] >> When Nona Serences lost almost all of

[10:23] her home, she has one room left.

[10:26] >> Where am I going to go? This is It was

[10:28] my home. Part of it still left. And

[10:30] there's no place for a lot of people to

[10:33] live.

[10:34] I understand there's about 50,000 out on

[10:36] the streets or picking up in buses. We

[10:39] at least have this much such as it is.

[10:42] But further down Route One, Don Lee lost

[10:45] everything. For three generations of the

[10:48] Lee family, home is now Don's van parked

[10:52] by the side of the road.

[10:53] >> And the hurricane trying to blow me

[10:56] away. And um

[10:58] >> Were you scared?

[10:59] >> I was scared.

[11:01] >> We have our lives left.

[11:04] We're very fortunate.

[11:06] We're very fortunate.

[11:08] >> What else have you done?

[11:09] >> We That That's about it. I mean, uh we

[11:12] got a place to stay such as it is.

[11:16] It's better than a lot of people have.

[11:19] Thank God for that.

[11:20] >> This is ground zero and thousands of

[11:23] people do not even have a van to call

[11:25] home. The only refuge they have is the

[11:28] public shelters where officials are

[11:30] quickly becoming overwhelmed by the

[11:33] scope of the disaster.

[11:34] >> We don't want to hear that.

[11:37] >> We're working on it. We're getting them

[11:38] in as fast as we can.

[11:41] >> Many

[11:44] on my back. I'm hungry, too. I haven't

[11:46] eaten in three days, either.

[11:49] >> It's heartbre. It really is. You just

[11:50] want to reach out and help each one of

[11:52] them individually, you know, but we

[11:54] can't. We can't do that. You have to,

[11:55] you know,

[11:57] >> anyone have a sick child out here.

[12:01] >> At Homestead Middle School, John

[12:03] McDonald is in charge of treating the

[12:05] hundreds of sick and injured.

[12:07] >> I'm sorry. I wish we could do more for

[12:08] you, but that's all we have to offer.

[12:10] The situation here is that we have a

[12:12] bunch of people that don't have any

[12:14] electricity, any water. Most of them,

[12:16] their homes are blown away with all of

[12:18] their possessions. They don't have any

[12:19] shoes. They're trying to get their lives

[12:21] back together. They're stepping on

[12:23] nails, broken glass. The children are

[12:26] getting sick because they don't have

[12:27] enough enough water to drink or clean

[12:29] water. They're drinking dirty water,

[12:31] getting all sorts of diarrheal diseases,

[12:34] and we just don't have anything to

[12:36] really treat them effectively with.

[12:37] We're doing the best we can with the

[12:39] minor cases here and sending the more

[12:41] critical cases over to the field

[12:42] hospital to be treated.

[12:44] >> But McDonald is only a medical student.

[12:47] >> We had a do an actual graduate physician

[12:49] here for 3 hours yesterday and his help

[12:52] was greatly needed. But we need it even

[12:54] more today because we've got 100 times

[12:57] more people today. Residents are

[12:59] beginning to grumble about what they

[13:01] feel is an inadequate government

[13:03] response. Some are taking desperate

[13:05] steps just to survive.

[13:07] >> There were some people that left a

[13:09] little early, left their house. They

[13:10] said they wasn't coming back, so we just

[13:12] moved in.

[13:13] >> So, you're living in somebody else's

[13:14] house?

[13:14] >> Sure.

[13:15] >> Somebody's house. I don't know whose it

[13:16] is.

[13:16] >> Water and electricity.

[13:18] >> We got water. No, they gave us water

[13:19] yesterday.

[13:20] >> At the end of Route One, amidst the

[13:23] rubble of a community that no longer

[13:25] exists, reality is setting in.

[13:27] >> I can say that right now. We have food,

[13:30] we have water, supplies that we salvaged

[13:32] and kept. So today we don't need

[13:34] anything. Tomorrow is going to be a

[13:36] different story.

[13:37] >> Help may be a long time coming. This is

[13:40] Linda Patillo for Night Line in

[13:42] Homestead, Florida.

[13:44] >> As emergency management director for

[13:46] Dade County, Kathleen Hail has the

[13:48] tremendous job of managing recovery from

[13:51] the disaster for an area that includes

[13:53] the sites you just saw. Miss Hail joins

[13:55] us now from her operating center in

[13:57] Miami. How many people you still have

[13:59] working with you and and how long since

[14:01] they've had any sleep? We've got about a

[14:03] hundred people here tonight and I think

[14:05] that's the lowest we've had at any

[14:06] point. We've had several hundred people

[14:08] in the building uh on a regular basis

[14:10] through the last four days.

[14:11] >> Now, I'm talking about the people who

[14:13] are helping you help all these other

[14:15] people. You were telling me just before

[14:17] we went on the air that half of them

[14:19] have lost their homes. Why are they

[14:21] still with you?

[14:23] >> Because they know the job has got to be

[14:24] done and they know how incredible the

[14:27] need is in this community. We have a 30

[14:29] mile wide swath of almost total

[14:31] devastation.

[14:32] >> Some of us were talking just before the

[14:34] program and were saying, "Look, if this

[14:36] were happening in Iraq, if it were

[14:38] happening uh, you know, somewhere in

[14:40] Africa, we we would see tents being

[14:43] loaded on C5As so that a tent city could

[14:46] be established so that at least people

[14:47] are not going to be uh, you know, out in

[14:49] the heat or out in the rain or or

[14:53] is any of that happening? And if so,

[14:54] who's doing it?" We have requested

[14:56] through the state of Florida and the

[14:58] federal government everything that we

[14:59] can get down here. Uh the the relief

[15:02] resources that we have right now are

[15:04] primarily we're counting on ourselves.

[15:06] The local Red Cross operated 50

[15:08] shelters. Those shelters are still being

[15:10] operated right now. I've got feeding

[15:12] stations being opened even as we speak

[15:14] down in the South Date area. We have

[15:16] MASH hospitals. We have everything we've

[15:19] got on the road trying to get it in

[15:21] place. We're going to have more food and

[15:22] water distribution points opening up

[15:24] tomorrow and we know that these

[15:26] resources are being staged elsewhere and

[15:29] we are desperately desperately in need

[15:31] of those resources getting in and taking

[15:33] over this disaster relief function.

[15:35] >> With whom are you coordinating with the

[15:37] state, with the federal government? How

[15:38] does that work?

[15:39] >> State federal government and the Red

[15:41] Cross. Uh when when a community faces a

[15:44] disaster, they mobilize and then they

[15:46] come into the area and then they provide

[15:48] disaster relief operations. The problem

[15:51] is here that the scope is so um

[15:54] incredible. We've got at least 63,000

[15:57] homes that are totally destroyed and a a

[15:59] minimal estimate of 20 billion dollars

[16:01] in privately insured losses. We've got

[16:05] at least $250,000

[16:07] people right now that we know are

[16:08] homeless and uh probably more than that.

[16:11] The numbers just keep growing

[16:12] tremendously. It is the sheer scope of

[16:15] it.

[16:15] >> I don't I don't want to waste a lot of

[16:16] your time on this. You heard me say at

[16:18] the at the top of this program, how is

[16:20] an estimate like that $20 billion

[16:21] estimate made? I mean, you people have

[16:23] your hands full of just taking care of

[16:24] folks.

[16:25] >> We have um 20 $250 billion worth of of

[16:29] insured property here in Dade County.

[16:31] And that's uh information that's

[16:32] provided to us by the insurance

[16:34] industry. The the 15 to 20 billion is a

[16:38] very conservative estimate looking at

[16:40] 10% of that having been destroyed

[16:42] because this literally is half a Dade

[16:44] County. What is it that you need most?

[16:47] In other words, by tomorrow and by the

[16:49] next day, is it going to be shelter in

[16:51] the form of tents? Is it going to be

[16:53] water, medicine, food? Just give us a

[16:55] sense of the priorities.

[16:57] >> Our needs are so basic right now that

[16:59] we're trying to provide food and water

[17:01] and medical care into the areas where

[17:04] there's just nothing for these people.

[17:06] And in most cases, we can't even get in

[17:07] there yet because the roads aren't even

[17:09] opened. It's it's the devastation is so

[17:11] widespread. Um, then we're looking at

[17:14] shelter as the next phase. Trying to

[17:16] find housing for a quarter of a million

[17:18] people is a is a very awesome task. It

[17:21] took the military a very long time to

[17:23] set up in in Desert Storm for the

[17:25] million troops that they moved into that

[17:27] area. We've got almost half of that

[17:29] number that we're going to have to find

[17:31] housing for. Here

[17:32] >> over the next 24, 48, 72 hours. What

[17:36] What are the problems that are going to

[17:39] get worse fastest? I I don't know if

[17:41] that's a clear

[17:42] >> food and water. Food and water. We have

[17:44] just absolutely we're looking at at the

[17:46] barest necessities to sustain life.

[17:48] Food, water, emergency medical care.

[17:51] Those are the things that we are trying

[17:52] to move over the next few days into

[17:54] those areas. Right now, the county is

[17:56] primarily doing it with its own

[17:58] resources and the volunteer efforts of

[18:00] other Florida counties who've came in

[18:02] who've come in and provided a great deal

[18:04] of assistance. The state has moved

[18:06] resources in and we know that the other

[18:08] resources of the federal government and

[18:09] the Red Cross are being mobilized, but

[18:11] they're not here yet. And when they show

[18:13] up, it's going to make a tre tremendous

[18:15] difference. We hope.

[18:16] >> All right, Miss Hail, I know you've only

[18:17] averaged a couple of hours a night for

[18:19] the past five nights. Thank you so much

[18:20] for taking time out to talk with us.

[18:22] >> Thank you.

[18:23] >> For the second time in three days,

[18:25] President Bush visited with hurricane

[18:27] victims. When we return, what a leader's

[18:30] visibility in the disaster zone can mean

[18:32] when he's also a candidate.

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[21:24] >> on now.

[21:28] He may be the most abused man in

[21:30] America, but Dan Quail tells Chris

[21:32] Wallace he's got a whole new image. You

[21:35] decide. Watch Prime Time Thursday.

[21:40] With the digging out after the storm

[21:42] comes concern over government response.

[21:44] President Bush sought to put those

[21:46] concerns to rest and put himself in the

[21:48] spotlight as he surveyed the damage and

[21:50] commiserated with victims in Louisiana

[21:52] today. As Jeff Greenfield reports, as

[21:55] president, Mr. Bush's visit carried a

[21:57] lot of weight. As a candidate, it could

[22:00] carry some baggage.

[22:02] >> When a major disaster strikes, when a

[22:05] crisis erupts, a visit from the

[22:06] president is an expression of national

[22:08] concern, national attention. But in an

[22:11] election year, inevitably, it is

[22:13] something else as well. It is a

[22:15] demonstration of the inherent power of

[22:17] the incumbent. On this field, George

[22:19] Bush is a candidate for president, just

[22:22] like his challenger. On this field,

[22:24] George Bush and Bill Clinton stand on

[22:27] the same plane. But here, George Bush is

[22:30] the president, the head of government,

[22:32] the head of state. Today, after more

[22:35] than a week as a political combatant

[22:37] slugging it out with Bill Clinton,

[22:38] George Bush became the president again.

[22:41] And maybe not a moment too