Szlegier: When did you first realize that Hurricane Andrew might hit Miami?

Farrington: It was predicted to hit two days prior to its arrival, but personally I didn’t think it would hit because my experience was that if you’re in the direct path of the storm you’re in pretty good shape because they almost never go straight. I didn’t anticipate that it would hit at all until about three hours before it did. I’ve lived in Miami since 1970 and haven’t experienced a serious storm here, but I was born in Ft. Lauderdale and I went through a lot of storms when I was younger.

Szlegier: What preparations did you make?

Farrington: Basically we picked up everything that was loose in the yard and secured it, filled boats with water, those types of things.

Szlegier: What would you do differently if you had the chance?

Farrington: If I had known that it was going to hit I probably would have put shutters on the windows.

Szlegier: What were your expectations of the storms effects on your life in general and on your business?

Farrington: Before the storm I didn’t have any expectations, I didn’t think it would hit.

Szlegier: Where were you during the hurricane?

Farrington: I was in my house with my wife and my son, my daughter was in Gainesville.

Szlegier: What were your concerns or thoughts during the hurricane?

Farrington: I wasn’t very concerned. My wife was but I wasn’t.

Szlegier: How did you feel it would affect your business?

Farrington: I didn’t think about my business at all during the storm.

Szlegier: What was your first thought after the hurricane?

Farrington: That I had a tremendous mess to clean up, it made quite a mess of my house and yard. I didn’t have any structural damage, all I had was water damage. It blew the shingles off the roof then it just rained through the house for three days so the drywall and carpet all got went and the cabinets all swelled up. A lot of my friends’ houses were completely demolished. Many of neighbors’ houses were all blown to pieces.

Szlegier: What was the first thing you did after the storm?

Farrington: I went outside and looked around at the damage.

Szlegier: What was your first week after the storm like?

Farrington: Primarily cleanup, trying to get the house into a condition that we could live in, we didn’t move out. I went around and checked on some of the jobs I was doing. Some did quite well, I was really surprised.

Szlegier: Did you receive help after the hurricane?

Farrington: I had help from several of my friends who came over and helped me dry the roof in and board up what broken windows we had. I got a lot of help from my friends. I had people coming down from Ft. Lauderdale bringing materials because we couldn’t get them down here.

Szlegier: Did you provide help to others?

Farrington: Yes, we helped each other.

Szlegier: What effect did Hurricane Andrew have on your daily life?

Farrington: It increased the anxiety level in my family a lot. My wife was very upset and a lot of my friends were very stressed out. We had to spend a lot more time bolstering people’s spirits than you normally might have to.

Szlegier: Do you still feel this effect today?

Farrington: I didn’t feel it at all, but my wife and some of my friends were affected really badly. It affected people really differently. Some people were really distressed. It almost brought on depression in several cases. Other people just said “let’s fix it and go on”. I think the effects on a lot of people will be very long term. A lot of people aren’t even back in their houses. Many haven’t even started fixing their houses. Some are still fighting with insurance companies. They’re going crazy.

Szlegier: Has the hurricane significantly changed your plans for the future?

Farrington: No.

Szlegier: What were the immediate effects of the hurricane on your business?

Farrington: It damaged several of the jobs we were working on. At a housing project we were working on down in South Dade, it tore off some of the roofs that were in the framing process. We had to do a lot of water damage repair to some projects. At the Youth Fair, I run the master plan and do all their construction each year. On the fairgrounds, we had a tremendous amount of tree damage and quite a bit of metal building damage. A pedestrian bridge out there got torn up during the National Guard operation. They ran into it with a truck so it was a big problem for us, it destroyed the whole bridge. In general it just realigned everything. Everything that was an ongoing project before the storm got set back tremendously because there were so many critical things that had to be handled short term. A lot of things that we thought were priority items or almost completed, were not almost completed anymore and got pushed way back. It really became almost impossible to get things accomplished.

Szlegier: How long were you without telephone services to contact employees, customers, etc.?

Farrington: At my house I had telephone all through the storm and for about a week afterwards. All my neighbors were at my house because they didn’t have phones. Since then I’ve been without phone for as much as a week five different times. As people began to repair things like clearing telephone poles off the streets, digging post holes for fences, etc., they would break the lines.

Szlegier: Were you able to get the supplies necessary to begin these repairs?

Farrington: Supplies were almost nonexistent for about two months after the storm. Anything related to wood products or roofing products or glass, were just not available.

Szlegier: Were a lot of your employees affected by the hurricane?

Farrington: I don’t have a lot of employees, but everybody that works with me was affected by it. Most of the people I work with are our of the southwest.

Szlegier: Was there a big delay before these employees were able to return to work?

Farrington: Some of them never came back after the storm.

Szlegier: Was your office damaged? Did this affect your work?

Farrington: I have an office on the projects that I work on, plus I have an office at my house. They were damaged but it did not have any real effect on by business.

Szlegier: Was there significant damage to the equipment necessary for your work?

Farrington: I rent all of the equipment that I use. After the storm, it was almost unavailable for about two months. Anything that had to do with lifting or pushing, you just couldn’t get it. We really couldn’t meet any of our customers’ needs because there was nothing to work with.

Szlegier: Was your house insured? If so, did you have any difficulty getting your insurance claim?

Farrington: It took along time. It wasn’t really hard, it was just laborious. We had to spend an awful lot of time meeting with the insurance people. It was a long process because they were all so busy. It took us three weeks just to get a hold of them.

Szlegier: Was your business affected by customers waiting on insurance claims before they could begin repairs?

Farrington: Several of my friends are still waiting for their claims. It interesting, even within the same insurance companies, in some cases they give you too much money, in others, they don’t give nearly enough to cover what needs to be done. I don’t know of a single case where they gave an amount that was just about right. I think what it really boils down to is the adjuster’s attitude and if he’s burned out from being down here too long.

Szlegier: What effect did the hurricane have on the type and amount of your business?

Farrington: I made a very consorted effort not to get too involved in storm damage repairs other than damage we had to our projects that were in progress and a couple of friends’ houses. Other than that I haven’t gotten involved at all. I was already pretty well loaded with what I could handle before the storm and I didn’t want to take on a lot of things that I wasn’t going to be able to handle. Business could have increased as much as I wanted it to but you can only handle so much and after that you’re not doing a good job anymore. I don’t like that. Plus getting involved with people as emotionally disturbed as many are, is not very productive. No matter what you do, you’re not going to make people happy again. It’s depressing. I just didn’t want to get involved especially since I was busy already.

Szlegier: Did any of your work switch out of the area where you usually work as a result of the storm?

Farrington: Actually, I tried to cover a smaller area because the traffic has gotten so bad. It’s almost impossible to get downtown. If you’re trying to work down in Homestead, you spend at least 2.5 hours on the road a day from here (South Miami). Some people are traveling from Palm Beach to down there just to go to work.”

Szlegier: Of the people you helped after the storm, did most of them want to rebuild or to move out of the area? No one that I was involved in was considering abandonment. They all wanted to get their house back into shape so they could live in it. In my experience, the people in the abandonment process are the ones who have very little capital into the house. The people that have a lot of capital in the house just wanted to get them fixed and get back into them with the exception of the people that live in the Saga Bay area. To me it looks like that neighborhood will probably degenerate. It’s a terrible mess and I think what’s really going to happen down there is that you’re going to get a lowermiddle class neighborhood to start with and I think you’re going to have a lot of people move in there who make less than desirable neighbors. We’re going to see that whole area go down hill, I think.