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

Gabor: I was watching television and I saw people running to the supermarket and I said: Wow! If everybody is going to the supermarket, it must be serious”. That’s how I heard about it.

Jaimes: What preparations did you make?

Gabor: I went to join everybody else at the supermarket. I bought some tapes, to tape up the windows, I bought some groceries, lots of water, boiled some water, and then, I went to my parents’ stores and helped put up the windows and so on. Also, I called up the Quality Inn by the airport and made reservations for two rooms for my entire family so we would have a safe place to stay because we were both in evacuation areas.

Jaimes: What did you think that it would be like before the storm?

Gabor: I...I certainly didn’t imagine what ended up happening. That’s for sure. I expected a couple of fallen trees, a couple of roofs blown over, and ...that was it.

Jaimes: Where were you during Hurricane Andrew?

Gabor: I was at the Quality Inn airport ...I was at the Quality Inn by the airport, actually in the honeymoon suite, complete with a hot tub, a big screen television, lounge couches, a king size bed with a mirror overhead o.k. together with my father, my mother, my stepmother, my baby sister, her babysitter, my best friend.

Jaimes: What happened to you during the hurricane?

Gabor: Nothing!

Jaimes: Good!

Gabor: Which is the funny part because while there were people suffering all over the place, I was in, probably, the safest place and that ...in the city of Miami. This honeymoon suite had so much tacky wood around it that almost became like a bunker and the ...I didn’t hear most of the storm even though I was in the middle of it.

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

Gabor: Uh...Since I’ve never been through one before, and the place I was at was so safe, I, I was never worried about my safety, knowing that I imagined that anybody was experiencing anything worse that I was going through. So, I really didn’t have that many concerns. My number one concern was actually my baby sister. I thought it would be loud, and I worried for her waking up, crying out loud and not being able to sleep and things like that.

Jaimes: What did you do right after the hurricane? What was the first thing you thought about it? What was the first thing you did?

Gabor: Well, the first thing we did was ...we walked outside the hotel, my best friend and I. We went for a walk and ...we saw exactly what I expected before the storm: a couple of fallen trees, couple of fallen signs, uh...but nothing major. Definitely nothing major like we would see later on during that day on television when the first pictures of South Dade came in.

Jaimes: What was your first week like after the hurricane?

Gabor: Um, definitely strange. I was luckier than everybody else even though at my own home there was no electricity, no cable which is, for somebody like me, a big problem. Um ...I went to stay at my mother’s house. Her building had her own generator, which is in North Miami Beach, and I had electricity, cable, telephone, and everything else from day 1, so I stayed there the first week. I didn’t go to work, and I was... I was having a, a very different experience than most people on the county.

Jaimes: I heard that you became a volunteer of the Hurricane Relief Concert...

Gabor: Yeah! I was ...I was ...I was watching on television, uh, different people volunteering to do different things and it was frustrating ‘cause as much as I wanted to volunteer, there was on the news: “Don’t go, they have enough volunteers” so, sitting on my hands and saying: “ I’ve got to do something”, and when I found out about Gloria Estefan wanting to put on, the Estefans wanting to put on the show, I called up the Public Relations agency that I knew was, um, assisting Gloria ...the Estefan enterprises and the show, and I volunteered with them, and the name of the agency was Bender & Goldman and I said to them: “If you need any help during the show, I’ll be more than happy to help out”.

Jaimes:Who came up with the idea of the Hurricane Relief Concert?

Gabor: It was ...Emilio Estefan and Gloria Estefan along with friends.

Jaimes: What was your role during the show?

Gabor: Um ...actually, I got very lucky. They must have run it up ...everybody in the stadium was a volunteer essentially. Um, but I was doing something I liked, something that not only was gonna help the community but was gonna further my career ...um...’cause I was just starting at, in the entertainment business. I was just starting at the Knight Center, so I figured it to be a good chance to meet other people. (But ...everybody that was in the stadium, that wasn’t attending, was a volunteer. Every performer was a volunteer, every journalist was a volunteer, everybody was a volunteer there and the group of people I volunteered with, there must have been about 50 people, and the ...but it was evident right away that there were some people there to play around and get free tickets to the show, and the other people were really there to help out and do the work which I felt I was one of. My role at the beginning was to hand out press credentials ..uh...represented...uh...there must have been 500 media, uh...media people from all over the world. 500 hundred is a lot of media people in one place. My responsibility was to check their credentials, give them their passes and so on. But as the ...my shift started at 8:00 o’clock in the morning. My shift was over about noon, which is 4 hours. But, there was so much to do ...and you could see that a lot of people who, that were supposed to do their jobs went into it that I decided to stay later. Uh...I went on until, I think, I helped with media escort until the field about 5 o’clock when the concert started and then, I went back stage and I worked escorting the town, from interview room to interview room and I finally left at 3:30 in the morning. I was almost there twenty four hours. It was a long one day, we were very tired.

Jaimes: But ...was it a good experience?

Gabor: It’s the best experience. First able, because I figure that as a professional I would never ever get a chance to work with as many uh...with such a big media than the Hurricane Relief Concert was. I mean, sometimes I work with ten, maybe fifteen journalists at the time, but never five hundred. The ...on the other hand, it was great, you know, actually help out the hurricane ‘cause I knew that we were raising money essentially for victims so it’s nice to give something back.

Jaimes: What were your, let’s say, personal expectations from the concert?

Gabor: The ...the...you know, my biggest ...I expect ...I didn’t really expect anything. I just showed up in a pair of slash, and a shirt and I said that I wanted to do whatever they wanted me to do ...and that was essentially why I did. I did whatever they wanted me to do.(Uh...the only real big problem with the entire show, you asked me, was really, you know ...in four weeks, it’s too difficult to put together a technically perfect show. They had a lot of technical glitches such as the show not ending until two o’clock in the morning, uh...because of other problems. But, besides that, it was just as expected as exciting and so on...

Jaimes: How did you all plan to use the money from the concert in rebuilding Miami?

Gabor: I believe all the money was donated to We Will Rebuild and, they, you know ...I’m not sure how they are dispersing the money but that’s the number one agency for it.

Jaimes: What can you say about the people who attended the concert?

Gabor: For what I understand ...just listening to the crowd as they were mentioning things about South Dade and Homestead, everybody ...I would say, the fifty, sixty plus thousand over thereeverybody who attended was a hero. Um...’cause, you know, they were, they just went through the worst hell you can imaginethey are all coming out, spending twenty five to a hundred bucks a person ...to sit for six hours in a concert and listen to music. I think that after of four weeks of hell, everybody needed a “pickerupper”. This the perfect one.

Jaimes: I know. Aha, that’s true. What kind of effects has Hurricane Andrew had on your daily life?

Gabor: Uh...strangely for me, it has had less effects than most people on Dade County. Like I said, I got very lucky. I didn’t, you know, you know ...I didn’t have such personal damage ...I haven’t filed a single insurance, uh, claim. I didn’t take advantage of a little thing that happened ‘cause I figure that everybody else had bigger problems and the ...you know ...mostly...just dealing with friends that did lose houses ...a lot of fellow employees and things like that. Um, otherwise, you know, I, I, you know, it really hasn’t changed that much besides just being more aware of it and just planning for the next hurricane already.

Jaimes: Yeah! Aha! What about the place where you worked...

Gabor: Uh...right at the time of Hurricane Andrew, it was ...about one month before I left my job as a vice-president of communication for Onyx Financial Group, Inc. and it was right when I was starting the job at the James L. Knight Center so I had a chance to first ... uh ... you know, the workers I worked with originally ...two, two, two of the ten people on the staff lost their homes, so it’s a lot; it’s 20% and then, when I went to work in the Knight Center, about two people of the five on the staff, also 20%, uh, lost their homes also. So, everywhere I went, people were losing their homes and I couldn’t find a single person without having lost their homes or didn’t know anybody, somebody who lost their home.

Jaimes: But ...did the hurricane affect, like some coming shows for the...

Gabor: Yeah! There was a lot of shows cancelled. The Ana Gabriel concert was scheduled for August 24th...

Jaimes: Really! That Sunday?

Gabor: ...that Sunday and it was cancelled, postponed actually. Uh...and oh, yeah! There was a lot of...Vicente Fernandez concert at the Knight Center, there were games that were cancelled ...uh, there were appointments that were missed, you know, the typical things. Physically, uh, both the Knight Center and the place where I used to work were fine.

Jaimes: O.k. Good! Are there any positive outcomes you have seen in the community as a result of the hurricane?

Gabor: You know, in the short term, I really thought that the hurricane would band everybody together, which it did.’ Uh...it was the first time ever in Miami that people were curious on the road, for example driving ...uh. Unfortunately, like everything else, didn’t last too long. And the, even though as much as progress as we made with the interpersonal skills and learning to work with each other and love each other, neighborhoods became closer together. Now, you look at all the, you know, the tourists’ crimes, the ...against each other and then you say: “Hey!” We’re back to where we were before. Maybe, even worse.

Jaimes: Aha! That’s true. Has the hurricane significantly changed your plans for the future, or not really?

Gabor: It changes your plans in, in the , in the way you think about hurricanes whereas before, you know, they used to say: “Yeah, right! No problem!” So, that was it. Nowadays, you’re really gonna go and buy water at the beginning of the season, you’re gonna buy tapes ‘cause you don’t wanna go through it at the last minute. When you look for places to live, you are gonna look at the construction, and make sure it’s, you knowtheir side walls, uh...you’re going to perhaps live in places where it’s a little bit easier to get home mortgage insurances ‘cause now it’s very hard to get. The thing is that it has educated everybody.

Jaimes: Aha, that’s true! Is there anything else that you would like to tell me that I have not asked you?

Gabor: No!

Jaimes: O.K. Thank you very much.

Gabor: You’re welcome.