Edited Transcription of Taped Questions and Responses

NOTES: At around 4 o’clock in the afternoon, the interviewer rode the Metro Rail to Dadeland South station, where Mrs. Jeffers, her daughter Jocelyn, and her two cousins picked me up. We first traveled to a nearby Pizza Hut, where the first segment of the interview took place. (Background noise result of restaurant.)

Paul: Hello, this is Allen Paul, on April 17th, 1993. I’m sitting in Pizza Hut, interviewing Mrs. Alicia Jeffers on her experience in Hurricane Andrew. Mrs. Jeffers, please…state your name, your occupation, and your workplace, just for reference.

Jeffers: O.K. My name is Alicia Jeffers…I’m a hospital administrator and my workplace is in the heart (not sure of word stated)…it’s right where the eye of the hurricane was and that’s 10300 Southwest 216th Street. I am the administrator of a children’s mental health program in South Dade.

Paul: O.K., these questions are just related to before the hurricane, after, and rebuilding, that sort of thing. What was your initial reaction to the news that Hurricane Andrew might hit Miami, this area.

Jeffers: O.K. Well, firstly, I didn’t realize that it was a serious thing... I happened to have gone shopping that Saturday, it was a regular routine, grocery shopping, and I saw people getting bottles of water. In fact, the water shelf was empty. I…receive bottled water service, but I sometimes pick up a smaller amount to take to the spa with me, you know, the smaller containers. And I noticed that, and I went down the aisle with the candles and the things like that, and I heard people saying, “Well, I have an elderly parent, and this storm is supposed to come.” I said, “Oh, really?” I said “Oh my,”…but my feeling was still, well, maybe it’s a false alarm kind of thing…so my mood was basically, “Yes, we haven’t had a storm in a while, we’ve been expecting it, but, it couldn’t possibly hit this beautiful weekend.” The weather was beautiful, we’d gone bikeriding that Saturday morning, the three of us, my daughter, my husband, and myself, and then I was at the grocery store when I realized people were starting to feel a little antsy about it; kind of saying “Well, maybe…” So I did the same thing, I said, “Maybe I should get this, maybe I should get that,” and I started to prepare. Later that evening, around midnight, is when I really took it serious, because Brian Norcross on Channel Four showed pictures and it seemed, for the first time, as a Floridian, knowing the nature of these storms, this one seemed to be on a very steady course. At that point, my husband was asleep, so was my daughter…I awakened my husband and I told him, “I’m going to get gas, just in case this thing does hit, you know we’re in the evacuation zone. ‘Cause we’re east of U.S. 1, and that is considered an evacuation zone.”

Paul: What day was it…was that on Sunday night…before the hurricane, or Saturday night?

Jeffers: Actually it was Sunday night, that’s right. Thank you for orienting me. Saturday was the grocery shopping…but this was Sunday night that I actually started getting those strong warnings and realized it was serious. So I gassed up the car…Wait a minute. The storm actually hit Monday… O.K., so this was Saturday night. I am still talking about Saturday night, I’m sorry… and also I have a responsibility, and this was a tough part for me. We have a residential program that I’m responsible for, for mentally disturbed children. We have five girls and five boys. I called them, I told them to prepare…what to do in preparation in case they had to evacuate. To bring with them, certain items to the shelter, that they would evacuate to a shelter, because CHI (Children’s Health Institute) is a large facility, however, we don’t have a children’s CSU. And my children’s buildings are renovated homes. So they’re not as sturdy as the main facility, which is concrete. So the plan was that they would go, as any other neighbor…they would go to the shelter with the children, and they could also bring their family. So that’s what we did. Meanwhile…I worried a lot about them but at the same time, felt they would be O.K. The staff was (said) “Yes, we will be with them, don’t worry, we’re not going to leave the kids , they’ll be with us and our families.” So I was lucky I had very good help there at the shelter. My boss called, and I told him what I did, and then I went to bed, I would say about one or two o’clock, ‘cause I was also preparing for my family… little bags to take away, and getting the house sort of ready as much as I could at that time in the night.

Paul: How did they react?

Jeffers: Now, my husband is from New York, originally, by way of Trinidad. He said, “Oh, it’s just another false alarm.” I said, “Well, what if it isn’t, we need to prepare, I’m going anyway to get gas, you know, make preparations.” Well, the morning came, and we were awakened by the ring of the telephone and it was my boss, the director of mental health is what I report to, as the director of the children’s services as my position…so he called and asked me what I’m doing with the children, and I told him, and I said…but my particular home, however, has to be evacuated. He said, “Fine, you go ahead, I’ll take care of whatever needs to be taken care of on this end, and you’d done all you can do.” So I went, and…my husband by then awakened, and he realized it was serious. (I said,) “Lenny, it’s serious. We have to go.” He said, “Really?” But I still don’t think he took it serious, being that he’s never been through one (a hurricane). And he then began to call hotels…well, we hadn’t decided where we were gonna go in, like, short time…if we were going to go to Home Depot, to get boards, ‘cause we didn’t have hurricane shutters…if we were going to evacuate, and where. The question was, “Yes, we will evacuate.” Where, we weren’t sure. We had friends who lived in Deerwood, which is very near Country Walk…He said…his name was Winston, our friend…he said, “I don’t know how sturdy my house is.” And then we said, “You’re right.” I said, “Winston ...what should we do with our dog?” Because he’s an older guy and he kind of gave us some advice. And he said, “Don’t worry about the dog, he’ll be fine. You should leave him because the hotels or whatever may not take him.” We called around and we ended up…the closest place we could find was Kissimmee, which is Orlando. And my daughter’s reaction was, “Ooh, Disney World!” She’s only eight, of course. And our reaction was a bit different.

Paul: So... you did drive all the way up to Kissimmee.

Jeffers: Yes, and the drive up was incredible. Because our biggest fear, or my fear, was to get stuck with all the people (on the freeway). They had evacuated Fort Lauderdale as well, half a million people, plus those of us (in) South Dade on the east side. So my fear was getting stuck on the highway and the storm hitting in Fort Lauderdale and we couldn’t go back or forward. That was my big fear. But that didn’t happen; they turned the turnpike into all north lanes by noon…we left at 10am. I took a picture of the house, tried to encourage my neighbors to leave. They said, “Oh, no, I’m not leaving my house.” None of them at that point would leave. So we took off. And I said, “Listen, I’m a Floridian, I’ve been through two storms when I lived in Northern Florida; they weren’t too bad but I hate the sound of those tornados.” And I said, “That’s why I’m leaving.” But I did take a picture of my home, because Brain Norcross instructed us to do so, and something just told me it was really coming. By then, I thought it was really coming. And your mother was supposed to call me or whatever, and I said, “Well I hope they got out of here.” And that was my last thought too, that they didn’t wait around for us to go to Samurai, that they did get out. So, the next thing we did... like I said we packed up and left for Kissimmee. We stayed in…what was it, the Hilton Resort?...it was some resort, and like I said it was quite a processional. Normally that drive would take you three hours. We left 10am in the morning, and we got to our destination in Kissimmee at 9pm that night.

Paul: So that was…about eleven hours then.

Jeffers: Mmmhmm, because of the volume of people going up (the turnpike). But somehow the drive didn’t seem that long, I guess ‘cause our mind were (sic) really worried, we were tuned to the stations…but, we realized when we got there how long it had taken us.

Paul: What other preparations did you make, other than gassing up the car…with your home, before you evacuated?

Jeffers: Well, we took in the patio furniture. I tried to get my husband to take in these large pots I had. He said, “Oh, the storm wouldn’t move that, would it?” I said, “Len, yes it will.” Being a New Yorker, again, he’s never been through a storm, he’s only heard of the threats. Remember that. Like a lot of people that live here. He’s never actually been through one. And several times there were, like, threats of one and nothing happened and I had him do all this stuff, so it was really hard to convince him. But he trusted me and did most of what I said. But, we left the doghouse, ‘cause we were thinking about, you know, it was like, “let’s get out of here”. Again, I was thinking (about) getting stuck on the road. But I took all the plants down that were hanging on the patio, the patio furniture…put everything in the living room, which is right off from the pool area. We filled the pool, closed all the windows. We put the dog in the family room area, which is to the west of the house. We closed the door and we had plenty of food for him and water, in there. And that was a lot of guilt, leaving him, but, I felt, “He’ll be fine, it’ll be another one of those little blowthrough storms; nothing happens, right?” Well, as we’re progressing and we’re halfway to our destination, I hear this thing is getting stronger and stronger, and of course, my guilt got worse and worse.

Paul: What was your feeling about leaving the house? What did you anticipate as reviews got worse?

Jeffers: I anticipated…what, as I knew the storm was strong?

Paul: Right. Did you feel that…

Jeffers: I still didn’t think there would be the damage that we saw. ‘Cause I’ve never seen such, in my life. Like I said, I’ve been through two storms, and the worst we had happen was a little bit of our roof got damaged once. In Pensacola, you have oak trees, and they stood and mostly the branches fell. Nothing like what we saw. But, at that point, that’s what I thought. A few branches, if it hits; at worst, maybe the screen would be down, and that’s it. I didn’t expect much of anything else like that. I expected to come back to a normal house, maybe the outside torn up. That’s it.

Paul: So…getting out of the area and into the traffic jam and everything…were you in a hotel by the time Sunday night arrived?

Jeffers: Yes.

Paul: You were already in Orlando, in a hotel?

Jeffers: Right. It was hard getting to sleep. We listened to CNN as much as possible. We all had trouble going to sleep.

Paul: So you basically just

Jeffers: No, we did finally go (to sleep), excuse me. And we woke up in the morning, and we cut it (the television) on, and it was hard to find any news. Finally something came on CNN, and it showed Cutler Ridge Mall. I thought, “Oh my God”, and I’m about fifteen minutes north of Cutler Ridge. And it kept talking about Homestead, and the only thing close to our home they talked about was Cutler Ridge Mall. And it was pretty bad. Then they showed a woman going to her home, and there was nothing but a concrete slab left. And I went, “Oh my God.” So that night…by then we had contacted my parents, and…I’d contacted them when we first got there, and they were really worried, and they were so glad we got out, and my father was saying, “It’s the worst ever”, and blahblahblah. But I still didn’t think it would hit our area; I mean, you don’t want to think like that. There were people there from the Keys that we met, and one guy was just saying he’s gonna get drunk. He says he knows if it hits Key West his house is gone, it’s right on the water. There were people from all over: Fort Lauderdale, Pompano, you know, that were there, and everybody really afraid.

Paul: So that’s basically…

Jeffers: The scenario, yes.

Paul: Yeah, The people you were with during (the hurricane), not just your family…did you talk with some of those people?

Jeffers: Yes, yes. By the pool and things like that the next morning. ‘Cause it took a long time to get information. That was the scariest thing. Finally, my husband’s office manager…we got a hold of her, ‘cause…the last thing I took from the house was a list of friends’ phone numbers. And that really saved us, that was a blessing. ‘Cause…we were able to find more information that way. So we did call, Pat was her name, and she said…that she had friends staying with her during the storm, that lived near us. We’re on 161st Terrace, and about 87th Avenue; she was on 85th Avenue and 170 something, very close. And we got a hold of Pat, maybe midnight. The storm hit early Sunday morning; that was midnight Monday, that we finally got a hold of her, and tried to decide what to do. And she said that it was very bad, that they went back home to a shell. And that was when we realized that we were in deep trouble. That more than likely we had damage and severe damage. And that was a hard night. I watched everything, I couldn’t sleep; my mother called and made sure we knew. We tried to decide what to do, because of Jocelyn, my daughter, if wires were down and things like that. Then we finally started hearing that South Dade was shut down, basically. So we started thinking about all our friends, you know, and different people, like their parents, grandparents are like our surrogate family. So we were wondering about them. Gloria was in Trinidad, we knew that…Granny was in New York, so we were kind of, you know, alright. But Winston was by himself, the same guy we talked to before we left. And at that point he had said he was going to stay home by himself. So I thought, “Oh my God, he went through that by himself.” So anyway…the bottom line is we also had to figure out at that point what to do. So we decided to call a friend in the northwest (part of Miami), to stay with. And the only northwest number I had on that list was a guy that had trained with my husband, Dr. Skandarani, a Lebanese guy. And we called him, and (he) said, “Yes, you can stay with us, no problem,” and they prepared a room, so we went and we stayed with them. They had been on vacation and came back to this thing. When we got to their house…we just wanted to drop off Jocelyn basically, make sure she was safe, they have kids her age, and head down and see what was going on. We didn’t get there ‘til noon Tuesday, to their home…because of the processional, and the processional back was really strange, and people had come all the way from Tallahassee, that escaped as far as Tallahassee from the storm. You know, we talked people we didn’t know… (Interview paused)

NOTE: The next part of the interview took place in the Jeffers’ home, where Mrs. Jeffers showed me around the home and pointed out the areas that were damaged and were being repaired. The house only has three rooms fully furnished, everything else is concrete and wood, as the Jeffers’ opted to remodel while repairing the home.

Jeffers: (in mid sentence)…the storm came from the east. The ocean is about, I’d say about five blocks, no, more than that, about ten blocks away from here. You know, regular, suburban block. (pointing out the east wall) That’s how you can easily see that’s where the storm came from.

Paul: Right, came straight through…

Jeffers: And here (points out doors on east wall) we had glass doors, not French, just totally glass sliding doors…and it was totaled, this room (the living room, now all concrete), the same here, in fact we had tile, roof tile inside the room. And this room (next to former living room) was our master (bedroom), it was not touched; this door was closed so, it stayed o.k. and there’s a bathroom in there, so we probably could have survived in this room if we’d stayed, but who knows, right? But this bathroom was fine, because the door’s closed, but the whole east side was smashed. This (room across hall from former master bedroom) was my daughter’s room, as you know, we’re remodeling, it’ll now be the master bath(room). And since we had to remove the walls anyway… So, this, like I said, was my daughter’s room, it was a little bit bigger than this, I think, but that’s about (the size of) it. She had a walkin closet there, and this will now be our bath, master here. This was the living room, with the marbled fireplace.

Paul: Was this where most of your water damage was?

Jeffers: Oh, it was terrible, yeah. These doors (along east wall) were wood French doors, now we have metal ones. And we couldn’t find them. We found, like, pieces in the yard, finally, up under stuff. It took my father, my brother, my husband, and another man four days to clean the yard. And now even clean-clean; just the basic debris up.

Paul: What was the first week like, after you came back?

Jeffers: Oh, it was horrible. We were living in Miami Lakes, because…it wasn’t safe to live here. ‘Cause everything was boarded up, you wouldn’t get any air. And no electricity; we had no electricity for two months. And we got a generator; I’ll show you that outside. And (it was the) first time in my life ever getting a generator. You had to stand in line, and we were number fourteen. At l am in the morning, we were number fourteen, waiting for generators, ‘cause the new batch (had) come in. I don’t want to see another Home Depot for a while. Because every morning, that was our routine. We’d go to the Miami Lakes Home Depot, you know, stand in line for a generator or something else we needed, you know, we were trying to prepare for when Mom and Dad and everybody came down – what we would need, a chainsaw, or this, or that. And they brought down a lot of stuff, too, thank God. And we would make the long trek down it was like a funeral procession, coming down, especially that first day, as I was about to tell you when everybody was coming down to see what happened to their house. Everybody was quiet, and you’d see these big concrete buildings down, and you thought, “Oh, my God, did my little house survive?” You know, I wish it was lighter (outside), I’d show you Richmond Heights; that was really damaged bad. And that’s where we had to come from, when we came off the Turnpike we came a different route. And when I saw that, that’s when I broke; and I’m usually a very strong person, I had to cry, because I thought, “Oh, God my house must be totaled,” but it wasn’t. We had a screen around the patio, and that pulled away; where that pulled away, that part of the roof was exposed. And that was the only structural damage; everything else was windows down, so it was (mostly) water (damage). I had my baby grand (piano) here, and it was like, full of water. They (the repairmen) say it’s gonna be alright  I almost got a new one, but I really like this one ...what else happened?...Like I said, I had a big living room bed(?) here next, and it was totaled. And all of our patio furniture, that I said I brought in, was in here. And it was incredible, because the stuff must have floated around. I heard people describe, (people) that stayed, how stuff floated around because the way the sectional  it was a ten piece sectional was moved around ...you know, it was not all together like we had it it was sort of, one piece there, one piece there ...and I had paintings on the wall ....they flew down, you know, off the wall, and they were really secure up there, ‘cause they’re expensive originals that I had. Most of them, I’m going to restore  the originals, of course. But there were a few Egyptian ...papyrus, that is, paper, that  I just threw them away... (they were a gift) an Egyptian student gave my husband, so we’ll just have to write him and tell him.. It (the papyrus) was real, it wasn’t like the fake stuff. But, anyway ...this makes me feel better, to know we’re remodeling  you know, some people just want their house the way it was. But we decided to go ahead and remodel. And, like I said, we’ll have a bigger master... the other one was just a room with a bathroom in it earlier. But in the days that this (house) was built, people entertained in their living rooms, so it was huge. This was the dining room here, where that other window (is) at... the wall was where that refrigerator is (on north wall), and it (there) was a door that lead into the small kitchen, and this was the dining room, and this was the living room, so it was huge (rooms were side by side in north east section). This will be our new closet, which we desperately need  I love to shop, as you could tell ...(moving around center of home) this’ll be a linen closet; that’s storage, and this will be a powder room, which is something I always wanted, so the guests don’t have to go all the way inside to go ...but isn’t that neat how they made a little door to keep the dust out? (Moving to old front doors) Now I’m not going to open this, ‘cause they have this string  I think they were planning to lay concrete, and then the rain came. That’s another thing that’s slowing up the recovery effort, is the rain. We could go outside and walk around, if you want... (pointing outside) That’s going to be our new living room/dining room... the positives that came out (of Hurricane Andrew) was, like I said, the upgraded electrical codes; now, a lot of things that they (Dade County Building codes) don’t allow that they did back when this (house) was built, that they’ve learned about; the upgrade in the air conditioning; so, those are some of the positives. The negative is living like this for so long, you know.

Paul: What was your initial reaction when you actually saw your house?

Jeffers: “Oh, my God...” I didn’t want to go in. That was my reaction. My husband wanted to go in, but he was waiting for me; he didn’t want to go in without me. And the neighbors embraced us; you know, as if they’d been embracing people all along. You could see the street was wet. I show when we go outside, how much flooding was there. (moving into garage) This is the generator, and not knowing about generators, we looked for how many amps it would put out. But what you really need to look at, if this ever happens to you, or any of your family, is how much gas it holds. This only held ...three and a half hours worth. Every three and a half hours, at night, my husband had to (go get more gas)...and a doctor died; a friend of his, a very famous doctor, Dr. Harrington, of the University (of Miami). He’s an older guy, Irish guy; (he died) from pulling one of these things. And I was really worried about my husband, even though he’s not that old... (pause  moving outside to north side of house)...our fence was, like, down in sections; it was as if it just exploded this way (to the west). It was the same configuration we have now, probably not as well built, but, we got ...a little “handyguy” that did it. We had a huge fifty year old plum tree that was in front of that pole in the back. It left a big crater. You can see it when we go out back. There was a huge tree here (west side of house); the crater’s about filled in (it was)...a sea grape tree. It was humongous. But that Chinese plum tree was a big loss, because it’s an unusual tree, and it had grown to such proportions. A lot of the hedges close to the house did seem to survive, and a lot of palm trees (survived as well) this tree (on southwest corner of lot), as you can see, was damaged, and I hadn’t had it trimmed up yet. So that gives you an idea of what it was like. (There were a) lot of trees down ...where the new living room (addition) sits, I had a huge orchid tree. I mean, when I say huge, it was tall. And that left a big crater as well, but it’s covered by the new addition now. That was the most amazing thing to see those trees go, that had been here for so long...(moving to front of house) My property extends around here  close to half an acre ...we didn’t have any big trees here or anything, not that I remember. There’s a lot you forget about. (in front of construction on west wing of house) This is the new addition, Allen  makes me feel a little better... The front door will be here now (between west wing and east wing), and there’ll be like open archways you can go straight and go to the family room, you can go to the left and go to the living room/dining room ...or you can go that way (right) and go to the bedrooms. So it was a neat design that the guy (the contractor) came up with. Of course, it’s cheaper to do it now, since you’ve gotta take down walls ...anyway. It’s still expensive, but it’s cheaper. So it’s almost the size of my other one (living room); because we thought about it ...The furniture I have... (is) Drexel Heritage, and it was still moist two months later, when the guy came to pick it up to restore it. But it’s good furniture, it’s real wood, so they (the repairmen) know they can restore it. In fact, he called me the other day. And they think the piano’s going to be O.K. We were lucky. They said a lot of them were smashed, but this one didn’t get not one chip on it, it was just full of water. So I’m hoping it’ll be O.K., that they’re not lying to me, to get the business. The only things I have to buy is, well, my chandelier was an Italian imported you know, (I paid) almost 3,000 dollars for that chandelier. It’ll take me a while to gather up that (much money) again. Laelic(?) crystal (the type of crystal the chandelier was made of)... I want it do it back the way I had it, so I’m gonna just take my time and do this room again, and get a new couch that’s the only thing I really have to get in terms of big furniture, is a new couch, and that chandelier, replacing that. I have the torches (of the chandelier) in the garage I don’t think they look rusted, but I’m gonna have to throw them out. You know, it’s hard to give up things right away, and a lot of people had that experience. They’re like (thinking), “Why was I holding on to this moldy chair, this rusted lamp?”, you know. ‘Cause, like I said, the living room was hit very hard... and, that’s the most difficult thing. And you look and you say, “God, I’m a rational person; why am I holding on to this?” Some things looked good (after the hurricane), and then months later, you saw the rust and the mildew. Like I was telling you about the stereo equipment I really don’t know, maybe it (the water from the hurricane) got to it, maybe it didn’t. It was inside of a closet, and the speakers were out in the living room. So the speakers were totaled I mean, they just kept crumbling apart, as the days went by. The worst thing was the carpet ...oh, the smell ...and the pool was black  I have pictures I’ll show you ....That was the worst thing. And then, little pieces of glass  because the way the sliding door went wasn’t in big chunks, it was as if there were some type of explosion (the glass) was like little puzzle pieces. It would get in your skin through your clothes, even though you had thick shoes. We would always come suited up. But our friends were great...

Paul: As far as the neighbors and everything ...how did the community sort of help each other out? Did you help each other...

Jeffers: A lot, a lot, yeah. We weren’t like, super close to our surrounding neighbors; we knew each other, but we all have different lifestyles. Like (pointing out different homes) they’re an older couple from Pennsylvania  retired here although they have a lot of energy. When I say older (I mean) in their fifties, you know he made his money and came down (to Miami). This guy’s a retired football player and he mostly stays home and his wife. These people are more like us; they have young kids. This couple here is an older retired couple. (Across street) These are young people who just moved in, (with) a young child about Jocelyn’s age. They just moved in like a week or two before the storm hit... the poor things. And they stayed, and they ended up (with) three adults holding the front door, to try and keep the storm out. They said it was quite harrowing. These people stayed as well, and they were... in shock for months, (before) they got going on their house (repairs). This guy stayed and filmed (the hurricane), he’s got some great film ...These people left  they were on vacation. And they’re more like us; they have a daughter Jocelyn’s age ...And then our good friends, the Williams, live in the white house down there, and they didn’t leave. And again, they’re like us  young, upstart family, kind of “yuppiebuppie” type thing. They (the Williams) helped us a lot, because our phone was out, and we didn’t know why. They had a phone (working); two houses down would not have a phone (working); it skipped around ...We found out that our telephone stuff had all blown off from the side (of the house); it was as if the tornado must have gone(sic) right between (our house and the neighbor’s house). We’re lucky (that) my husband’s car was in the garage  it wasn’t hit at all. He kind of wished it was, ‘cause it’s so old, but it wasn’t hit ...We really (didn’t) know how lucky we were, until later, to have had this garage survive. Because there’s a lot of stuff connected to the inside of your house in your garage. But all this stuff right here (on north wall of house)was blown off ...like something just barreled.

Paul: All this electrical equipment ...The closer (the winds) get to the wall, the stronger (they) get...

Jeffers: See that airconditioning unit (along the north wall)? Guess where we found that? We found it stretched all the way across here in front of the garage door (about 3040 feet) we couldn’t get the garage door up because of where it was. We could get it up, but we couldn’t get the car out, I mean. And (the air conditioning unit) is heavy; that thing took five men to move it, normally, but the storm moved as if it was ...nothing, a piece of dust.

(Back inside the house)

Jeffers: (Speaking about crime and looting). The crime that was the biggest worry. Because all the generators going at night  no one had an alarm system. We had a four thousand dollar alarm system of course, it was nothing after the storm. And there were reports constantly people coming through, saying, “Be on the alert; someone of them (the looters) we never saw in our life, and they were really to shoot somebody.” The (National Guardsmen) were (coming) through here, though, and we made friends with the Guards, so they would protect us. Most of the people stayed in their homes here in (this area). We were the only ones that weren’t here for a while. These are really tough people; they weren’t leaving. They put all this money into a house, and they weren’t (going to leave). And then you had the very, very affluent, who just went and stayed in another house they owned, or just couldn’t deal with (the hurricane) at all. My husband wanted to do that, and I said, “No, we have a daughter; we have to get back to a normal life for her, have her bus pick her up at her house ...and (we have) to oversee (all the repairs to the house)”... The people who are away aren’t getting as much done as we’re getting done, ‘cause they figure they’re out of the house (for a while). We had friends that (stayed in another house)  they’re both physicians and she was pregnant, so that’s why they stayed away and their house ...nothing (was repaired) because they didn’t live there. The fact that we live here (makes) the contractors more sympathetic, I find, and they want to do something. There’s a lot of thing they’ve done already, like hooking up the air to (the new addition), that they wouldn’t do if we weren’t living here... Like I was saying, (looting) was the biggest worry. And we’re not gun people, we don’t believe in (carrying guns). Because I had a young child, I never got a gun. I thought about it several times. Instead, we had the alarm system. I did borrow my friend’s rifle, because I was so afraid, but it would have been dangerous for me to use it. But, that maternal instinct in me (told me), “What if somebody got in, and we really couldn’t defend ourselves?” Even though my husband was here, what could he do against another gun? Or if we heard somebody outside...and it’s pitch black (at night), mind you, and all you hear are the generators. In fact, the fear was (of) people stealing your generator. So, (the next door neighbors) had theirs inside of an old car ...he actually put his generator in there. We couldn’t do that. So we just had it outside in the garage, and just hoped (no one would steal it). (The next door neighbors) had a big dog, a Doberman; we had (our dog) Jacques, so we figured he would alert us if something (happened). But this room, the family room, was the only room that was safe from the storm, and our master (bedroom)  that was it. Everything else was affected. This was the only window (on the north wall) left in our house. The front door was a solid wood door, and what held together that (sic) was the bolt. It was twisted like this ...but all the other doors were gone, except the garage door and this door, and like I said the front door was just hanging by the bolt. So our neighbors came in (after the hurricane)  they knew I had some Yadroves(?), statues they looked at those and said, “Those are valuable,” and took those (for safe keeping). They took our silverware and kept it at their house. Because they got here faster, ‘cause we were up in Kissimmee. We had other friends that had stopped by, and didn’t know where we were.

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