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Suzanne Schorle was employed with the University of Miami as a secretary of the Teaching and Learning Department. As a result of Hurricane Andrew, she and her husband have decided to move out of South Florida and back to Pennsylvania.
Monreal: When did you first realize the hurricane might hit Miami? Schorle: Saturday afternoon around 6:00 p.m. Monreal: What were your first reactions in relation with your family and your job at the University of Miami? Schorle: I had no reaction regarding my job because it was on a Saturday, and I wasn’t really thinking work. And this is my first hurricane, and I didn’t really know what to expect. In terms of my family, it was just my husband and myself at the time. My children were in Pennsylvaniaor our children were in Pennsylvania, and basically we left. We were down in the Keys at a Teaching and Learning Departmental party. I guess it was a School of Education party, and we just decided “we better get going” cause we’d have to get up early the next morning and start boarding up, and I also wanted to see if I could stop at a food store and get supplies, which I tried but I didn’t stay because the lines were so long. Monreal: I even don’t want to think about it. I remember. Did you expect anything or what did you expect from the hurricane before it hit once you heard about it? Schorle: I didn’t know what to expect. I figured it would be a lot of rain. Monreal: What did the University of Miami do in preparation for the hurricane or do you not know? Schorle: Em hm. I’m a secretary here so a lot of the information memorandums and things like that that come through, I always read them, and the week before the hurricane hit they have a policy and procedure manual, and they policy and procedures for the hurricane. You know, what every department is supposed to do that’s in charge of the students, like residential hall, cafeteria, maintenance. And the most current issue of that policy and procedure manual was issued and distributed. So I read it! And it talked about how it would take care of the students, and you know every job function that needed to be addressed and secure. Monreal: I know that students were supposed to move in that Sunday because I was supposed to be here, but were students on campus during that week? Schorle: Yes. Monreal: Um, let’s see. I don’t know if this is being redundant, but what were your concerns or thoughts during the hurricane? Oh, we don’t get to that yet. Hold on. We’ll get to that once the hurricane hits. OK. I’m backtracking a bit. When did you first move to South Florida? Schorle: Three years ago in June 1989. Monreal: What made you decide to move here? Schorle: My husband’s job. Monreal: So basically was it a new job he received? Schorle: Em hm. Monreal: What were your concerns about this location? Were hurricanes a major concern when you did move here? Schorle: I didn’t even know about hurricanes, until August when Hurricane Hugo was almost coming down. Oh, I know what made me aware of them. Publix bags, you know that stores have all the information, and I looked it, and I thought “What is this? What do you mean hurricanes?” Then they put the material inside the bag about how to track a hurricane and what you should do, and I brought it home and I looked at it and said (laughing) “What is this talking about?” Monreal: Did I ask you where did you move from? Schorle: Pennsylvania. Monreal: From Pennsylvania, so your kids are still up there? Monreal: Did you mind moving here or was it a decision you really didn’t want to do or want to make? Schorle: It was a, it was going out on a limb for us. Monreal: Where were you during the hurricane? Schorle: I was in Winter Haven, Florida in the parking lot of the Denny’s, and we slept in our car. Monreal: Was it because you were on your way back from the Keys and you hadn’t made it home in time? Schorle: Oh no. The Keys was on Saturday. This was Sunday night. We evacuated at 6:30 in the evening. There were no hotels to be found. Monreal: Who was with you during the hurricane? Just you and your husband? Schorle: Em hm. So were weren’t here for the hurricane, and in Winter Haven there wasn’t a hurricane. Monreal: What happened to you during the hurricane, if anything did happen? Since you weren’t here, I guess I can ask what did you do while the hurricane was down here? Did you keep track of it, did you listen to the radio, or did you just try to avoid it? Schorle: Well we read; we listened to the radio. At about 3:30 in the morning, we stopped at a Best Western, and they had a big television set in the lobby, and we listened to it. And it was, you know it said it would be approaching by daybreak, and that’s when we decided we couldn’t go any further. And we went to a Denny’s, and we had breakfast at about four. That’s when it was starting to hit Miami. And then we had breakfast, and then we just crashed in the car because we couldn’t drive any further, and we were too tired to go anywhere. Monreal: How would you describe your emotional status during the hurricane since you weren’t down here? Schorle: My emotional status? Monreal: Yeah. Were you nervous? Were you worried? Were you apathetic, I’m sure you weren’t. Schorle: Let me think for a second. (pauses) Anxious. Monreal: You were anxious for it to be over. Schorle: No, I was anxious in terms of concern of the damage it would do. And I prayed a lot. (pause) As a matter of fact, I prayed one thing. And that was I prayed for my neighbors, for the safety of my neighbors that stayed in the neighborhood. And I prayed that our house stayed intact. Monreal: What did you do right after the hurricane? Schorle: We drove east to West Palm Beach. Monreal: And why is that? Schorle: We checked into a hotel because we were exhausted, and we watched the news. Monreal: So that was Monday, early Monday morning for you or early afternoon? Schorle: Monday morning by like 10:00, and we couldn’t get a room until two so we stayed in the lobby watching the news. Monreal: Right after the hurricane, I’m not sure if you can pinpoint this, but what was the first thing you thought about? Schorle: Well, you know I wasn’t here during it. But I can only say that again, my house and the safety of my neighbors. And particularly, I had one elderly neighbor who was like 80, and I was praying for him because he stayed, and he was by himself. Monreal: What was your first week like after the hurricane? I guess you could go on from that Monday through the end of the week. What exactly did you do? Did you stay in West Palm for awhile? Schorle: No. First of all I was in shock when I came back and I saw the damage. We were in shock. Monreal: When was that? Schorle: Tuesday morning...Oh, and our house was intact. Monreal: It was? What city do you live in? Schorle: Perrine. Monreal: Did you return to UM within that first week or were they were closed? Schorle: They were closed I guess. I don’t really know. My job was not on my mind to tell you the truth. It was my family and my home, and um, they had told us we wouldn’t have to be back until a certain date because of the damage that had been brought about. Monreal: That first week that you got back then from West Palm, let me ask you this question. Since your house was intact, did you receive any help with anything? Schorle: In terms of what? Monreal: In terms of damage or in terms of, well I guess you weren’t Schorle: You mean financially? Monreal: Financially or maybe even emotionally. Did you have Schorle: Em hm. My husband’s parents and brother and sister were down from Pennsylvania to help us. Monreal: Did you provide help to others? If yes, please describe. Schorle: We cooked for the neighbors. We had a barbecue, so we cooked meals. And I made lunches. And we had, even if was peanut butter and jelly, everybody would bring their own water. I didn’t have a lot of that. Monreal: How were your neighbors compared to your house and your situation? Were they pretty much as lucky as you were? Schorle: No. My house was intact, and when I first opened the door, it looked like we were fine. But all the wooden floors were buckled like this, and then everyday we found more. You know we found that the walls were wet, the ceiling was wet, it started turning moldy. And we went into our spare bedroom to get, to get something, and I moved one of the cushions from our outside patio furniture that I had put in there, because you know we had prepared for the storm and barricaded and brought everything in. And I went to move it, and it was heavy. So then I realized it was wet there, too. So that entire area was wet. I think everybody just felt overwhelmed with the destruction; with the uncertainty of how long it would take to get electricity. Most of us didn’t know that much about insurance, so what was covered and what wasn’t. It was just pretty overwhelming. Monreal: When did you get your electricity back? Schorle: Two weeks later. Monreal: So were you basically with no electricity, did you have a generator? Schorle: We didn’t get a generator. But we only stayed there for a week. And then, my husband made the decision, immediately he contacted his father and said find a moving truck, send it to us, and we started packing. And we got boxes from another neighbor who had a packnship store, and we went to his store and took his boxes, and bought them. And then we packed it home. And within a week, the moving truck came, and we loaded everything into the moving truck, the entire house. Then we shipped it to Pennsylvania, because that’s where we knew people, that’s where we had support, and we didn’t know anybody to ship it to in North Florida or Tennessee. You know what I mean a storage place, and we knew we could ship it to Pennsylvania, and we knew it because we had been there before and we had in the town that we were in, and our children were there. And we made the decision not to bring them back because we didn’t know about school or anything else. So it would be better to have their possessions with them, and we got a big tractor trailer, just the trailer end of it, and we put that in the back of my parent’s farm and we had them unload the moving truck, all our possessions from the moving truck, into the trailer. Monreal: What major decisions have you made as a result of the hurricane in relation to your home, which we just went over, um work, and your family? Schorle: Well, a week after the storm hit, the company my husband was working for folded in terms of went on the verge of bankruptcy. I think it’s still in business, but there limping. There’s an employee, and that’s the president. Um, so we were prepared for that because we knew that was coming, but we did not know how long it would take for my husbandwe were prepared in the sense that he knew it was coming, and he was prepared to start his own company in our house. But when that happened, and we didn’t have a house as well because of the damage, he didn’t want tohe couldn’t work there. So we made the decision to take his computer and printer and all the things that he would need up to Pennsylvania as well. And he would work out of my parents home, and he’d be with the children. And he had contacts up there as well. And we would rebuild and come back because we were happy down here. But what he found out was that he’d be better off staying in Pennsylvania and not being down here. So that’s when we decided to sell the house. Monreal: How old are your children? Schorle: Ten and thirteen. Monreal: Oh so they’re still young. Are they staying with your parents? Schorle: Em hm. Monreal: What are the consequences of your decision to leave South Florida? What are the major consequences? Schorle: I have to leave my job. And I have to leave the sunshine. Monreal: Do you like the weather down here better than you like the weather in Pennsylvania? Schorle: Em hm. Monreal: If there are any, what are the positive outcomes that you have seen as a result of the hurricane? Schorle: Well I think thatlet me think about that. You might want to put that(the recorder) on hold while I think......Um, construction in South Florida will be better because of the hurricane. Building codes. I think the use of the military in assisting the devastated area, that was positive. I have always seen our forces in terms of national security and war. I had never seen them here to help us. And that was very encouraging. I think that all people that experienced rebuilding South Dade and experienced some form of damage have all bonded. You know, everybody has that common hurt that has made people able to relate to one another better because they’re going through the same reconstruction process. As a matter of fact, I think I saw a Tshirt that I just loved that says, “I survived Hurricane Andrew, but the rebuilding is killing me.” So I think those are positive forces. I think the hurricane brought out the best in people and the worst. And don’t feel you can through something like that as an adult or a child and not have a different outlook on lifeon its, um, how fragile it is; how temporary it is; and perhaps have difference in your priorities. Exactly what’s important and what isn’t. Monreal: Do you have any additional comments or feelings? I mean would like to sum up everything? I think why you’re such a good focus for my interview is basically because something like Hurricane Andrew, I would think or I don’t know if this is true, basically caused you to move out of South Florida. Schorle: Well in the paper it said that, in the newspaper USA Today yesterday it said that um, 20% of the people who were damaged by Andrew will be moving. Monreal: To a different state? Schorle: No, they’re moving. They had a figure on how many were moving to North Dade and Broward. But they said that only 80% will remain. Monreal: I don’t blame them. I don’t know if they’re trying to get away from the just the whole situation down here, or if they’re trying to prevent any future hurricanes, because you never know where it’s going to hit. I thoughtI lived up in Broward, and I thought it was going to hit us. I was terrified that entire night. Absolutely terrified. But, thank God we came through all right, and then you come down here and you just don’t think it’s fair that way. Schorle: Well I think a lot of times, people wenttheir reason for moving is that some families can’t take that devastation and don't want to have to cope with the rebuilding process. I mean you have builders in life. Some people are builders and some aren’t. I’ve wondered that myself. “Well what I am?” I really don’t particularly care for the cleanup, but we have rebuild our home. We did not sell it as is. We are in the process and are almost finished rebuilding it. That were notwe don’t have to put up with any of the ramifications of staying and dealing with the community as it rebuilds, and all the small businesses. Monreal: Which will take years. Schorle: They say until the turn of the century. Monreal: So your husband will still be working for the same company, but just up there? Schorle: Oh no. He started his own company. So I look at the hurricane as a final chapter I guess in my life in Miami. Um, seeing if I had to make the choice of whether or not to come here three years ago if I knew of a hurricane. Course naturally I wouldn’t come”Oh, we’re going to have a hurricane, well forget it!”I did not regret the move at all. I think Miami is a big city with a big heart, and there are lots of problems in it. But there are also lots of good points and people. You know, I really have come to love Miami. Monreal: Do you plan on coming back to visit? Schorle: I hope to. I hope to. Monreal: Have you lived in Pennsylvania most of your life before you moved here? Schorle: All.
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