Interview with Margaret Sowell (Registered Nurse) conducted by Ginger Williams at Deering Hospital on November 18, 1992, Miami, FL. Hurricane Andrew - Roof trusses in tangled masses were common sight in area. Courtesy National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Adminstration Photo Library:

Williams:  "Before the Hurricane, when did you first realize that Hurricane Andrew might hit Miami?"

Sowell: "Well, Saturday morning I had gone over to Costco and I was shopping and everyone was going crazy getting batteries, flashlights,...and I thought "Well maybe we ought to stock up on these things," so we did; we started stocking up on batteries, flashlights, canned food and stuff like that. That's when I realized it was coming."

"Then a friend who was supposed to work with me that Saturday I worked, she called me at 4 o'clock in the morning from Wooley's.  She has already gone to Publix and Winn Dixie and she was at Wooley's and had been standing in line for 2 hours to get groceries." 

Williams: "What did you think it would be like before the storm (hit South Florida)?"

Sowell: "What did I think it would be like?...  I thought there would be heavy rains, loads of wind, but I didn't think there would be this much devastation."

Williams: "When did you find out that you would have to work the night of the storm?"

Sowell: "Well, that was my schedule. I knew I was working anyway."

Williams: "Oh really?  So you had already planned (to work)."

Sowell: "Yes."

Williams: "So, what preparations did you make prior to the storm?"

Sowell: "At home or at work?"

Williams: "Both."

Sowell: "Well at home as I said we stocked up. My husband and children they secured all of the windows and cleaned the bathtub, filled the bathtub with water, got everything out of the way that would fly around; and at work we went to work that night and they handed out flashlights and we had big bottles of clean water and tubs of water just in case we needed it for flushing toilets and stuff, we figured ya know, if worse came to worse we wouldn't have any water so we had all these huge garbage cans full of water."

Williams: "How did you feel about being away from your family and having to work?"

Sowell: "That was frustrating, but I knew that they were in good hands because I knew Bob was here (at home).  I mean if Bob hadn't been here (at home) then there's no way I could have worked. But I knew as long as he was here I could leave them in good hands." (note: Bob is her husband).

Williams: "So you felt pretty secure about it?"

Sowell: "Yeah.  And I felt that they needed me at work because I'm sure that everybody else was in the same position I was in."

Williams: "During the Hurricane what part of the hospital were you monitoring, during the beginning of the storm?"

Sowell: "I was in the I.S.U. Unit, that's an Immunology unit due west on the second floor, which is my regular unit anyway."

Williams: "Did you have to move during the storm?"

Sowell: "No, during the storm all the windows broke, the winds got up real bad and the windows were really rattling so we decided to bring all the patients out into the hall way.  So we brought them out into the hallway and locked all the doors so everyone was in the hallway."

Williams: "So how were the people in this section reacting towards what was happening during the first hour of the storm?"

Sowell: "Actually everybody really reacted well, I mean nobody panicked. Well, one mother panicked, but other than that everyone was fine. We just told the mother who panicked that she wasn't helping her son any that she needed to calm down."

Williams: "So was she visiting her son? Was she staying with him?"

Sowell: "Yeah, there was a lot of family visiting the patient and they were spending the night also.  Everyone had to be tagged with a name band."

Williams: "Really?"

Sowell: "Yes, including the people that were visiting."

Williams: "So you didn't have to move to a different part of the building during the storm other than the hallway?"

Sowell: "No."

Williams: "When did the hospital loose power?"

Sowell: "They lost power right after it (the storm) happened, probably around 4 o'clock (a.m.)."

Williams: "And the Generator?"

Sowell: "The generator blew up about half an hour after that."

"It didn't last very long. And we share a floor with psyche (the psychology unit), it's just one great big long hallway (the I.C.U. and the psyche unit is one great big long hallway). The ceiling caved in over there (in the psychology unit) and it was flooded, so they all had to move over to our side."

Williams: "Into your hallway?"

Sowell: "Yeah."

Williams: "And there was enough room for everybody?"

Sowell: "Well we were stepping over everybody, but we did the best we could do."

Williams: "Did you have someone with you during the hurricane, or was there one person in particular that was there? How many people were working with you?"

Sowell: "Well we had the Chargelors, and then their was Charles and Linda, she and I were the only two R.N.'s that were working, what they had done was the day people that had worked they stayed over.  There were three other R.N.'s that had spent the night and they were going to relieve us in the morning, but it got so bad that they got off at the end of 4 and everything had to work, I mean there was no way that anyone could sleep."

Williams: "So did anyone come in to relieve you at all?"

Sowell: "Well they were our relief, they were supposed to relieve us."

Williams: "So how were the staff members managing emotionally during the storm?"

Sowell: "Everyone was thinking about the patients. We were singing. I am sitting there singing "Shall We Gather by the River" as all the water was pouring in I said, "okay lets have a song." And after that I thought: "I don't think this is the song I should be singing."

Williams: "That's great!"

Sowell: "Yeah, nobody panicked, everybody was really good."

Williams: "So what were your thought or concerns during the hurricane?"

Sowell: "Just to make sure that nobody got injured and I was really worried about my family here because I knew how bad it was were we were and I live just behind the hospital.  So I was really thinking about my family."

Williams: "Is there any one event in particular that has stayed on your mind?"

Sowell: "The roof caving in. And we actually lost a patient.  Security had come up and locked all the doors because the wind was so hard and so ferocious that we couldn't close the doors so that actually had to be locked in order for them to stay closed. So we looked for a patient and somebody says,  "Well, he was here when the doors were locked."  So we searched the hospital high and low looking everywhere for this one patient and finally we decided to go ahead and go in the room and unlock it and lo and behold he was lying asleep in his room oblivious to everything that was going on."

Williams: "So he was okay?"

Sowell: "Yeah he was fine, he was in the bed asleep. He was one of the only patients that could walk, that was ambulatory, so he had got up and walked to his room and we had locked the door behind him not realizing that he was in there. And there was glass everywhere too."

Williams: "So the windows had blown out and he was oblivious to it?"

Sowell: "Yeah."

Williams: "And was he on any medication or anything?"

Sowell: "Well he was on his regular medication, but he just decided that he was going to go back in there and go to sleep. Because he had been sitting in a chair, his bed was still in there, we had tried to bring as much beds ( into the hallway) as we possibly could, and he was ambulatory, so he decided that he was going to go to bed."

Williams: "So after the hurricane how did you get home?"

Sowell: "It took a long time.  We had to evacuate all the patients first so we didn't leave the hospital until about 6 o'clock Monday night which was after the hurricane;  Bob had brought me here (to the hospital)  and so a friend was taking me home. When we went out to get in her car, a brand new 1993 car, she had it 2 weeks, it was demolished. This was Linda, the other R.N. that had worked with me. So she took me, her car was still driveable, but we had to...we couldn't go through any of the back roads because everything was blocked off, so we had to go out to U.S. 1 go out to 144th street and then back track.  But everything was on the road; electrical wires, water and everything, and we were really scared because we thought:  "Well we survived the hurricane and everything just to be electrocuted." 

Williams: "So the conditions, what were they like in your home and in your neighborhood?"

Sowell: "Oh, bad!  It took us about an hour to drive what would be a 5 minute drive. It took us about an hour to get home. I mean, we had to go out and move some bushes and branches off the road, it was just horrendous.  There were trees down everywhere. Of course, the house, it was..., I mean Bob and the kids they had cleaned it up, but it was still terrible, it was awful."

Williams: "So, when was the next time that you had to report to work?"

Sowell: "Well, the hospital was demolished so we couldn't report to work their. It was almost 2 weeks later when they had moved all the patients to were they were going to move them and they ended up moving them to Miami Beach Community Hospital.  Most of my patients from the Immunology floor were moved there."

Williams:  "What kind of help did you receive after the Hurricane?"

Sowell: "We really didn't need any help. We were wet in here (in the house) but we were fine, there were people a lot worse then we were."

Williams: "So what kind of help did you provide to others?"

Sowell: "We helped chop down trees, we had a gas saw so we helped the neighbors chop down trees, we lent a neighbor one of our gas grills we just took water and food to neighbors.  We have a neighbor that has 20 kids, so we went over there and took some ice."

Williams: "Oh, Those are the Down Syndrome Kids."

Sowell: "Yeah, the Geraldi's. Actually they had moved. It was funny because I was taking ice over to her house and she had evacuated all the children and I didn't know it.  So she said, "Hey Margaret, come back here," so instead of me giving her ice, I ended up getting loaves of bread and it was wonderful. My next door neighbors, they were cooking everything in their freezer and they invited us over to dinner and we had a gas lighted dinner.  They were trying to get rid of everything."

Williams: "So, did you have to provide medical assistance to anyone during clean up?"

Sowell: "No, the amazing thing was that not many people were injured during the hurricane, I think that most of the injuries came after the hurricane when people had gas stoves and whatever."

Williams: "So, when you went back to work, what was different about the people you worked with after the storm as compared with before the storm?"

Sowell: "The comradery was much better, we were closer because everybody pulled together during the storm and they were wonderful, nobody panicked, everybody did there job, it was fantastic." 

Williams: "What kind of effect has the Hurricane had on your daily life?"

Sowell: "I don't seem to have any time anymore for anything. It takes me and hour to an hour and a half to get to work at night and it takes me about an hour to get home in the morning and Bob has to work in Plantation so it takes him an hour to get home, so I never get to see him coming or going. When I work at night then he's gone in the morning when I get home, and I'm gone at night when he gets home. So it's drastic."

Williams: "Has the hurricane significantly changed your plans for the future?"

Sowell: "No I don't think really. I think it's made us realize that life is more precious then we thought and that we really should take things seriously when we see there is a hurricane coming."

Williams: "Were there any injuries that we a direct result of the storm that you recall? Like from patients at the hospital?"

Sowell: "No, all I remember is one or two people had come into the Emergency Room while we were looking for the patient that was lost.  One patient was dead on arrival, it was a young guy.  I remember the wife was really screaming.  I went to see if I could help and some of the nurses said, no she was fine.  She had brought her husband and not knowing that he was dead. He was dead on arrival." 

Williams: "Really?  Do you know what happened?"

Sowell: "All I know is somebody said that he had been out right after the storm and a piece of glass fell and really caught him and sliced his head."

Williams: "What was the other injury?"

Sowell: "No, somebody had told me there had been two injuries, I don't know what the second one was."

Williams: "So that was the only death that you can recall as a direct result of the hurricane.  Now can you describe some ways that the Hospital has contributed to rebuilding the community?"

Sowell: "As far as nursed go, if we need to go to the urgent care, they don't charge us and the doctor's just take what they can get from the insurance companies, which is nice.  We opened a brand new urgent care center down in Homestead which I think will stay there for good, which is great. A lot of nurses went out in the community and helped in the shelters and different things. The hospital has offered clothes, food, I mean this was back in the beginning if anyone needed these things they would definitely supply it."

Williams: "If there was any damage to the hospital can you describe how this affected the staff?  Like being relocated."

Sowell: "Oh yes, everybody is really frustrated, and not everybody has cars anymore. I'm sure that we are going to lose a lot of people."

Williams: "Are you having to work extra hours?"

Sowell: "No, I don't have to work extra hours but it is a long day."

Williams: "What were some of the things that the staff did to manage the move and the inconvenience of relocating?"

Sowell: "Well they put a van on so that we could all commute together.  That was definitely needed because I couldn't have driven everyday to Miami Beach.  Deering had a clean up crew and Deering fed them lunch everyday. In fact, they fed them, as far as I know, until today which was the cut off day. They decided that they had good refrigerators put in the building so you could bring your own and put them in the refrigerator.  But the building is demolished, I mean, they've really...there's an awful lot of work. They are saying that we may have to stay at Miami Beach until maybe June."

Williams: "So they still haven't fixed the hospital?"

Sowell: "They are in the process right now of fixing it, but it is going to take a long time.  There are different phases.  They day that phase one will be open in April, so some of the patients will go back into the hospital, but our patients I don't think will go back in until probably June."

Williams: "Our there any positive outcomes that you have seen as a result of the Hurricane?"

Sowell: "Basically the staff seems to get along better.  Not that they fought or anything, but, they just don't take things for granted as much anymore as they use to, and I think that everybody really appreciates what we all did and how we all stood up for each other and supported each other. Yeah, I think that is definitely a positive outlook." 

Williams: "I remember once that you told me about the time you gave a woman $100 dollars. Can you tell me about this?"

Sowell: "A week after the Hurricane we all had a mandatory meeting over in... Actually, I'm sorry, I think it was the Thursday after the Hurricane I think."  "Over at Kendall Regional Hospital because that is one of the sister Hospital's to Deering, and we hadn't seen anybody since the hurricane other than the people who had worked that night, so we were all hugging and kissing and crying and asking everyone how they were.  One of the nurses said that she had lost everything, I mean everything had been demolished. So as I was leaving I asked her, ...I knew how difficult it was because you couldn't get to the tellers, you couldn't get money out of the bank, or anything. I was really fortunate because I had been saving and stashing $20 dollars every so often and saving for Christmas,  so I had some money. Not a whole bunch, but I had some money. Anyway, so when she said that everything she had was just devastated, I gave her $100 and she was really, really thankful. Later on she said to me she thought is was $20 she had looked and looked for someplace where she could get some money but she couldn't get money and then when she realized that it was $100, she said:  "You have no idea just how you made me feel knowing that I had some money to go and buy some food."  But the funny thing is that we got a letter from a friend in Illinios, actually he lives in St. Louis, in Missourri, and they had sent us $100 dollars.  So what we did we would take the $100 and give it to somebody that really needed it and after that when this particular girl, she was off work for about a month, when she came back she gave me the $100 dollars back." 

Williams: "Is there anything else that you can tell us that you haven't already asked you?"

Sowell: "Well in the beginning, before the hurricane, they had transferred, or evacuated patients from Miami Beach Community Hospital to our Hospital because they thought Miami Beach Hospital would be hit bad.  As it turned out we had all these evacuated patients at Deering and Miami Beach wasn't touched. So then in the morning after everything calmed down we had to evacuate all those patients back (to Miami Beach) as well as ours." 

Williams: "That's something I hadn't heard."

Sowell: "Yes, and I would have hated to be on the receiving end because those nurses must have worked, you know getting those patients after we had put them on buses and stuff, but we had to carry them downstairs, nothing worked. It was unreal. We got real close. We had to go in the medication room and use the bed pans ourselves.  Everybody did.  People had to use bed pans in the hallway, we tried to cover them best we could with a towel for privacy.  It was unreal.  The thing was we couldn't get to the clean water or the dirty water because it was locked in one of the rooms."

Williams: "This was during the Hurricane?"

Sowell: "Yes. So everybody, I mean all we had was the flashlight, there was no air conditioning, no water, no lights, nothing. It was unreal. We were stepping over patients, I mean we were still using the toilet, I mean, what else could we do? And psyche patients, as I said were over beside us too, and they were fantastic, I was absolutely amazed.  You know we had wondered if maybe they had pre-medicated the patients because of this, but they said no.  But every single one of them was fantastic. And throughout this whole thing the whole hospital, I mean I wish you could have seen it, it was unbelievable, they had holes in the wall in the intensive care unit, everything failed, and they were bagging patients for hours and hours and hours-the patients that had been on ventilators, they had to do it manually, they sat there for hours just bagging these patients."

Williams: "And they survived?"

Sowell: "Yeah, we did not loose one single patient and not one single patient was injured."

Williams: "That's fantastic, that really is."

Sowell: "Yeah, and they had patients, that were critical in both I.C.U. and some of our patients were critical, and not one single patient was injured."

Williams: "That's a history in itself."

Sowell: "But we had floods, I mean, we had floods everywhere."

Williams: "On all the floors?"

Sowell: "On the second floor, oh yeah, I had gone down to the kitchen to try and get some drinks for the patients because there was no food.  They had went the whole day without food. Nobody had any food."

Williams: "They didn't have any canned food stored at the hospital?"

Sowell: "Well they may have, but we didn't eat, I mean, but we didn't eat.  There were no can openers or anything because there was still no electricity.  There was nothing."

Williams: "So they really didn't expect for the generator to go out."

Sowell: "No they didn't, but they did come around and give everybody flashlights, I don't know what we would have done without them. I went down (to the kitchen) to get at least some juice for the patients, the water was pouring down in the kitchen too. The ceiling was sagging real bad.  And...says "you need to stay out of here it's going to go in a second." I said, "Well you need to get out of here too." I took some juice up to the patients, at least they had some juice.  Nobody complained.  Not one single person says, "I'm hungry you didn't feed me." It was unreal. It was fantastic."