Friendships were formed, bonds were made that will never be broken. The face of South Florida will never be the same. I managed not to be home for Andrew—the storm struck in late August and my family and I were on our way home after the summer vacation. Early Saturday morning, I had spoken with my mother and we knew there was a storm out there, a small one at that time, and perhaps heading anywhere from the Keys to the Carolinas. Andrew grew to intensity with amazing swiftness—and aimed directly at Dade County. We came into our Virginia hotel room that night just in time to learn that our home might well be demolished. From our distance, we had electricity and television, and painful, terrible glimpses of what was going on. The morning was a horror as we tried to get through on the phone to family and friends; we were frantic just to see if they had all made it okay. We were lucky; we were able to get through and find out that our family and close friends were all right, just dazed and stunned, and trying to pick up some of the pieces.
