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Where's the cavalry?
by Robert A. Waters
August 21, 2002
KeepAndBearArms.com -- Ten years
ago, in the early morning of August 24, 1992, Hurricane
Andrew howled into south Florida. Wind gusts were measured at 175 miles per
hour--then the measuring instruments were blown away. The storm scored a direct
hit on Homestead and Florida City, demolishing 25,000 homes and damaging another
100,000. Homestead Air Force Base was obliterated and never rebuilt. 700,000
people evacuated. Many just kept going since there was nothing to return to.
But others were determined to save what was left of their homes and property.
George Brown, a veteran, had never seen anything like it. But at least a shell
was left of what used to be his home. He and his family, isolated from the
outside world, began to gather their few remaining possessions. They placed
their goods inside the roofless, windowless walls of their home and determined
to survive until help came.
Marjorie Barber returned to her demolished home in the Goldcoaster Mobile Home
RV Park. The entire park had been leveled. She enlisted the aid of her brother
and set up a tent above the rubble. They salvaged what few possessions they
could find, eating very little and drinking poison-tasting water. Little did
they know that they would stay there for weeks, waiting for assistance.
Hastily assembled emergency crews were unable to cope with the destruction. An
exasperated Kate Hale, the Dade County Emergency Management Director, called a
news conference that was carried on national television. "Where the hell's
the cavalry on this one?" she asked. Her outrage at the slow response of
the Federal government to aid the victims was the catalyst to finally get things
moving.
But it still took weeks, sometimes even months, for assistance to reach into the
wasteland that was now south Florida. Those who wished to save their property
and belongings were on their own.
Like vultures, the looters came. They moved from wrecked house to wrecked house,
stealing anything of value. In some cases, the thieves turned violent,
assaulting those who attempted to stop them.
But in many other instances, they met armed homeowners.
George Brown kept his trusty shotgun handy. According to a recent article in the
St. Petersburg Times, "when Brown spotted some thieves, he chased them away
at gunpoint. 'They didn't want to talk to Mr. Twelve Gauge,' he said."
Marjorie Barber and her brother developed an impromptu strategy for safeguarding
the few possessions left on their property. One slept while the other stayed
awake, always with a gun at the ready. In fact, Marjorie Barber became a symbol
of the survivors when a photograph of the gritty homeowner holding her shotgun
was published in hundreds of newspapers and magazines. Eventually, National
Geographic documented the strong-willed determination of the survivors by
publishing the photograph.
Barber remembers one night when looters dropped by. She threatened to shoot them
and they fled. "It gets to the point," she said, "when you've had
everything taken away from you already, and then somebody comes in...and they
want to take from you what little you have left, it brings out an instinct in
you that you don't even know is there."
It was a scene that played itself out over and over. Many moved into tent cities
for protection. The "cities" were patrolled and guarded by citizens
with guns. In some instances, people remained there for months until the
National Guard finally took control.
What would have happened to the survivors had they not had guns?
Picture September 11 on a city-wide scale.
Civilization makes no guarantees.
Liberty City. Watts. The Rodney King riots. The images burn in our minds. Gutted
buildings, flames rising hundreds of feet in the air, automobiles shattered and
overturned like toy cars. And on those same streets, roaming bands of thugs
brutally beating and killing the unprotected.
Ten years ago, in Dade County, Americans saw first-hand the fragility of order.
Anyone who would disarm us would leave victims defenseless in the face of
another such disaster.
Robert A. Waters' new book, Gun
Save Lives: True Stories of Americans Defending Their Lives with Firearms,
is available at http://www.robertwaters.net
or through your local book store. Other articles from Mr. Waters can be read in
his archives here: http://www.KeepAndBearArms.com/Waters.
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