HURRICANE SURVIVORS `LUCKY' DESPITE LOSSES

Florida residents coped with heat and crime after a devastating storm.

Imagine working all day in the yard in 95-degree heat. You're tired, hungry and sweaty. You walk into your house and open the refrigerator. But instead of a cold blast, there is just more heat.

This scene was repeated every day for three weeks for 13-year-old David and 9-year-old Diana Rosenthal, residents of southern Miami, after Hurricane Andrew plowed through their neighborhood Aug. 24.

While their house sustained only minor damage, they lost all the trees in their yard and were without water and electricity for three weeks.

No air conditioning or city water

"Without power for three weeks, that's kind of tough," David said in a recent telephone interview with Children's Express. "There was no air conditioning in 95-degree weather every day. It was very, very warm."

"But even worse than that was the fact that we don't have city water, so we couldn't take showers," added Diana.

Although they were not located in an evacuation zone, they had their doubts that their house would remain standing as the hurricane passed over.

"During the hurricane, it's just so frightening, because you're not sure what's going on, what's falling, what's cracking," said Diana, who hid in a closet with her mother, sister and two brothers. Strangely, she and David fell asleep during the storm.

"I woke up, and I looked around me, and I kind of said, `Where am I?' . . . I looked out and I couldn't recognize my own street _ there were trees lying on the street," she said.

"I was really worried because some of my friends live near the water," she explained. "Some of my teachers and people from school live in places that looked like they were really going to get hit."

And they did.

More cautious next time

"Some people in my school came out of their closets, and like, all of their rooms were gone. Like all their possessions, their beds, the windows," David said.

The Rosenthals stayed home because they don't live near the ocean and thought they would be safe. But they would be more cautious next time.

"I think that most people _ even if it was just maybe a (less severe) hurricane or maybe even just a tropical storm . . . would just pick up their things and leave," Diana said.

Although the houses in their neighborhood were not damaged much, debris littered their area.

"In our neighborhood there are many streets and houses that you can't recognize anymore because of the trash in the yards," said David. "My mom drives by our yard because she can't recognize the yard with all the stuff in front of it.

"I can't stress how lucky we are. You have to live here to really understand," he added.

People surviving the storm with few losses had other hardships. Many homes in the Rosenthals' neighborhood were burglarized.

"The looters would come if they didn't see a light on. They knew that there was no electricity, you wouldn't have an alarm system working," Diana said. "They'd just come in, pick whatever they wanted, and leave.

"So we had to get people patrolling when they took off the curfew."

Looking for thieves

In addition, police brought in Army vehicles and patrolled the area in helicopters to keep thieves away, David said.

Looting was a problem all over southern Florida. The kids knew of families that had been robbed and said some nearby residents were guarding their houses with guns and pit bull terriers.

"It's really disturbing to see a little 8-year-old girl on (television) with a shotgun in her hand (standing) next to a sign that says, `If you're a-lootin', we're a-shootin.' Have a nice day,' " said Diana.