Rosetta Richmond sat safely in Chicago as Hurricane Andrew roared through Miami and swirled toward the Gulf of Mexico. But her safety was little solace. Richmond didn`t know if her 18-year-old daughter, Toby, was unharmed as well. Her daughter was attending Florida Memorial College in Miami when Andrew`s 140-m.p.h. winds struck south Florida early Monday.
”She was my only child, and I thought I was going to die,” Richmond said, breaking into gentle sobs over the phone on Tuesday.
Like hundreds of other Chicago-area residents cut off from loved ones in the path of the hurricane, Richmond turned to the Salvation Army and its network of 400 local ham radio operators for help. They located her daughter Tuesday morning. She was safe.
”They helped me so much,” Richmond said. ”When I talked to Toby at 10 in the morning, I was really happy.”
With Andrew having swept past Florida and headed for the Louisiana coast, ham operators were helping about 500 Chicago-area residents find friends and family.
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And while its first priority was to care for victims, the local American Red Cross had fielded nearly 1,000 calls from concerned residents. As soon as Florida officials lift the moratorium on the area, Red Cross volunteers will begin hunting for the unaccounted people.
”We`re asking people in the Miami area to call their friends and relatives and let them know they`re OK,” said Laurie Shaltiel, a spokeswoman for the American Red Cross in Chicago. ”We`ve had a steady stream of calls since the hurricane hit Monday morning.”
Jim Crane, a firefighter for the Gurnee Fire Department in Lake County, finally talked to his uncle, aunt and cousins Tuesday afternoon, after more than 24 hours of uncertainty. His uncle`s family lived on the Homestead Air Force base, which was wiped out by Andrew.
”They don`t know if their house is standing,” Crane said. ”My uncle said the base is pretty much leveled. They`re in good spirits, but not knowing if they have a house to go to, you can tell it bothers them a lot. My uncle said that money can`t replace everything.”
Morton Grove resident John Hilkin heard good news Tuesday afternoon. President of a condominium association in Marathon, Fla., Hilkin had last spoken to the condo manager and the manager`s wife Sunday night.
They ”tried to get out Sunday morning, but the roads were so jammed in the (Florida) Keys that they couldn`t, so they just turned back,” Hilkin said. ”They called and said they were going to hold up in a closet in one of the apartments in the far end of the building, away from the direction of Hurricane Andrew.”
On Tuesday afternoon, Hilkin got a call from a ham radio operator who had reached another operator in Marathon. ”Everyone is safe and secure, and there is no damage down there,” Hilkin said.
Help came from people like Pat Duce, amateur radio liaison officer for the Salvation Army Team Emergency Radio Net. Duce herself has sent about 150 messages to Florida from concerned Chicago-area residents.
Hams, as they`re called, do it for free and with little recognition. But they don`t mind.
”He`s not doing it for the kudos,” said Duce, whose call letters are WZ9H. ”He`s doing it because he wants to be of service when people are in need.”
Other organizations are establishing relief efforts as well. Maine Township, for instance, is collecting non-perishable food and clothing at its Town Hall, 1700 Ballard Rd., in Park Ridge. Two trucking companies have offered to ship the goods for free to relief sites, said township supervisor Joan Hall.
Meanwhile, Hurricane Andrew was making a mess out of people`s travel plans.
At O`Hare International Airport, a heap of hurricane refugees languished at ticket counters.
With Miami International closed, Bob and Amy Milewski of Joliet said they were looking at a long day in O`Hare rather than a day on Grand Cayman Island. ”We`re hoping we can leave by tomorrow,” Bob Milewski said. The flight to Grand Cayman was supposed to go through Miami.
A Florida family vainly tried to fly to South Florida on Tuesday to check on damage to their home south of Miami in Cutler Ridge, where the hurricane`s fury was felt.
”We have no idea whether we have a house anymore,” said Carla Wise, 36, who was vacationing with her family in Italy when they learned about Hurricane Andrew. Word reached them at dinner when someone asked Wise where she is from. ”Somebody said there was going to be a hurricane,” said her husband, Winslow, 31, ”and we thought they were joking.”
Travel options to Gulf Coast states diminished Tuesday as Hurricane Andrew menaced the region.
As of late Tuesday afternoon, American, United and Northwest airlines were among those that had canceled service from Chicago to New Orleans International Airport, said Lisa Howard, spokeswoman for the Chicago Department of Transportation.
”They`re trying to move those aircraft out of New Orleans in case it is hit,” Howard said.