ABSTRACT
In the fall of 1989, Jeannie Smith saw her house destroyed when Hurricane Hugo smashed the Caribbean island of St. Thomas. With her belongings and job gone, she migrated to Miami with her two children to "start a new life," as she put it. When I met Jeannie in 1992, her home had again been destroyed in a hurricane. She was living in a tent city in Homestead, Florida, one of the numerous victims of Hurricane Andrew. Outside, the harsh South Florida sun beat down on the tent relentlessly. Inside, the heat and humidity cause Jeannie to wipe the sweat constantly from her brow. What belongings she had managed to salvage fit under the three cots allocated to her and her children. In their corner of the tent, plastic containers of water, a Styrofoam cooler, and an empty suitcase sat on the plywood floor. Not flinching from the ruckus of a military helicopter landing nearby, Jeannie's eyes focused on some point in the distance as she wondered out loud: "What do I do now?"
