Peter Deutsch: “18 months ago Hurricane Andrew devastated south Florida. Up to that time it was the largest disaster in our Nation's and…”

“18 months ago Hurricane Andrew devastated south Florida. Up to that time it was the largest disaster in our Nation's and probably the world's history. Many residents went through a living hell, and many residents are still going through that same crisis in their lives. The Federal, State, and local governments should be there to solve problems, not to create them. I want to thank my colleagues who were in this Chamber before I arrived who did such a great deal to help solve some of the problems that south Florida experienced during that period of time. FEMA, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, has done both good and actually some really awful bad things in its work in south Florida. There are some residents who are still going through a type of living hell. Residents of Royal Harbor Yacht Club in south Dade County are amongst those people. These are people who had built their homes that were totally devastated in the hurricane, in almost the eye of the storm, and then rebuilt their homes after getting the proper permits, and now have been told by FEMA that they should destroy the homes after they were properly permitted.”