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The Coolest Labels Locations

Homestead, FL post-Hurricane Andrew 

  • Locations: Derringer Home, Tent City, Homestead

    • Note: this was Ground zero of the worst storm (at the time) to make landfall in US history

    • Johnette and her family lived here in a single-family home that somehow survived when so many others were torn to shreds.

    • As a story progresses and we’re about 40 days or so removed from the storm, this area was still destroyed.

      • Trash heaps of debris lined the streets. 

      • Separate piles of tree limbs and brush were everywhere.

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MORE on Hurricane Andrew by the Miami Herald

The pics in the gallery below were taken from the book The Big One.

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Click on any image to expand it and read a short description.

Tent City at Harris Field  

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    • Located in the heart of Homestead, FL

    • This was a HS football stadium converted into a Tent City by the US army

    • The idea is that it was once a place of community pride, now it’s a home for  people with nowhere else to go

The pics in the gallery below were taken from the book The Big One.

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Click on any image to expand it and read a short description.

Root High (based on Miami Palmetto High School)​

    • Miami Palmetto Senior High is the real school on SW 117 Street on which Root High is based—has indoor/outdoor halls)

    • The school is in South Dade County in an area north of Homestead affected but not devastated by the storm

    • Homes in this area were nice in 1992 (more upscale than rural/working-class Homestead)

    • By the time we get here in our story, it’s possible to see trees with braces (indicating they were uprooted but savable)

    • The key to Root is its parking lot

    • HERE is an article about the parking lot at Palmetto

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Click on any image to expand it and read a short description.

Overtown (during the riots of 1980)

    • This is where Mose is from.

    • We see this location in Flashback BEFORE the storm

      • It was one of the poorest areas of Miami in 1980

      • very urban, very black

HERE is a site of great pictures by the Miami Herald of the riots and the aftermath

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Click on any image to expand it and read a short description.

Shay Lovelle's House (Cocoplum in Coral Gables)

    • Shay's father is the most famous and successful defense attorney in the South.​

    • The home reflects it. 

    • The area (Coral Gables) was not nearly as affected by the storm as more southern areas like Homestead were.

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Click on any image to expand it and read a short description.

Port ah Prince, Haiti (1987)

  • Port au Prince, Haiti (1987)

    • This is where Amp is from

    • We meet him as a 12 YO on “Bloody Sunday” (one of the darkest days in Haitian history

      • The scene takes place at a church that was a voting place on the day of the massacre

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Click on any image to expand it and read a short description.

Havana, Cuba (1980)

  • This is where Laz and Camila are from

  • we meet them here in a flashback when they were young kids

  • They would have lived in poor conditions (evidenced by their desire to flee the country)

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Click on any image to expand it and read a short description.

© 2024 Fred Smith

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