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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.

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

Tent City at Harris Field  

    • 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.

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

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

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.

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

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