The Two Edges Of Andrew's Sword

HURRICANE ANDREW MAY HAVE BEEN THE MOST costly natural disaster in U.S. history, but it has triggered a modern American gold rush. Carpenters and contractors from as far away as Alaska are heading south to Florida to mine a $20 billion bonanza in reconstruction and cleanup work. "I traded in my high heels for steel toes ((construction shoes)) and headed down here a few days after the storm," said Roberta Heiberg, an estimator for an Arlington, Virginia, contracting firm. She got a Florida contractor's license in one day, advertised with a sign in her Holiday Inn window and made her first six hires from people staying in the same hotel. After two weeks she's bidding for 20 to 30 projects a day and may move down to Miami. "We'll be working at least five years," she predicted.

An estimated 1,000 contractors and subcontractors are expected to move into Dade County to rebuild and repair the 117,000 homes, nine public schools, 59 hospitals and health-care facilities, countless malls and a couple of city halls destroyed or damaged by Andrew. So large is the task that Dade County's economic development agency is calling for a "mini Marshall Plan."

Despite the construction boom, Dade County's economy still staggers under Andrew's blow. Unemployment is rising into the double digits, business activity has declined sharply, and aggregate personal income is way off. Southern Dade depended largely on agriculture and Homestead Air Force Base, both devastated by the hurricane. About 80% of the area's farms were damaged, and losses to the foliage industry, vegetable crops and tropical orchards top $400 million. The winter vegetable crop, which supplies half tored, there'll be no hammering at Homestead.