In Building 11, the dingy former headquarters of Eastern Airlines at Miami International Airport, an alphabet soup of federal and state agencies went to work coping with the aftermath of Hurricane Andrew. EOC on Floor 2, FEMA on 3, JTF on 4. CAP, COE, DNR, DER, SBA, GSA, even the ubiquitous IRS. In the hallways, Army Rangers in combat camouflage crossed paths with Army engineers in red shirts, sleepy-eyed state emergency officials in rumpled clothes and even Marilyn Quayle in Bermuda shorts and a ponytail.
Twenty-five miles south, in what was Homestead, the Army began checking in the first of the...