Multimedia Blog: Project One

Section One: Narrative Through Images

"Beauty, Destruction, Revival"

Section Two: Narrative

"The Day I'll Never Forget"
By: David Schloss

When experiencing a heartbreaking event at a young age, you would think that the memory would be faintly remembered later in life. In my case, that’s far from the truth. As a child in Miami, Florida I could only remember certain parts of that day, certain conversations, and images that will forever be in my mind.

It’s hard to digest what was once a city of beach front properties, exuberant people, and glistening beaches turn into something else.







Walking down the beach, you see people enjoying the hot temperatures and clear ocean water. Many people would see this kind of image and think it is unreal, but this is an everyday occurrence in the sunshine state.







Miami is clearly a magnificent place especially in the summer time. This place is mixed with excited, tanning obsessed, high-spending tourists and low key, sometimes ignorant, and culture driven locals. The flowing beach water keeps everyone at peace and relaxation. The palm trees provide a paradise feel to the area for all to see.

Unfortunately, Miami is nowhere near perfect, and the weather was the reason for one of the most devastating events in state and national history. 

On August 24, 1992 the National Weather Service indicated a storm that could cause lots of damage. As a child, I could not understand the concept of rain and wind being destructive. I can remember the newscaster telling everyone to be prepared for the worst case scenario. It was during that same forecast a one storm turned into one of the biggest hurricanes in history. 







The “eye” of a hurricane on television has never looked so terrifying until that moment. With the bright colors indicating the severity of the storm, I wondered how much damage this storm could do to my beautiful birth place.

So why did my family and I stay during in our home during this monumental time of weather history? Though the safety and security of my family was important, my father worked hard for first house he ever bought. To think that a storm, much less a hurricane, could hurt the household he worked so hard for was beyond his reasoning. For me, I was a helpless 3 year old confused by the screaming winds and endless rain during the night.

During that night, I remember families trying to evacuate their homes. Even though the weather service gave everyone a notice to leave down days in advance, many people underestimated the severity of the storm. Unfortunately for these families, leaving their homes during a major hurricane led to driving in major flooding. Many streets were blocked by stalled cars and people trying to get out of their submerged homes. The hurricane was just getting started, but many people didn’t know how much worse it could get.

It was the afternoon of that same day where all the madness, confusion, and panic was put to rest...temporarily. The amount of damage this one storm put on the city of Miami was unknown. Many families were still out of town worrying what was left of their home. My family and I went outside to see the destruction from this hurricane, and we could not stop ourselves from being shocked by the scene. Houses were completely torn to shreds with roof tops ripped off. Some houses had massive holes within parts of the bedrooms. Metal, wood, aluminum and various other scraps were located through the street with flood water pushing them back and forth. It was a sight of sadness and devastation, and yet my family's home was the only one left standing on the block.

Relief efforts began immediately as the government took action to help those without a home. Food and water had to be provided to thousands of people within a short period of time. It was stressful to provide that much supplies in such a short period of time. People in the local communities that remained in town tried their best to help those in need.

It's hard to believe that a city could come back from such a disastrous storm. It took years from that gloomy August day in 1992 to become the beautiful, lively, party-like atmosphere many locals and tourists once experienced.  

Many houses were blown away and torn apart. Did Miami ever bounce back from the housing destruction? Absolutely! The rebuilding of homes was one of the least concerns for the city.

Miami needed to restore its population. The city was so concerned that the hurricane would give people reasons not to return to their jobs, their home, and their city. Fortunately, bringing people back to Miami was far from a problem once the rebuilding efforts came together.

Did Miami ever fully recover from Hurricane Andrew? It's really hard to say that everything is back to "normal."

Section Three: Reflection

I realized that the images used at the beginning of this post exemplify a completely different story than the narrative. The images are put in their current order to give the reader an idea of the location, what it looks like, a hurricane weather image, and destruction from a hurricane, Miami's skyline and beaches at the end. Without the text you would have no idea what is going on or what the images are trying to convey to the reader. The text is able to present the reader with the event of Hurricane Andrew and how the city of Miami was before and after the storm.

In creating the narrative with images, I used classification to organize the atmosphere of Miami with the event of Hurricane Andrew. I used description to explain the beaches and homes in Miami to give the reader an idea of what it's like to live in the area. I wanted to make sure the reader felt as if they were in the storm with their family experiencing the horrifying events of 150 mph winds and constant rain. In order to do this, I used emphasis to showcase the damage. I enlarged the images relating to Hurricane Andrew to give the reader a hint on the important issue being discussed in the narrative. I wrote the entire portion about the hurricane from my point of view. Because I remember so much about the storm at a young age, I wanted the audience to imagine what I was seeing and experiencing during that dreadful night.

After using all elements of design in the narrative, I feel as if the story ties in perfectly with the images. The images alone do not convey the same message as the narrative with the images together.