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Aug 24, 2007 11:58 pm US/Eastern
Andrew 15 Years Later: The Sutta Family Unites
by David Sutta
PALMETTO BAY (CBS4) ―
CBS4's David Sutta waited out Hurricane Andrew with his entire family inside his home's bathroom in Saga Bay.
"You can never forget sitting in a bathroom, huddled in a bathtub, seeing your own father terrified," said Sutta's brother Shawn. "He's not someone who is typically scared of the situation. You could tell it was beyond his control."
Their father is not a religious man, but for the first time the two boys saw him pray.
"Oh yeah, I remember he gathered us and we prayed," said Shawn. "It was scary watching him lose control."
Once they got out of their bathroom, their world outside had been turned upside down. They found shrimp in their swimming pool. You could see where the storm surge poured into the house. Down the street you needed a boat to navigate the neighborhood, which had been devastated.
Of all the people who lived on the block the Sutta family were the only ones who stayed. Everyone left at one point or another. It was no longer home, and it was no longer the same.
Three months after Andrew wiped out the neighborhood, bulldozers took care of the rest, leveling what was left of the Sutta residence.
Many had to elevate their homes and built a second story underneath them to bring them up to the new code. Sutta's father chose to rebuild.
"I'm building this house one brick at a time," said their father, Stuart Sutta.
The Sutta's had their dream house, but had to fight the insurance companies to have them pay the money for it, but you can't get back what Andrew took away. All the memories of the old house are gone.
"Something like that you don't forget, something so terrifying," said Shawn.
The family not only endured the nightmare named Andrew, but they came together because of it.
"I think anything that you go through that's so traumatic, if you're able to get through it that you can only grow from something like that," said Shawn.
After 15 year the waters have receded. The trees have grown back and homes are homes again.
(© MMVII, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
