Mean Season

For Robert Colangelo, a good night's sleep in September meant five hours without a telephone in both ears. He was second in command at a Federal Emergency Management Agency action center in Orlando, FIa., for several weeks during the U.S. mainland's meanest hurricane season in 118 years. "I'm in my hotel room at 11 o'clock at night, trying to talk to my wife in Chicago and to my dad, who's very ill. Meantime, my cell phone's ringing; it's my people out there, and I've got to deal with that. And I do." His "people" were the FEMA employees-up to 4,500 regulars and reservists from 25 states-whose government service oaths compelled them to make the misery of 17 million Floridians their own. They fanned out across the state and stood arm-in-arm with its residents for repeated beatings. Four major hurricanes struck in six weeks, from mid-August through late September.