Clintons Come Face-to-Face With Storm’s Human Toll : Hurricane: They tour devastated areas in Florida and hear a father tell how he lost his house--and how his daughter lost all her toys.

In the surreal surroundings of Lauren Roberts Park, where military tents to house the suffering have sprouted in place of late summer flowers, the full measure of the damage inflicted by Hurricane Andrew greeted Democratic presidential nominee Bill Clinton on Thursday.

Reality came in the face of little Stephany Falk, and her father Steve, who told the Arkansas governor and his wife, Hillary, of the terror inflicted upon them by an errant storm.

On the night Andrew struck, they told the Clintons, they ran from room to room in their collapsing house, finally seeking shelter in a bathroom. They lost their house, and young Stephany lost all her toys, and on Thursday she was tugging at their hearts.

As the Clintons and their entourage toured the devastated area south of Miami, Stephany’s plight and that of hundreds of thousands like her appeared to have hit home.

“Her toys, everything,” said Hillary Clinton, whose 12-year-old daughter, Chelsea, is just a few years older than Stephany Falk. “I couldn’t help but think that if that had happened to my little girl, she would be devastated.”

“We have more tornadoes in our state and I’ve seen a lot of little towns leveled,” Bill Clinton said a bit later. “But I’ve never seen anything of this magnitude.”

At a press conference in Miami late Thursday, Clinton gave local officials a boost by pledging, as President Bush had before him, to rebuild Homestead Air Force Base, one of the area’s economic linchpins. He also promised, as Bush had last week, to have the federal government pay for 100% of the repairs to public facilities struck down by Andrew.

Normally, the federal government will only pay 75% of such damages, leaving the rest for the state to pick up. Florida had begged for help in that regard, as the public damage because of the hurricane could rise to $15 billion.

During his visit, Clinton took pains to be seen as coming here in a statesman-like role. In his press conference, he declined to answer political questions, and explained that he had postponed his visit for a week until there had been an “orderly transition” to a recovery.

The Clintons arrived at what used to be Homestead Air Force Base in late afternoon for an information-gathering tour. Only a few hours remained before a curfew went into effect, but it was time enough to see what Andrew had wrought.

Virtually every structure on the base and the surrounding area had been tossed akilter by the hurricane’s winds. Eight-inch-thick concrete light poles were sheared off in mid-mast, their steel reinforcing bars languishing like spaghetti where concrete had peeled away.

Around the base, and throughout a huge spread of South Florida, tree trunks stood like matchsticks, every leaf and limb shorn from them by force. Tent cities sprouted on every corner, and the horizon teemed with helicopters ferrying supplies in and out of the worst-hit zones.

Clinton has been subtly critical of the Bush Administration for delays that preceded the massive influx of military might into the devastated areas. Last week, and again Thursday night, he said that the delay between the hurricane and the federal reaction should be “looked into.”

But federal forces have since come in with such prominence that the area looks like a military encampment. All around, there were good signs and bad.

In Florida City, Clinton took notice of the influx of volunteers from other states who have come to help out.

“I can’t believe all of these people come from all over the country,” he said. “This guy here drove this truck all the way from Michigan just to be here.”

A woman nearby assented. “Took a hurricane to bring us together,” she said.

“We could have been doing this all along,” Clinton added.

Caren Nealon, a volunteer from Ft. Lauderdale, injected a dose of reality when she reminded Clinton that all sorts of supplies are still needed.

“We’re out of bath soap,” she said, as Hillary Clinton scribbled notes. People need flashlights and “batteries, batteries, batteries,” Nealon added.

From Florida City, the Clintons traveled to Homestead City Hall for a briefing with government officials monitoring the recovery effort. Clinton did not comment during the meeting, and afterward indicated that he was there in a fact-gathering mode.

“If we do win the election in nine weeks, it’s going to take a lot more than a few months to get this community back on its feet,” the Arkansas governor said. “We want to know what role we can take as the national government.”

In Homestead, Clinton met with Florida Gov. Lawton Chiles, who praised Clinton for coming.

“I’m sure he runs some political risks,” Chiles said. “It’s a political season. This man might be the next President of the United States. I want him to see this. We’re going to need continued commitment and help.”

Clinton said he left Florida soberly optimistic.

“There is a real sense, I think now, of cooperation and of optimism and of hope,” he said.