During their honeymoon at Walt Disney World, Max and Bonnie Lamb are taken aback by news of a hurricane making landfall in South Florida.

Once they arrive, Bonnie is appalled to see Max hopping through demolished houses with his video camera, treating the devastation as a tourist attraction.

She stalks away from him to regain her temper and is not present when Max is snatched up by "Skink," a hermit who attempts to teach him some manners and respect for nature.

Meanwhile, con artist Edie Marsh and her sometime partner, an ex-con nicknamed "Snapper," travel to the disaster zone to work a personal injury scam.

Snapper partners with Avila, a corrupt building inspector, to run a phony roofing company and con desperate homeowners.

Later, during a traffic stop, he ambushes and beats Trooper Brenda Rourke, the girlfriend of Skink's friend Jim Tile, and steals her .357 revolver.

Fearful that the scam will be exposed, Snapper quickly concocts a plan to drive Levon south and dump him at a hotel in the Florida Keys.

Following them in the dumped Jeep, Augustine manages to steer alongside and shoot Snapper through the window with a tranquilizer dart, rendering him unconscious.

Knowing that Jim's shooting will bring the police out in full force, the party abandons the vehicles and retreats into the Crocodile Lake National Wildlife Refuge.