Hurricane Andrew was 30-years today

[mvweebles]

Andrew came ashore near Miami at around 5am Monday Aug 24 1992. To give an idea of how forecast models have improved since then, when it came ashore, it had been less than 36 hours since a watch had been issued, and only 24 hours since a hurricane warning was issued. At the time, thr National Hurricane Center (NHC) forecasts only extended 3-days along s single skinny line (vs the "cone of uncertainty" which was introduced in 2002). 65 people died, 60,000 homes destroyed, and another 100,000 homes were damaged. I would guess that no other single event has had more affect on building codes and structure firmament.

Good WaPo article (paywall)
https://www.washingtonpost.com/clim...cane-andrew-anniversary-improvements-climate/

 

[dannc]

30 years ago I was living in South Florida and preparing to move to NC. All of my moves, and we had plenty of them, were hectic and hurried due to schedules. This move I had planned to NOT be hurried and hectic. If it took all week to load the moving truck, so be it....

Then Andrew showed up. I was keeping a close eye on it and it seemed liked it was going to stay offshore and move north. Then it made the left turn and was heading for South Florida. There was no real way to know where it would hit so my decision was simple. Stay or Go? If I stayed and Andrew hit my area, even though I was living inland, on a second floor unit that was pretty well build, I could loose everything. If I loaded up the truck, I could get stuck in the traffic and loose everything.

I decided to get the heck out of Dodge. The rental company said I could get the truck early so I did and started loading up the truck. Family helped and we got the truck loaded pretty quick since this was not our first rodeo. After the truck was loaded, I got a shower, and a family member went to McDonald's and bought me six plain hamburgers to eat on the trip to NC. As I climbed into the truck, I was hanged the sack of hamburgers and it started to rain from the first bands from Andrew.

There were only a few ways out of my part of Florida, take Bloody 27, the turnpike or I95. The first two roads out would take me to the center of the state, and away from my shortest path to NC. Bloody 27 I just did not want to travel. I lived west of the turnpike and I95 so I headed east to see how the traffic on the turnpike. It was a slow moving parking lot so I95 was going to be the road to take. Course, I95 was a parking lot too but it was moving a bit. It took a couple of hours to move what should have taken 30-45 minutes. I95 was being expanded, and in Palm Beach county the road work was finished, so there were extra travel lanes available, but they were blocked! At this point, it had been known for a day or two that Andrew was heading our way and the people needed to evacuate yet I95 was restricted for no reason in Palm Beach county.

As I got to the chock point, FHP was removing the traffic cones so we could use the extra travel lanes which really improved the traffic situation. traffic was still heavy but it was able to move a bit faster. The farther north one got, the faster one could go as traffic thinned out so that by the time one got to GA, it was not bad at all. That part of the trip took at least 30-50% longer than normal but I got out of Andrew's path by driving, sipping water and eating cold McD's hamburgers. Eventually, I had to stop for sleep at 0200 at a rest stop that no longer exists in SC. The rest stop was closed down due to criminal activity.

It took about 24 hours to get to my destination in NC. The normal drive time would be 15-16 hours. It was a long, tiring, drive but I was glad I left. It was a risk moving as I did but I figured it was less risky compared to staying in place. Andrew could have landed in my area which would have had flooding issues along with everything else Andrew handed out.

Course, moving to NC put me in the Hurricane Hot zone. We have had Floyd, Fran, Florence and a bunch of lesser storms.


Hard to believe Andrew was 30 years ago. Three decades....



Later,
Dan

 

[Keysdisease]

I had a 36' sailboat (I know) in Key Largo and a house in Miami Lakes, basically NW Miami-Dade. We moved the boat into a mangrove canal and spider webbed it in, then drove home to board up. Andrew basically went ashore half way between the house and boat. We have friends that were living in South Miami that spent the night in a truck inside a mini warehouse with a concrete roof. They lost the roof to their house and had a late 80's Olds 88 upside down in their driveway the day after. The morning after, no power, no surprise, routine. I needed to chainsaw my way out of the driveway and in several places along the 5 block trip to my in-laws house where they had generator power, and coffee. Kept that chainsaw busy the next several days clearing cars and streets.
In my first trip post Andrew to Key Largo 2 days later I saw the chain link fence along the Turnpike blown flat to the ground. Chain link fence blown flat. A subdivision along the pike through South Miami was nothing but foundations, wiped clean.
Troopers were running a roadblock on US1 to the Keys, and some fast talking and an understanding Trooper we were through to "check on our boat." It was fine and we motored back to our slip after sweeping a bunch of mangrove branches off the deck.
My in-laws got power and their generator came home with us and kept the basics going for a week before power was restored. We would use that same generator again several times until it finally died after Wilma. We were expecting a baby and had classes at Mercy Hospital which is on Biscayne Bay. Walking the seawall during break I walked around a 50 ft Sportfish 100ft up on the rear lawn from the seawall. Typically the water is 5 ft from topping that seawall and I found no damage where the SF might have nicked it as she floated ashore.
Still to this day there are visible signs of Andrew if you know where to look. The Marine Stadium where some of the recent Miami Boat Shows have been held was a victim, and while still standing, it is condemned as unsafe.
I was born in Miami and have lived in South Florida my entire life. Big lesson was that just a few miles can make a major difference is severity. The road to the Keys has power poles alongside that were snapped off clean at the North end, and half way down the "stretch" some were damaged and a little further on not damaged at all. Snapped off clean-damaged-undamaged within a mile. Been through a few storms, but Andrew is by far the most memorable.
I do hope we never see one like that again

 

[mvweebles]

I had a 36' sailboat (I know) in Key Largo and a house in Miami Lakes, basically NW Miami-Dade. We moved the boat into a mangrove canal and spider webbed it in, then drove home to board up. Andrew basically went ashore half way between the house and boat. We have friends that were living in South Miami that spent the night in a truck inside a mini warehouse with a concrete roof. They lost the roof to their house and had a late 80's Olds 88 upside down in their driveway the day after. The morning after, no power, no surprise, routine. I needed to chainsaw my way out of the driveway and in several places along the 5 block trip to my in-laws house where they had generator power, and coffee. Kept that chainsaw busy the next several days clearing cars and streets.

In my first trip post Andrew to Key Largo 2 days later I saw the chain link fence along the Turnpike blown flat to the ground. Chain link fence blown flat. A subdivision along the pike through South Miami was nothing but foundations, wiped clean.

Troopers were running a roadblock on US1 to the Keys, and some fast talking and an understanding Trooper we were through to "check on our boat." It was fine and we motored back to our slip after sweeping a bunch of mangrove branches off the deck.

My in-laws got power and their generator came home with us and kept the basics going for a week before power was restored. We would use that same generator again several times until it finally died after Wilma. We were expecting a baby and had classes at Mercy Hospital which is on Biscayne Bay. Walking the seawall during break I walked around a 50 ft Sportfish 100ft up on the rear lawn from the seawall. Typically the water is 5 ft from topping that seawall and I found no damage where the SF might have nicked it as she floated ashore.

Still to this day there are visible signs of Andrew if you know where to look. The Marine Stadium where some of the recent Miami Boat Shows have been held was a victim, and while still standing, it is condemned as unsafe.

I was born in Miami and have lived in South Florida my entire life. Big lesson was that just a few miles can make a major difference is severity. The road to the Keys has power poles alongside that were snapped off clean at the North end, and half way down the "stretch" some were damaged and a little further on not damaged at all. Snapped off clean-damaged-undamaged within a mile. Been through a few storms, but Andrew is by far the most memorable.

I do hope we never see one like that again

Great story!

We moved to St Pete in 2005, year after a lot of storms came through. St Pete is in a bit of a semi-safe zone that hasn't had a direct hit since the 1930s. When Irma came through a couple years ago, we evacuated to Ocala. When you say "a few miles can make a big difference," was certainly our experience. When we left home, we loaded what we could in our two cars and said adios to everything else. Irma was going to pass jusf south of us which put us on the dirty side of a Cat 4-5. Really thought we were a goner. But 12 hours before, Irma made 20-shift to the west which put us on the clean side. Ironically, Ocala got hit fairly well. Cleanup wasn't awful, lots of downed trees that needed pruning anyway. Power was out for a couple days, internet for over a week.

What's really interesting is I was able to track Irma at a really granular level. Sounds like there was limited forecast tools back 30 years ago

Peter

 

[HopCar]

I lived in South Miami (still do) when Andrew came through. We lost power for ten days and since we were on a well, not city water, we lost water as well. I brought home barrels of water and a 12 volt Jabsco pump and back fed the water into the house through an outside hose bibb. If it’s brown, flush it down. If it’s yellow, let it mellow.

It was three days before our Democrat governor would ask our Republican President for help. He was embarrassed into asking by our local emergency director who went on tv and asked “where the hell is the calvary? “ https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=292994258344669

On the 4th day there was a continuous flow of helicopters flying from the Port of Miami to the worst hit areas just south of me.

I remember the Goodyear blimp flying over with directions on where to get food and water showing on it’s lighted sign.

Now we are hooked to city water and I’ve got a 22 kw generator and two weeks of fuel.

My boat Possum survived the cat 5 Andrew only to be sunk by a much smaller hurricane about five years ago.

I hate f**king hurricanes.

 

[rgano]

Even our fine, modern prediction service can be short-circuited. Hurricane Michael in Oct 2018 was a depression at 1 PM Sunday and a cat 1 hurricane on Monday morning. By 8 AM on Tuesday it was a cat 3 halfway across the Gulf to us. By 9AM Wednesday morning I was sprinting for the shelter on the other side of the bayou as the cat 5 monster slammed into us. By 5PM that day the chainsaws were humming and continued to for over a month. We weren't sure it was going to hit us until Tuesday morning and the prediction for it to gain cat 5 status was late in the game, very late.

 

[Judy at JWY]

I had a beautiful home on an exclusive street in Miami Beach which was in the bull's eye initially. I took my teenage children and a neighbor's clan (parents were on a cruise ship in Alaska) and evacuated to the Holiday Inn near MIA. The path shifted and the HI lost electricity, the roof blew and I was in a dark, hot, smelly hallway with 4 children and a floor full of strangers for the night. Returned to my home and my roof had blown and the house totally destroyed. Well, the master bedroom (which had been an addition) was still in tact so insurance wouldn't total me out.

I sold the house as a fix-up special and bought a smaller house. Hurricane Andrew was the beginning of my financial decline and was the first step in my career to becoming a yacht broker.

 

[soin2la]

Eleuthera, November '92.

 

[FBoykin]

I lived in South Miami (still do) when Andrew came through. We lost power for ten days and since we were on a well, not city water, we lost water as well. I brought home barrels of water and a 12 volt Jabsco pump and back fed the water into the house through an outside hose bibb. If it’s brown, flush it down. If it’s yellow, let it mellow.

It was three days before our Democrat governor would ask our Republican President for help. He was embarrassed into asking by our local emergency director who went on tv and asked “where the hell is the calvary? “ https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=292994258344669

On the 4th day there was a continuous flow of helicopters flying from the Port of Miami to the worst hit areas just south of me.

I remember the Goodyear blimp flying over with directions on where to get food and water showing on it’s lighted sign.

Now we are hooked to city water and I’ve got a 22 kw generator and two weeks of fuel.

My boat Possum survived the cat 5 Andrew only to be sunk by a much smaller hurricane about five years ago.

I hate f**king hurricanes.

I wondered what happened to your boat. I hate hurricanes too! I've dealt with too many of them over the years! Camile, Frederic, Charlie, Irma and so many names I can't remember. I keep my water tanks full on my GB 42C. Why? My old man had a wood 43 ft Egg Harbor Sport Fish that he kept in Orange Beach, AL (Captain Roy Walker's marina, if anyone remembers one of the great charter boat skippers). I got down to the marina after Frederic blew through w/chainsaw, fuel, you know the drill. Place was in a shambles, but boat and our cottage on Cotton Bayou were okay. I let my buddy, his grandmother and his girlfriend stay on the boat with me because the area was a mess, no power, boats washed ashore, singles blown off, trees down everywhere.

Well, things were fine on the boat. Fired up the genset and settled in. Until the 3rd day, that is, when we ran out of water. My Dad only filled the darn tanks when going cruising - the rest of the time he hooked up to marina water. I always keep my water tanks full.

And I learned that you nail roofing paper and shingles from the gutter up. Our neighbor on Cotton Bayou was a roofing contractor and he gave us supplies and instructions, but couldn't spare his crew. So my buddy and I went up on his grandmother's roof in the pouring rain and started nailing.

Unfortunately, I have too many more stories like that...