Ten years ago this summer, Hurricane Andrew plowed through southern Miami-Dade County with wind speeds that topped 140 mph. Never before had a storm so powerful struck so populated an area and affected so many people. Andrew did $25 billion to $30 billion in damage, compared to $20 billion in preliminary loss estimates for the World Trade Center and the destroyed buildings around it. It remains the most expensive weather disaster in U.S. history.
One of the most frightening aspects of Andrew was its short notice. Four days before it struck, it was a disorganized system threatening to dissipate. On the afternoon of Friday, Aug. 21, 1992, then-National Hurricane Center Director Bob Sheets was saying, “Just go about your normal activities this weekend. Don 't get all that concerned at this stage” (Provenzo, 2002). But by Saturday morning, officials were saying Andrew had grown overnight into a monster storm and, barring a miracle, some place in South Florida was going to be hit by a major hurricane for the first time in decades.
Remarkably, only 15 deaths in South Florida were directly attributed to Andrew. Nine were preventable: One had stayed in a truck, five in a mobile home and three on a boat. But it was weeks before utilities returned and months before tent cities came down and life returned to a semblance of normal. Some buildings stayed damaged for years before they were repaired or replaced.
As bad as it was, Andrew's damage could have been worse. It didn't strike Miami a difference of what Sheets calls a meteorological gnat's eyelash. Instead, it struck 20 miles to the south, in the least populated area of South Florida an area with almost no high-rises. It was a small, fast moving storm: It moved at 15 to 20 mph, and its hurricane force winds extended no more than 70 miles from its center................
