Hurricane Andrew

• 1. Introduction

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  Hurricane Andrew struck South Florida in August 1992, and for a moment an instrument at a house in Perrine recorded a wind gust of 212 mph. Then the house and the instrument were destroyed. Later, engineers at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University tested the same type of anemometer in a wind tunnel. They found a 16.5% error, and the official figure was lowered to 177 mph. Even the corrected number was staggering. It came from a storm that forecasters had barely tracked a few days earlier.

  Andrew was small, yet it destroyed more than 63,500 houses, damaged more than 124,000 others, and caused $27.3 billion in damage. It left 65 people dead. That raises a puzzle. How does a storm that almost dissolves over open ocean become one of the strongest ever to reach the United States? Why did so few people die when so many buildings fell? And why did one August night end up reshaping building codes, insurance companies, and the population of an entire county?

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• 2. A Storm Nearly Dead

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  On the 14th of August, a tropical wave drifted off the west coast of Africa. A ridge of high pressure to its north pushed it quickly westward. The next day, meteorologists south of the Cape Verde islands began classifying the system with the Dvorak technique, which estimates a storm's strength from satellite images. Late on the 16th, it became Tropical Depression Three, about 1630 mi east-southeast of Barbados, moving west-northwest at 20 mph.

  Moderate wind shear held the depression back. When the shear eased, it grew into a tropical storm. The National Hurricane Center named it Andrew at 12:00 UTC on the 17th. By the morning of the 18th its winds had reached 50 mph, and its spiral rainbands were organizing to the west.

  Then the storm began to fall apart. Stronger southwesterly shear, driven by an upper-level low, tore at its structure. On the 19th, a hurricane hunter aircraft flew in and could not find a well-defined center. A flight on the 20th found only a diffuse swirl low in the atmosphere, and the pressure had climbed to an unusually high 1015 mbar. Yet the crew noted that the circulation high above the surface was still vigorous.

  That hidden strength mattered. The upper-level low weakened and split into a trough, and the shear dropped. A strong high pressure system built over the southeastern United States and extended eastward, bending Andrew's path to the west. Convection grew more organized, upper-level outflow improved, and an eye formed. Early on the 22nd, about 650 mi east-southeast of Nassau, Andrew became a hurricane.

  Six hours later, forecasters issued a prediction. It called for a landfall near Jupiter, Florida, on the 25th, with winds of 105 mph. Neither the place nor the strength would turn out to be right.

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• 3. The Bahamas First

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  Late on the 22nd of August, Andrew accelerated westward into highly favorable conditions and began to intensify at a remarkable rate. Within 24 hours, the pressure at its center fell by 47 mbar to a minimum of 922 mbar. At 18:00 UTC on the 23rd, a short distance off Eleuthera in the Bahamas, the storm reached Category 5 with winds of 175 mph. It was still a compact cyclone, with winds of 35 mph reaching out only about 90 mi from the center.

  That peak figure came years later. In real time, the National Hurricane Center put the storm's maximum at 150 mph, and a post-season review raised it to 155 mph. A 2004 paper by Christopher Landsea and colleagues concluded that Andrew had been a Category 5 near the Bahamas. It also found that Andrew had been stronger than reported for much of the period from the 22nd to the 26th.

  The Bahamas had gotten its warning earlier. At 1500 UTC on the 22nd, about 30 hours before landfall, the government issued a hurricane watch for the northwest islands, including Andros and Eleuthera. Six hours later the watch became a warning, and a warning for the central islands followed. A total of 58 shelters opened in churches, government buildings, and schools. Prime Minister Hubert Ingraham had taken office only four days before the storm, the first new prime minister in 25 years. He urged residents to "take this hurricane seriously".

  At 21:00 UTC on the 23rd, Andrew crossed Eleuthera at Category 5 with winds of 160 mph. The island is home to around 8,000 people and is generally only about 1.6 km wide. Ahead of the eye, the sea retreated, and the coastline receded about 3 mi. Then came what survivors described as a "mighty wall of water". In The Current, a small village on the northwest of the island, the surge reached 7.2 m, and more than half of the houses were destroyed. On nearby Current Island, 24 of the 30 houses in the village were wrecked, and the island's only road was damaged so badly that parts were still flooded a week later.

  Nearby islands took their own hits. The wind gust at Harbour Island reached 138 mph, the strongest recorded in the Bahamas. The control tower at Governor's Harbour Airport was destroyed, and a bridge at Spanish Wells was wrecked. Cat Cay, a private island in the Biminis, suffered about $100 million in damage to wealthy homes and its marina. In the capital, Nassau, sustained winds reached 92 mph, but damage was minor.

  Across the country, about 800 houses were destroyed, leaving 1,700 people homeless, and five schools were lost. Four people died: one drowned in Eleuthera, two died in nearby The Bluff, and one suffered heart failure during the storm. Total damage came to about $250 million. Arthur Rolle, the Bahamas Chief Meteorological Officer, later wrote that the Red Cross and the Royal Bahamas Defence Force "responded exceptionally well to the hurricane alerts". The same analysis pointed to some public complacency in New Providence and The Current.

  Help arrived from several directions. The British government distributed blankets, food, ice, and water, and the Royal Navy destroyer HMS Cardiff assisted near Gregorytown. The Bahamian government concluded that its own emergency machinery had fallen short and reformed the National Emergency and Management Agency. As the storm left the islands, it hit the southern Berry Islands at 01:00 UTC on the 24th as a Category 4 hurricane with winds of 150 mph. Ahead lay the warm Gulf Stream and the coast of Florida.

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• 4. The Great Evacuation

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  In Dade County, Florida, 515,670 people were ordered to leave their homes as Andrew approached. Governor Lawton Chiles declared a state of emergency and activated about one-third of the Florida National Guard. Across nine counties, including Broward, Collier, Monroe, and Palm Beach, residents evacuated, mostly by choice. Some 142 shelters opened and housed at least 84,340 people. In total, almost 1.2 million people evacuated, and that exodus helped keep the death toll low despite the storm's intensity.

  The Florida Keys held an estimated 20,000 to 30,000 tourists as the storm closed in. Hotel rooms were completely booked as far north as Ocala. The crush of cars on Interstate 95 produced what was likely the largest traffic jam in Florida history. Airports at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood, Key West, Miami, and Palm Beach closed. Coast Guard vessels near the coast were either secured onshore or sent to ride out the storm at sea.

  Once Andrew entered the Gulf of Mexico, the warning problem moved west. The National Hurricane Center issued hurricane watches and warnings for the Gulf Coast beginning at 13:00 UTC on the 24th, eventually covering Mobile, Alabama, to Freeport, Texas. Oil workers fled platforms offshore.

  In Louisiana, Governor Edwin Edwards declared a state of emergency. About 1.25 million people left central and southeast Louisiana, and roughly 60,000 more fled the parishes of the southwest. Grand Isle's mayor, Andy Valence, ordered a mandatory evacuation. New Orleans Mayor Sidney Barthelemy ordered about 200,000 residents out of the low-lying parts of the city. Computer simulations had suggested that a surge from a storm like Andrew could top the levees, so workers closed 111 floodgates, and jumbo jets were flown out of the New Orleans airport. A total of 250 Louisiana National Guard members patrolled the streets. In Lafayette, the Red Cross opened a shelter in the Cajundome for about 2,000 people.

  Texas was braced as well. About 250,000 people left Orange and Jefferson counties. Galveston City Manager Doug Matthews advised residents to develop an evacuation plan, but the city decided against ordering one. In Mississippi, officials suggested that about 100,000 people leave the coastal counties, and gambling ships were moved into harbors and inland canals. Shelters opened in Hancock and Harrison counties, yet only 68 people went to the one in Hancock.

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• 5. Homestead

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  At 08:40 UTC on the 24th of August, Andrew struck Elliott Key as a Category 5 hurricane, with winds of 165 mph and a pressure of 926 mbar. Roughly 25 minutes later it made landfall again, just northeast of Homestead, with a lower pressure of 922 mbar. That made it the most intense hurricane to strike the United States since Camille in 1969. It was also the strongest storm to reach Florida since the Labor Day hurricane of 1935. No Category 5 hurricane would make a United States landfall again until Michael in 2018.

  The eye took only four hours to cross southern Florida. Strong winds were confined to a small area stretching from Key Largo to the Miami Beach area, and the instruments there did not always survive. At the National Hurricane Center building in Coral Gables, sustained winds reached 115 mph and gusts reached 164 mph before the anemometer failed. The highest sustained wind recorded was 146 mph at the Turkey Point Nuclear Generating Station, before instruments there failed too.

  The damage fell hardest on the places in the eye's direct path. The storm destroyed 90% of the mobile homes in Dade County, including 99% of those in Homestead. Most of the 2,000 buildings at Homestead Air Force Base were severely damaged or unusable, and the base was recommended for closure. In Florida City, more than 120 homes were demolished and 700 others damaged, and City Hall was damaged beyond repair. In the Country Walk and Saga Bay communities, poorly built homes looked as if an F3 tornado had passed through, although the winds were estimated at 130 to 150 mph. Four of the five condominiums at Naranja Lakes were destroyed. After the storm, the Cutler Ridge Mall was hit by significant looting, and more than 50 streets were blocked by fallen trees and power lines.

  The tally went well beyond homes. Across Florida, the storm damaged or destroyed 82,000 businesses, 31 public schools, and 59 health facilities and hospitals. It disabled 9,500 traffic signals and brought down 3300 mi of power lines. At its height, 1.4 million people lost electricity, some for more than a month, and another 150,000 lost telephone service. Crews disposed of about 20 million cubic yards of debris.

  Farming and wild land suffered too. Fruit crops such as avocados, limes, and mangoes lost 85% of their yield, and crop damage in Dade County totaled about $509 million. In the Everglades, 70000 acre of trees went down. Invasive Burmese pythons began to establish themselves there after a nearby facility that housed them was destroyed. In Everglades and Biscayne National Parks, more than 25% of trees were damaged or destroyed, including one-fourth of the royal palms.

  What was missing was water. Andrew's compact size kept the storm surge limited, and most Biscayne Bay tides ran 4 to 6 ft above normal. The exception came near the Burger King International Headquarters, where tides reached 16.9 ft. Rain peaked at 13.98 in in western Dade County, but the fast-moving storm left many areas with little, and several media networks called it a "dry hurricane". An analysis by the American Meteorological Society noted that the worst wind damage lay mostly north of the storm's geometric center, on its eastern edge.

  Outside Dade County, the storm's reach narrowed quickly. Broward County lost trees and mobile homes in places such as Pembroke Park, with about $100 million in damage and three deaths. Monroe County, including the Upper Keys, lost 300 homes to uninhabitability and about $131 million. In Collier County, 80 mobile homes were destroyed.

  Some officials in Florida called Andrew the worst storm in the state since 1935. Many others, including former National Hurricane Center director Max Mayfield, said in retrospect that it was hardly "The Big One". Had the storm been slightly larger, or made landfall a few miles farther north, Miami and Fort Lauderdale would have faced far worse.

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• 6. Louisiana and Beyond

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  At 08:30 UTC on the 26th of August, Andrew came ashore about 20 mi west-southwest of Morgan City, Louisiana, with winds of 115 mph. The fire station in Berwick recorded the highest sustained wind, 96 mph, and a gust of 120 mph. Tides ran at least 8 ft above normal along the coast, and six fishermen from Alabama drowned offshore.

  Before the eye arrived, a tornado touched down in LaPlace. Rated F3, it stayed on the ground for about 10 minutes, killing two people and injuring 32. It damaged or destroyed 163 structures and left 60 families homeless. Fourteen tornadoes in all were reported in the Louisiana parishes of Ascension, Iberville, Pointe Coupee, and Avoyelles, as well as in Baton Rouge.

  Along the coast, the damage resembled that of a Category 2 hurricane. St. Mary Parish took the heaviest blow: 1,367 dwellings were destroyed, 2,028 severely damaged, and 4,770 hit lightly, for about $150 million in property damage. Berwick High School, sheltering about 2,000 people, lost its roof. In Iberia Parish, two schools sheltering about 3,600 people in Jeanerette and New Iberia also lost their roofs, and sugar crops suffered $200 million in damage.

  Across the state, 23,000 homes were damaged, and 985 homes and 1,951 mobile homes were destroyed. Sugar and soybean crops lost an estimated $289 million. Another 230,000 people lost electricity. Water upwelling in the Atchafalaya Basin and Bayou Lafourche killed 187 million freshwater fish, and the fishing industry lost an estimated $266 million. Total losses in Louisiana reached about $1.56 billion, and 17 people died, 8 directly and 9 indirectly.

  Offshore, the oil industry took its own damage. Andrew damaged 241 oil and gas facilities, toppled 33 platforms, and damaged 83 pipeline segments. Production fell by 240,000 to 270,000 barrels per day, about one-third of the Gulf of Mexico's output. The industry lost about $12 million per day in the days after the storm and about $500 million overall.

  The storm kept spawning tornadoes as it moved northeast. Mississippi saw 26 of them, with rainfall peaking at 9.30 in at Sumrall. In Alabama, Dauphin Island lost up to 30 ft of sand from beach erosion, and a tornado in Elmore County destroyed two homes. In Georgia, a tornado near Rome in Floyd County flipped a trailer onto four cars. In Maryland, a tornado in Howard County wrecked a recreational vehicle and flattened cornfields. Rain reached as far north as Upstate New York.

  On the 28th of August, Andrew lost its tropical characteristics over the southern Appalachian Mountains. On the 29th, its remnants merged with those of Hurricane Lester and a frontal zone over Pennsylvania.

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• 7. The Slow Response

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  A month before Andrew, the House Committee on Appropriations had described the Federal Emergency Management Agency, or FEMA, as a "political dumping ground" and a "turkey farm". The report blamed "weak, inexperienced leaders". When the hurricane hit, FEMA was criticized for a slow response in both Florida and Louisiana. Congressman S. William Green of New York said the agency had learned little from its botched work after Hurricane Hugo in 1989. He also faulted local officials for expecting FEMA "to come and run the whole show".

  FEMA officials offered their own defense. Some pointed out that they were still responding to the Los Angeles riots. Spokesman Grant Peterson said, "24 hours is not reasonable to expect to have all the resources of the federal government landing in the middle of a disaster." Some of the delay also fell on Governor Chiles, who waited five days to submit the formal request for federal assistance that FEMA officials believed they needed before they could act.

  On the 26th of August, President George H. W. Bush toured Louisiana with Governor Edwards. He remarked, "The destruction from this storm goes beyond anything we have known in recent years," while noting that the damage was less severe than in Florida. He first declared only Terrebonne Parish a disaster area and later added 34 other parishes. After the mayor of Franklin, Sam Jones, and Congressman Billy Tauzin complained, FEMA promised to open a field office there.

  Washington's money came in stages. President Bush first proposed a $7.1 billion aid package. After the House of Representatives appropriated aid for victims of Hurricane Iniki in Hawaii and Typhoon Omar in Guam, the total rose to $11.1 billion. Congress passed it as House Resolution 5620 on the 18th of September, and the president signed it on the 23rd. At the time, it was the most costly disaster aid package ever. Florida received $9 billion of it.

  In Florida, military personnel set up five tent cities in Florida City and Homestead for the homeless. A sixth opened at the Miccosukee Indian Reservation just after Labor Day weekend. Canada sent 90 military engineers to repair community centers, hospitals, and schools, and 300 military personnel arrived in Miami aboard HMCS Protecteur. FEMA supplied free mobile homes to 3,501 families and gave financial help to more than 40,000 other families for hotels, rent, and repairs.

  Crime, especially looting and theft, rose sharply south of Miami right after the storm. The psychological damage ran deeper. A panel of psychiatrists and psychologists at the University of Miami agreed that as many as 90% of residents in the worst-hit areas would experience at least some symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder. Divorce rates rose. Within six months, the aftermath had contributed to at least five suicides and four homicides.

  In Louisiana, about 1,300 National Guardsmen deployed to the south of the state. By early December, FEMA had received about 43,600 applications for aid. It approved $35.9 million in grants for more than 18,000 households that were uninsured or ineligible for loans. The Small Business Administration approved $33.2 million in low-interest loans. Nearly two years after the storm, about 70% of damaged or destroyed homes in Homestead had been repaired or rebuilt. By July 1994-36,000 destroyed or severely damaged homes in Dade County had been restored.

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• 8. What Andrew Changed

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  Eleven insurance companies went bankrupt after Andrew, and over 930,000 policyholders in South Florida lost coverage. The surviving system faced over 600,000 claims. To restore capacity, the Florida Legislature created the Joint Underwriting Association, the Florida Windstorm Underwriting Association, and the Florida Hurricane Catastrophe Fund. On the 17th of December, Governor Chiles signed a law that created a three-year reserve fund for uninsured losses. It let South Floridians keep an estimated $500 million in sales tax generated by rebuilding.

  The broken houses explained part of the disaster. Timothy P. Marshall and Richard Herzog of the Haag Engineer Company in Carrollton, Texas, surveyed the wreckage. They found concrete tiles glued to felt paper and shingles stapled perpendicular to the long axis, which let wind tear them away. That exposed plywood and prefabricated trusses to the weather, and roofs failed and collapsed.

  Florida responded with new rules. Stricter building codes were put in place, and in 1996 Governor Chiles set up the Florida Building Codes Study Commission. The Florida Building Code was established in 1998 and took effect by 2002, replacing local rules with one statewide code. After Charley, Frances, Ivan, and Jeanne struck in 2004, a University of Florida study found that homes built under the new code sustained less damage on average than those built between 1994 and 2001. A 2006 report by the Florida Legislature, written after Dennis, Katrina, and Wilma in 2005, reached the same conclusion.

  The county itself changed. Dade County had a net loss of about 36,000 people in 1992. Broward County gained about 17,000 residents and Palm Beach County about 2,300, as mostly White families moved north. Many Jewish residents relocated to areas with large Jewish populations. Meanwhile, the Hispanic population in the southern part of Dade County climbed rapidly. In Homestead, the Latino share rose from 30% to 45% between 1990 and 2000.

  Andrew held its ranking for years. It stayed Florida's costliest hurricane until Irma surpassed it 25 years later, and it was the costliest in the nation until Katrina in 2005. Today it is the ninth-costliest Atlantic hurricane to hit the United States, and the third-strongest by wind speed to hit the mainland, at 165 mph.

  In the spring of 1993, the World Meteorological Organization retired the name Andrew from its rotating Atlantic lists, so it will never again name an Atlantic hurricane. For the 1998 season, the name Alex took its place.

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