Hurricane Andrew

Andrew first became a tropical depression on August 16 and on August 17, became the first tropical storm of the season. The storm moved rapidly west and northwest during the next few days and on August 22 had reached hurricane strength.
Andrew maintained its strength and was still a Category 5 hurricane, with gusts of wind reaching 175 mph, when it made landfall at Homestead, AFB in Dade County, Florida at 5 a.m., August 24, 1992. The impact on Dade County was extreme. The power of the hurricane created storm surges registered as high as 16 feet, and the sheer force of the storm took the lives of 16 residents. Luckily, the loss of life was not greater due to the prompt evacuations of more than one million people. However, the loss of property was massive. More than 28,000 homes were destroyed, and some 109,408 others sustained major to minor damages. For mobile home residents, the destruction was nearly total. More than 90 percent of all mobile homes in Dade County were destroyed in the storm. In Homestead, 99 percent were destroyed. Boat owners, too, suffered massively from Andrew, with losses estimated at more than $500 million. Almost nothing in the region was untouched by the massive storm. Trees were uprooted, power lines were knocked over, and debris covered the ground. In all, officials estimated that in Dade County alone, Hurricane Andrew caused some $25 billion worth of damage. After making landfall, Andrew continued west across the southern Florida peninsula, eventually moving out to Gulf of Mexico and weakening in strength. However, the storm shifted to a northwest direction, and, on August 26, struck the south-central coast of Louisiana as a category 3 hurricane, sustaining winds of up to 130 mph. Fortunately, Andrew struck a sparsely populated area of Louisiana and missed the vulnerable metropolitan New Orleans region. Once again hitting land, Andrew quickly weakened as it moved north and within 10 hours had reduced to tropical storm level. Despite its reduced strength, Andrew caused an estimated $1 billion worth of damages in Louisiana and claimed the lives of 8 residents, two of whom were killed by tornadoes spawned by the storm system. By mid-day on August 28th, Hurricane Andrew had merged with other systems over the Mid-Atlantic United States and dissipated. The storm was over, but the recovery had yet to begin.