Hurricane Andrew
Identification The most destructive natural
disaster to strike the United States in the
twentieth century
Date August 24, 1992
The destruction caused by Hurricane Andrew awakened
people in coastal areas to the dangers hurricanes pose and
resulted in a revision of building codes and preventive tac-
tics in hurricane-prone areas.
Andrew, the first named hurricane of the 1992 hurri-
cane season, began on August 14 as a tropical wave
off Africa’s west coast. It moved west at about twenty-
five miles per hour and on the seventeenth was de-
clared the first tropical storm of the season. By Au-
gust 22, Andrew, having gained energy as it passed
over warm ocean waters, erupted as a hurricane
whose wind gusts exceeded 170 miles per hour. The
following day it became a category 5 hurricane, the
highest category ascribed to such storms, with storm
surges of almost twenty feet.
By August 22, forecasters realized that a killer
storm was headed for South Florida, which, remark-
ably, had not experienced a hurricane for the past
twenty-five years, a quarter century
in which its population more than
doubled. Andrew reached the Baha-
mas late on August 23 and, in pass-
ing over land, lost some of its inten-
sity, its winds dropping to 145 miles
per hour. As it proceeded west, how-
ever, it passed over the warm waters
of the Gulf of Mexico, which in-
creased its intensity to over 170
miles per hour.
Before sunrise on August 24, the
storm made a direct hit on Home-
stead, Florida, with sustained winds
estimated at 165 miles per hour.
On that day, Hurricane Andrew
wrought more destruction than any
natural disaster in U.S. history to
date, and it was not through yet,
continuing its course northwest to
hit the Louisiana coast.
The Human Toll Hurricane An-
drew was directly responsible for fif-
teen deaths in South Florida, with
twenty-five additional deaths related to the hurri-
cane occurring after the storm’s initial assault. It is
difficult to estimate the psychological trauma that
ensues after one lives through a storm as violent and
terrifying as this one. Even years after the disaster,
many people who lived through the storm in Florida
and in coastal Louisiana suffered from severe post-
traumatic stress. As the storm raged, people hun-
kered down in their houses, usually in small, con-
fined areas like bathrooms, hallways, or closets. They
were completely at the mercy of the winds and rising
waters caused by the storm. This feeling of helpless-
ness left many traumatized for years after the disaster.
So great was the fear engendered in those who
survived the storm that over 100,000 of them did not
return to the places where they had lived prior to the
hurricane. Whole families were virtually wiped out
financially by the storm’s destruction. Over 250,000
residents of South Florida were homeless after Hur-
ricane Andrew.The Economic Toll The overall estimated cost of
the damage Hurricane Andrew caused exceeded
$30 billion in South Florida and another $1 billion
in Louisiana. In 2007 dollars, this would come to438 Hurricane Andrew The Nineties in America
Hurricane Andrew approaches Florida and the Bahamas to the west.(National
Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration)