What was it like to go through Hurricane Andrew? See for yourself with these pictures
Howard Cohen
Thirty years ago, Hurricane Andrew flattened much of Homestead and Florida City and several neighborhoods nearby in South Miami-Dade with 165-mph sustained winds and 200-mph gusts.
Hurricane Andrew hit South Florida with sustained winds of 165 mph and gusts over 200 mph as a Category 5 storm on Aug. 24, 1992. Andrew hammered Homestead and the rest of South Miami-Dade, killed 15 people in Miami-Dade and was indirectly responsible for at least 25 more deaths. It destroyed 25,000 homes in South Florida and damaged more than 101,000 others, as seen in this file photo.
The following images represent some of what South Floridians saw in the pages of the Miami Herald after that predawn landing by the compact, but fearsome, hurricane.
Andrew’s impact
Flamingos huddling in the bathroom at the zoo. Planes perched in treetops — blown off the ground and into the air. An entire wall sheared off an apartment complex in the Saga Bay neighborhood east of what is now called Cutler Bay.
A familiar photo from the Miami Herald archive shows ruins left in Hurricane Andrew’s wake. The calamity led to changes in rules governing construction.
In this Aug. 25, 1992, photo, residents at the Saga Bay apartment complex see firsthand what happened to their units after Hurricane Andrew blasted South Miami-Dade a day earlier. Here, a man is seen inside his unit.
In August 1992, Hurricane Andrew toppled one home onto another as it moved through Florida.
An F-16 fighter jet sits amid the rubble at Homestead Air Force base after Hurricane Andrew blew through South Miami-Dade on Aug, 24, 1992.
Preston Brock videotapes damage to planes at his friend Bud Skinner’s airplane hanger at Tamiami Airport in this file photo from August 1992, soon after Hurricane Andrew devastated South Miami-Dade.
Flamingos huddle in the bathroom of Miami Metrozoo (later renamed Zoo Miami). Ron Magill along with the staff of then Miami Metrozoo) rounded up the flamingos and put them in the bathroom for safety against Hurricane Andrew in August 1992.
Floridians’ resiliency
Some sought relief from August’s stifling heat by taking cool baths in their front yards — it’s what you do when your home is reduced to a pile of debris. Still others tried to piece together what was left. The rebuilding process would take years.
In ‘Untitled,’ shot in 1992, Marjorie Conklin cools off in a tub of water filled with a hose, surrounded by what’s left of her south Miami-Dade County home several days after the destruction of Hurricane Andrew.
Harold Keith, 69, returned to his Florida City trailer park to find his home flattened by the 165-mph sustained winds of Hurricane Andrew. The Category 5 storm roared through South Miami-Dade on Aug. 24, 1992.
James Broderick did not have a tie-down permit for the trailer, at left, next to his house and couldn’t move out and live there while workers repaired the interior of his hurricane-damaged home.
Jorena Martini (sitting in the background), born in 1896, survived the devastation of San Francisco in 1906, the earthquake that hit Oakland in 1989 and then Hurricane Andrew. She witnesses the sadness of Kauline, who embraces her husband Bill Griscom as they contemplate the ruins of their home in the Kendall area.
Vivian and Lazaro Hernandez embraced after finding some salvageable memories, like wedding photos in the remains of what was their home, after Hurricane Andrew hit South Miami-Dade on Aug. 24, 1992.
Jessica Santiago holds Edwardo Vega Jr., then 11 months, who was crying after being given a shot by nurses, near the grounds of Dixie Trailer Park in South Miami-Dade after Hurricane Andrew struck the area.
After clearing tree debris left in his front yard by Hurricane Andrew a little over a week earlier, Chris Schere, then 14, erected his personal symbol of hope at his South Miami-Dade home high in a trimmed tree on Sept. 4, 1992.
Andrew in the Bahamas
On Aug. 23, 1992, a day before Andrew hit Florida, the hurricane made landfall on the Eleuthera island in the Bahamas.
Amdre Neely, then 9, looks out from where his rear door had been in Eleuthera in the Bahamas. The door was blown off its hinges during Hurricane Andrew when it battered the Bahamas on Aug. 23, 1992, before hitting South Florida a day later.
In this file photo from August 1992, a Bahamian girl cries as she sits on all that’s left of a house after Hurricane Andrew hit the islands. Andrew ravaged the Bahamas’ North Eleuthera, New Providence, North Andros, Bimini and Berry islands before making landfall in South Miami-Dade, Florida on Aug. 24, 1992.
Maybelle Symonette, a 72-year-old widow, mourns the loss of three of her homes in the Bahamas in August 1992. Two were rental properties and the third was her primary residence. The Sand Castle Cottages were all destroyed by Hurricane Andrew.
