These places were damaged or destroyed by Hurricane Andrew. Did they make a comeback?
Hours after Hurricane Andrew lay waste to South Miami-Dade 30 years ago, Florida’s governor surveyed the damage from the air. And the Korean War veteran was stunned.
“It’s like an air bomb went off,” Gov. Lawton Chiles said at the time after a helicopter tour, the Miami Herald reported.
The Category 5 storm that struck Miami-Dade on Aug. 24, 1992, was, at the time, the most expensive natural disaster to affect the United States.
About 49,000 homes were destroyed and 108,000 were damaged, according to the National Weather Service. More than a million people were left without power. Thousands were homeless.
Andrew caused a then-record $26.5 billion in damage, the Miami Herald reported on Andrew’s 25th anniversary. Homestead was a town of about 26,000 people in 1992 when Andrew arrived. More than 7,500 of them were left homeless, with 85% of the homes damaged. The area’s shopping mall, on U.S. 1 at Campbell Drive, sustained so much damage its remnants were torn down.
How an area destroyed by Hurricane Andrew 25 years ago underwent a radical change
But Andrew, despite its devastation and heartache, also provided opportunities to rebuild.
“In some instances, due to more stringent building codes and the associated costs, it took more than 10 years for things to be rebuilt — the new aviary didn’t reopen until 2003, and cost $10 million more than the original — the zoo eventually came back better than it ever was,” Zoo Miami spokesman Ron Magill told the Miami Herald as the 30th anniversary of the Category 5 storm approached.
From 1992 to 2022
Here’s a sampling of some South Florida landmarks that took the brunt of Hurricane Andrew’s strongest winds and how they are doing now, 30 years later:
Zoo Miami, 12400 SW 152nd St., Kendall
1992: “Hurricane Andrew pretty much destroyed or damaged every facet of the zoo,” Magill said. More than 5,000 trees toppled at the then-named Miami Metrozoo. The Wings of Asia Aviary, designed to withstand winds of 120 mph, was obliterated. Five animals died. One of the most famous images was of flamingos herded to safety inside one of the zoo’s restrooms to weather the storm.
2022: Zoo Miami celebrated its 40th anniversary at its location in 2020, including the rebuilt Wings of Asia Aviary. The Naomi Browning Tiger Temple was dedicated when the zoo reopened in December 1992. It’s in honor of one of the zoo’s volunteers, 12-year-old Naomi, who was killed during Hurricane Andrew when a beam blasted through her bedroom ceiling in Homestead. Naomi, Magill says, “is one of my favorite memories” of the zoo. The original two–story Lakeview restaurant never returned. It was rebuilt as a single-story food court area.
Homestead Air Force Base
1992: Every building was either destroyed or damaged. “Homestead Air Force Base no longer exists,” Toni Riordan of the state Community Affairs Department said at the time.
2022: Redesignated as a smaller Homestead Air Reserve Base in March 1994. If you hear a loud boom in Homestead, don’t be alarmed. It’s usually some type of U.S. Air Force explosive training.
Knaus Berry Farm, 15980 SW 248th St., the Redland
1992: The farm fared well during Hurricane Andrew, the Miami Herald reported in December 1992. “It blew the awnings off and broke windows, but that was about all. We feel very fortunate,” one of the owners, Ray Knaus, said at the time.
2022: As it has every season since Andrew, storms, a pandemic or debates over what the state pie ought to be, Knaus opens every fall through April. Life in South Florida without those cinnamon buns? Unimaginable.
Cauley Square
1992: Cauley Square, a historic tree-lined railroad village in Goulds built in 1903 by pioneer farmer William H. Cauley, endured more than $1 million in damage to its grounds that are tucked off U.S. 1 at 22400 Old Dixie Hwy. in South Miami-Dade.
2022: Remarkably resilient, the little village and its tea room, wedding chapel and antique and gift shops and its tropical foliage returned after Andrew and was declared a historic site in 1994. It was heavily damaged again from subsequent Hurricanes Katrina and Wilma in 2005, but restoration work brought Cauley Square back to its familiar look.
“Hurricanes Andrew, Wilma and Katrina have nothing on Cauley Square,” an owner told the Herald in 2016.
Robert Is Here, 19200 SW 344th St., Homestead
1992: Miami Herald reporter Linda Robertson wrote after Andrew on Sept. 6, 1992, “I crave a milkshake from the Robert Is Here fruit stand in Florida City: Mango, coconut, carambola. Now that refreshing stop on the way to the Everglades is gone.”
2022: Robert, as in namesake owner Robert Moehling, was there when the fruit stand opened in 1960, at age 7. Robert was there soon after Andrew, and its repairs commenced. Robert was there for the stand’s 50th anniversary in 2010. And Robert is still there today, selling the institution’s famed shakes and healthy treats.
Kendall-Tamiami Executive Airport
1992: Destroyed planes stacked in a pile. Hangars ripped apart. Buildings crumbled into rubble. The classrooms of Miami Dade College’s aviation department at Kendall-Tamiami Executive Airport — gone. Miami Herald staff writer Michelle Marchante’s father had never seen anything like it. He remembers National Guard members directing traffic and only letting in people who could show proof of plane ownership. He found his Panther 2+, a two-seater plane, which he paid to leave tied up in the “best hangar at the airport,” buried under the rubble of the collapsed hangar, broken into pieces. All he could save was the propeller, which is still mounted on the wall of his home office today.
2022: The airport was rebuilt, and in 2014, was renamed Miami Executive Airport. It’s considered to be “one of the busiest general aviation airports in Florida, serving corporate, recreational, flight training, and governmental agency activities,” according to Miami International Airport’s website.
Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden, 10901 Old Cutler Rd., Coral Gables
1992: After Andrew, the Coral Gables landmark’s flowering plants were left dismembered, its baobab trees bent in half and its rainforest reduced to a stack of sticks. The garden’s Rare Plant House collapsed. Damage to the garden’s 83 acres of rare flora was valued at millions of dollars.
2022: Fairchild rebuilt with the help of volunteers who saved many of the palms and cycads and rehabbed many other plants. Volunteers even set up a horticultural hotline to help homeowners with their own damaged landscapes.
Cutler Ridge Mall/Southland Mall, 20505 S. Dixie Hwy., Cutler Bay
1992: Damage to the Cutler Ridge Mall, a neighborhood staple since 1978, was so extensive that the National Guard was stationed amid its rubble hours after Andrew struck. Hours after Miami-Dade police warned that officers would arrest looters, at least 40 people rushed through the demolished front of a Peaches music store and a Payless Shoe Store. That same evening, Air Force One, carrying President George H.W. Bush, touched down at the Opa-locka airport, and a motorcade of Secret Service agents and White House press corps sped south toward the mall. Bush held a press conference in front of the ravaged Peaches.
2022: When Cutler Ridge Mall reopened in 1993, a year after Andrew, only its Sears building had remained standing. Several stores, like a Burdines, were rebuilt. By the late 1990s, mall owners declared bankruptcy, ownership was transferred and the retail property was renamed Southland Mall in 2003. Cutler Ridge was also incorporated as Cutler Bay. In 2020, the Sears closed for good. In May 2022, a private-equity investor bought the financially struggling mall property. Plans include remodeling the 88-tenant mall, adding new tenants and building residential units on the parking areas. Tenants include Macy’s, JCPenney, Aeropostale, Bath & Bodyworks, Claire’s, Five Below, Victoria’s Secret, Zales Diamond Store and Applebee’s.
Vizcaya Museum and Gardens
1992: Hurricane Andrew wrecked Vizcaya’s Marine Garden, which was also known as Peacock Bridge or Peacock Garden. Vizcaya’s basement flooded, the barge was damaged and one seawall was knocked down, according to Miami Herald archives. Statues overturned and were broken, and many trees, gates and fences were knocked down.
2022: The Marine Garden reopened in 2016 after being damaged by Andrew and then Wilma in 2005. The garden was restored as part of Vizcaya’s garden centennial project. Vizcaya is also hosting a hurricane party — with food, hurricane prep workshops and a one-night photography exhibit of Hurricane Andrew damage at Vizcaya — on Aug. 24 to mark the 30th anniversary.
Deering Estate, 16701 SW 72nd Ave., Cutler Bay
1992: The estate was significantly damaged, forcing it to close for years. “The bay surged and covered the park with up to 16 feet of water, most doors and windows in the buildings were ruined, and many trees were blown away or snapped in half,” according to Miami Herald archives. The 1900 addition to the estate’s Richmond Inn was pulled off its foundation and collapsed, but luckily, the Deering mansion didn’t have serious structural damage.
2022: The Deering Estate reopened in March 1999. It took about $11 million to fix the park, according to Herald archives. Now, visitors can go walk around the estate and enjoy its picturesque waterfront view along with a variety of events through the year.
