This is my story of Hurricane Andrew. It has been 14 years since Hurricane Andrew and I still remember it like it was yesterday. Something this spectacular is not easily forgotten. It was about 14 years ago August 23rd. We hear on TV and the radio that there is no chance this storm will miss the Miami area. I was fourteen at the time and had really no idea about the severity of a category 5 storm really was. I've been through little minor hurricanes before then, but this one was a monster. I can remember clearly that they announced the wind speeds up to 160 mph that Sunday afternoon. It was a little weaker before then, but when Andrew hit the Gulf Stream, the warm tropical waters fueled the storm. I helped my neighbor board up their horse stables in preparation. They had just moved in a couple months prior.
We live in a wooded area with tons of pine trees. These aren't just any type of pine. These are Dade County Pines which over many generations have evolved into a type of pine tree that have most of its pine needles and branches near the tops of the tree only. This may have been the result of hundreds of hurricanes over a great period of time. The only surviving trees were those with only a minimum amount of surface area to be caught in the wind. In the images above, you can see many of the trees with little branches but near the tops. However, they weren't that straggly looking because the storm did shred them apart.
My parents chose not to board any of the windows up. There reasoning was that it would be just one more piece of debris to fly around and break something. There is a lot of truth to that because I have noticed when hurricanes come near, many do not properly board a window up and allow wind to catch underneath the boards. If you are going to do something, do it right. The kitchen has a bay window on the north wall of the house so plants could be placed inside of it. That is a window that sticks out from the house. We knew that window did not stand a chance, so the winds would rip right through that. We took the food out of the kitchen and closed the sliding door which closed off the kitchen. This probably saved the house.
That night we closed the house up and drove to a friends house down the street who bolted half inch plywood sheets to their house. They have a two story house like ours. Both houses were solid poured concrete block with steel reinforcing on both floors. Very few houses are built this way, and this is what really saved the houses. Both are friend's and my parent's house did extremely well through the storm considering the damage others received. They have a very large nursery on I believe 25 acres, give or take a few. Around midnight, I walked through the nursery. I remember discussing how quiet it is. No crickets or bugs making any noise. It was very erie like a dream. The stars were out and not a cloud in the sky. After a while I went back into the house and waited on the patio.
Not long after, the clouds came. Hurricane Andrew was a very small storm like the Labor Day Storm of 1935. Of course I was not around then, but I have studied it. Andrew was moving at a pretty good pace of 18 mph (Thank God). I couldn't imagine the destruction had it be going slower. Squalls of rain and wind came and each time the winds got worse. My mom was video taping everything, but later we found out either it got wet or just wasn't meant to film. Video cameras that long ago were not user friendly, especially during the biggest impact of my life. The wind was getting too strong to be sitting outside in the patio any longer. Trees were beginning to snap and rumbling sounds were beginning, so inside we went.
We had a battery operated radio which we kept on throughout the storm. There were two main doorways which needed special protection. The patio door and the front door because both of them were french doors (double wide). It didn't take long for the wind to escalate. First it started out as a low rumble usually heard by minimal hurricane force winds. This was around 2:00 AM I believe. I could hear trees snapping once in a while during this time. Steadily it got worse and worse. It didn't take long to lose power. By about 3:00 AM the wind was very strong. Our ears were bothering us because the pressure inside the house was increasing. This is caused by pressure outside the house dropping the closer the eye got to us. With the pressure outside lowering, the air inside the house wants to expand, causing the pressure to increase and our ears to hurt. It was no longer a little rumble anymore. This was a train driving over the house. The wind was coming from the north during this first half of the storm. The patio doors were bowing outwards because the wind was blowing away from the door, pulling it like a vacuum. It took several people to hold this door from just blowing away. The front door was bowing inwards because the winds were pushing right up against it. Several people were also here pushing against the door.
I remember hearing the dust and dirt in the interior walls of the house blowing around and the wall breathing. The wall would squeeze inward and back to normal during intense gusts of wind. This could be caused by wind blowing over the house so quickly, it causes the pressure inside the interior walls to suck inward. I'm not talking about two separate walls. Each wall itself was doing that. All the wall has is drywall and wood, so the inside of it is hallow. It was weird. Also, none of the toilets had any water in it. This was caused by the wind blowing over pipes coming out of the top of the roof (not sure what they are called). This effect sucked the water up the pipe and to the outside. Strangely enough, you can hear the strong winds from inside the toilet! Don't forget this is a 2 story house the water traveled up. I recall at some time during this point, a small door at the end of the hall way in the laundry room broke open. This lead to the outside. It was on the south side of the house so it wasn't blowing the wind straight into the house. But it isn't good to have a broken door. We did what we could to make sure it stayed shut after this point. The eye was getting close and wow did I get a first hand experience of what the eye wall is like. Outside of the eye wall, the winds are pretty bad, but once you enter that wall, it is a whole different ball game.
It was at this point I really began to feel like my life could end. I will never know exactly how strong the winds got at the house we were at, but a few miles East of us at Turkey Point Power Plant they were getting gusts over 200 mph. Of course we did not know that until afterwards. This is why I thank God the storm was moving as fast as it was. The eye wall did not last very long. I'd say about 5 to 10 minutes max. But holy cow, the whole house was shaking like crazy. There were no doors or windows open and I still couldn't hear anyone yelling and they were standing right next to me. This was far worse than a freight train outside the house. It sounded like nothing I can familiarize to anyone with. I was holding closed the fireplace shoot during this time. I guess I was told to hold it closed because by doing so would keep the pressure more stable. But I was just doing what I was told. I noticed while sitting there holding this closed that I was not strong enough or weigh enough to keep it closed. It was enough force to pull me off the floor, which it did once in a while, but only enough to know I wasn't touching the ground. But that wasn't the scary part. As I would rest against the wall, and this is a solid concrete block wall remind you, the wall was moving. The winds were so strong, it caused the house to lean. During this time, a pine tree fell onto the roof of a section of the house that was just a single story. It didn't go through the roof though. However, several chunks of the roof were ripping off, and it sounded horrible.
Soon enough however, the winds calmed down, and almost instantly. It was very calm and the stars were back out. They should call this moment Purgatory. Being in the eye you enjoy the calm but it pains you to know there is another half of this coming. My parents would not let me go outside during this time. I really wish I could have because I would have been in awe at watching the eye wall approach as the second half nears. To be able to see massive clouds blowing through the sky at over 200 mph would have been a site to see. but it was probably good they did not let me out there because there wouldn't have been anything to see. There was no power anywhere and the light from the stars is not enough to let me see the clouds. I would have only heard it coming and would have probably been trapped outside. I'm alive so I can't complain. Before the eye passed all the way through, we tied a bungee cord form the front door to the stair case.
The wind picked up so rapidly, it was amazing. Going from virtually 0 mph to a massive force of 165 mph and gusts over 200 mph in less than 15 seconds was the most exciting part of the storm. I was near one of the windows when the plywood got sucked out. It took the glass pane of the window with it, but left the screen. It made a very loud explosion and I thought I was a goner. Luckily the winds were blowing across the window and not at the window. At that brief moment I shun the flashlight out the window. There was nothing to see however. The wind and rain at those speeds causes a whiteout. Sort of like a blizzard where you can't see more than 2 inches in front of your face. Perhaps during the daytime there would have been something to view, but not at 4:00 AM in the morning. Once the window blew out, the pain in the ears went away. The pressure was released inside the house. Now it was the patio doors bowing inwards and several people pushed against it. My father and I held the front door from blowing outwards. The bungee cord on the front door helped some, but it wasn't enough. During each gust, the force would pull the doors out. It bowed so much that I could see outside at the bottom of the door. It bowed out passed the step as you walk into the house. I held the door for about an hour. It was obvious when the eye wall had passed through, but for the next hour the winds were still extreme but without the 200 mph gusts.
Since we stayed in a house that was built like a fortress, we did pretty well. When light began to appear outside, we decided to take a walk around. Quite foolish to do in 80-90 mph winds, but we figured everything had already blown down that was going to move. Walking in the wind was ridiculous. It felt like tiny rocks getting blasted into your skin. The nursery was flattened and the trees were blown down. Houses once concealed by trees or other objects were all visible. We quickly realized how lucky we really were. Houses were damaged pretty badly. I noticed the channel 6 tower which stood higher than any skyscraper, was gone. It was supposed to be built to withstand 250 mph, but once a cable snaps, it will begin to topple. It did, and crushed a house killing a person.
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