Most Horrific Radar Image Ever...

[x-y-no]

Oh yes, that killer donut. Man that came close to me.

SweatPea, that horrible core is pretty small. The airport area wasn't hit that bad -- that's north of downtown and that was spared -- or Andrew would have been much worse.

I was only about 20 miles south of the south edge of the core -- that's the island of Key Largo under the red, and my garbage cans hardly blew over, believe it or not. But where that that red ring passed, ruin.

Yeah, the wind gradient was incredible. The airport had Cat-1 winds, IIRC. I was about 7 miles south of the airport, and that neighborhood (according to the post-analysis) had strong Cat-3 winds. Only 4 miles further south it was Cat-5.

[x-y-no]

Re: Downdraft's post

I had mentioned this on another post several weeks ago, but, it's worth mentioning again (I worked for Bob Sheets):

Bob Sheets retired per a family request several years after Andrew - he was not fired or blamed in any way for anything to do with this event, and, in fact, the NHC staff were given credit for remaining at their posts before, during, and after Andrew's passage, despite the staff's own concern for the safety of themselves or their families.

Frank

I second that. I have it from a very reliable source that Dr. Sheets' retirement had nothing to do with Andrew, and in general the NHC performance on that storm was exemplary.

[Frank2]

I agree - besides, what could they blame him for? The shoddy construction methods used during the 1980s? The fact that the County continued (and continues) to allow homes and businesses to be crammed into an area no larger than 40 miles long by 10 miles wide (and that's just Dade County)?

Concerning disaster relief, there were serious problems on the Federal level after the hurricane passed, but, that had (and has) nothing to do with the forecast responsibilities of the NHC Director or staff.

Considering that we are talking about a hurricane that occurred 13 years ago (old to ancient, as far as technology is concerned - the Internet was not even in use at that time, with cell phones still considered a luxury), the evacuations went as well as they possibly could, and the death toll in the affected area miraculously low (15), considering that 57,000 homes were destroyed.

For weeks after Andrew, there were rumors (mostly made by those who lived outside the area - who else), that thousands had been killed, with the government hiding the bodies - at times like that I really wish people would stop thinking like a cheap movie script, and instead count their blessings for what could have been a much worse fatality outcome!

Frank