ANDREW QUESTIONS

[AnthonyC]

To anyone on this board who experienced the wrath of Hurricane Andrew, I have a few questions.

1) In approximation, how long did it take south FL to recover from this storm?

2) How long were people out of school/work/business?

3) After the experience you (as an individual) went through, how long before your life returned to normal?

Thanks!

Anthony

[THead]

I was approx 60 miles north of the center, so we only lost power for 24 hours. We had about the same damage as we just had with Katrina, maybe a little worse with Andrew. We had some gusts around 110-120 with Andrew.

As far as further south, I went down there to help out a few day after the storm and it was like being in a bad movie. I've never seen anything like it. A couple of things that are burned into my mind are this car dealership with cars stacked in one corner of the lot, upside down, sideways, etc. Huge concrete electric poles, that I later learned were rated to withstand 200 mph, snapped like toothpicks. The strip-mall where they setup the relief effort was nothing but a random pile of cinder blocks, I just couldn't believe wind could do the damage I was seeing. I know there were people without power for months aftewards, and alot witout roofs, homes for at least that long.

With this threat on NOLA inlcuding massive flooding on top of the wind, I really wouldn't want to see what would happen. I'm still having problems grasping that the 'worst case scenario' can happen there, but of course it can. I wouldn't be waiting around to find. Good Luck.

I know you probably want to hear from someone right in the heart of Andrew, but I didn't see anyone replying so I did.

[jujubean]

I live in cutler ridge that's about 6 or 7 miles north of homestead .......as far as your questions I'll try to answer the best I can ....first, I don't think you or your neigborhood really ever recover,you just have to rebuild and as bad as it seems people come together and do exactly that......as far as school and work, again it depends on how long it takes to rebuild and also how long it takes to get power restored. in the hardest hit areas it was late october when we got power some longer than that. I think if I had to put the amount of time to get back to normal (and I mean just for myself) I would say about 2 or 3 yrs. but having said that It's hard to feel everything is back to normal when you pass by an area that you know there used to be homes and active lives but now you see just a slab or open lot.

on another note for the people who are in the path of katrina be safe and remember nothing is more valuable than life.....you can rebuild and replace everything else.