Hurricane Andrew Strikes South Florida August 24,1992.

[vbhoutex]

I read an article in 'National Geographic' soon after Andrew saying the worst damage occured in tornadic cells inside the worst of the eyewall. I think they called them "hot cells". They occurred because Andrew was intensifying, causing imbalances in the inner structure that resulted in tornadoes. The damage pattern could be seen from above showing certain neighborhoods completely destroyed while the next block had lesser damage. The paths of these hot cells could be followed through the damage zone.

I read this article also. It was a theory as to whether they were possibly tornados. I think the final word in the article was they werern't sure what they were, but at least they were mini-vortexs that developed within the strong cells of the eyewall. It was a very interesting article.

Andrew, shoddy construction or not, showed us all what true CAT5(and possibly more) winds can do. The destruction was not limited to the poorer neighborhoods or manufactured homes.

[Frank2]

Well, in 1979, my Dad used to comment when we'd pass Country Walk (while it was being built) - "Look at the plywood being put on the roofs - what's going to happen in a hurricane?"

I knew a couple who lived there, and, their house looked very nice on the inside, but, so does a house of cards...

By the way, I have a tape from WTVJ's one-year anniversary coverage of Andrew (the station Brian Norcross worked for at the time), and, it shows Brian and Bob Sheets taking a helicopter tour of the damage, several days later. At one point, they are over the Country Walk area, and, Dr. Sheets made very sure to point out the fact that while some subdivisions suffered extensive damage, other subvisions (such as one he specifically points out while flying overhead), had little or no damage.

He (Dr. Sheets) seemed very impressed about what they observed at that moment, and, almost sounding revival-like (I mean that in a respectful sense), said it was "a revelation" that some poorly built houses seemed to suffer the most damage...

In fact, I can recall the very subdivision he was referring to, while it was being built (it being about 3 miles southwest of Country Walk), and, in fact it did seem to be much better constructed – having heavy barrel-tiled roofs, instead of the tar shingle-over-plywood roofs of Country Walk (and my own subdivision, which was 3 miles northeast of Country Walk)…

http://www.geocities.com/floridaweathersummary/andrew

What's also interesting to note, from what I've heard and seen, is the fact that all of those old coral-rock buildings found in various parts of South Dade withstood Andrew (save for some roof damage)...

That's what bothers me about the many news videos - what do they like to show the most about a hurricane - sheet metal buildings being torn apart...

Still, as all here said, a Category 5's winds are a very difficult matter...

[Category 5]

[Ixolib]

That's what bothers me about the many news videos - what do they like to show the most about a hurricane - sheet metal buildings being torn apart...

Kinda like showing those flimsy gas station canopies being blown off. Looks good on film...

http://media3.compfused.com/comp/58oxdwc/Hurricane_Charley.wmv

[ExBailbonds]

Construction played a huge role in andrew there whole subdivisions that had the entire roofs torn off. Naranga lakes subdivision in homestead had thousands of homes in it. 80% of them lost there roofs. It was found out later that the roofs were missing the proper tiedowns thats right the roofs were just sitting on top of them. That entire development was never rebuilt. The land is still vacant.

Country walk homes were wood frame construction exterior walls and all. No longer allowed with the new building codes.

Roofs with wood framed gable roofs ends like in franks picture above took it real bad. They were also were banned

[Ptarmigan]

I read this article also. It was a theory as to whether they were possibly tornados. I think the final word in the article was they werern't sure what they were, but at least they were mini-vortexs that developed within the strong cells of the eyewall. It was a very interesting article.

Andrew, shoddy construction or not, showed us all what true CAT5(and possibly more) winds can do. The destruction was not limited to the poorer neighborhoods or manufactured homes.

I have that issue and read about it. They talk of how vortices played a role in the destruction from Andrew.

[hial2]

If we think that Country Walk style destruction couldn't happen again...there are huge developments from that era NW Miami Dade/Broward County that were not touched by Andrew's fury still standing..

[DanKellFla]

If we think that Country Walk style destruction couldn't happen again...there are huge developments from that era NW Miami Dade/Broward County that were not touched by Andrew's fury still standing..

You got it. Andrews windfield wasn't that big (25 miles across I think) which leaves many homes constructed in that era still standing. I was living in Plantation at the time and spent the storm with my girlfriend in Boca. On the radar it looked really bad. But I never lost power in Boca, and in Plantation there were some downed trees and the power went out for less than a day. If a similar storm would go make landfall in northern Broward, there would be even worse damage. There are tons of homes built in the late 80s that aren't really constructed all that well. Frances/Jeane/Wilma helped expose many of those houses, but those storms weren't even close to Andrews power in Florida.

[windstorm99]

I don't think he said they were caused by tornadoes, but miniswirls within the eyewall (most all major hurricanes have similar damage patterns, Celia in 1970 was also very similar)

vortices may have something to do with that....

[KatDaddy]

Definitley the most intense hurricane in my lifetime. The 1935 was just as intense. Celia in 71 was only a few hours away from Andrew. Just seeing the videos on YouTube makes me cringe. Charley was also a few hours out from Andrew Something I will never forget. The damage images were the same as a midwest F3 tornado. Very extreme event.

[HarlequinBoy]

^ Are you forgetting Camille?


I have a question.. was Andrew weakening when it struck the Louisiana coast?

[Derek Ortt]

Andrew was rapidly weakening when it struck Louisiana. Weakened from 120KT to 100KT in the 3 hours before landfall

[HarlequinBoy]

Thanks!

[Normandy]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VLQxjuhJ5Zc

Pretty good video of Andrew....found it whike youtubing.

Some interesting points in the video: Check out the 4:14 mark to see how the Cutler Ridge Shopping Center (with the Little Ceasars, youll see the broken sign in the vid) fared against Category 5 winds. It should be noted that that shopping center is built with concrete walls, and it was blown to bits by Andrew.

Point should be made very clear:
NOTHING survives the RFQ of a Catgeory 5 hurricane.

[Frank2]

Re: ExBailBond's post

Roofs with wood framed gable roofs ends like in Frank's picture above took it real bad.

Yes, the owners of the house I lived in (that's it in the picture) had a new roof put on just a few months before Andrew, but, when it all was ripped off, it was easy to see just how fragile the entire structure was - the trusses were very lightweight, and, were only held together and covered by plywood and tar paper singles, so, not exactly a well-built structure (I lived in the Devonair subdivision, built between 1974-1977, and, is northeast of Tamiami Airport)...

http://www.geocities.com/floridaweathersummary/andrew

Frank

[Sanibel]

see how the Cutler Ridge Shopping Center (with the Little Ceasars, youll see the broken sign in the vid) fared against Category 5 winds. It should be noted that that shopping center is built with concrete walls, and it was blown to bits by Andrew.

Yeah, but it's more like cinder block wall construction, or masonry, rather than 'concrete'. Steel rebar reinforced poured concrete would probably not fail like you see there. That failure was probably caused by huge load and stress factors on that wall because other weak wooden or vulnerable parts of the building failed. I saw a masonry block building in Punta Gorda that was blown to strewn rubble by Charley even though wooden structures nearby survived with their frames intact. What we are talking about here is why I would have loved to have seen a poured concrete dome house put in the path of Andrew's worst hot cells.

[Cyclenall]

I always wondered why there was hardly any talk of Hurricane Andrew's final landfall on Louisiana. It was still a strong hurricane at category 3 or so. I read somewhere in this thread that it hit a marshy area and did little damage?

[Derek Ortt]

it depended if you were in the streaks in Andrew or Charley. Hurricanes do not produce uniform damage patterns, but in the streaks.

Currently, the streaks are not well understood and they cannot be predicted. It is basically a coin flip whether or not you are in one of the streaks

[Aslkahuna]

Andrew did an additional 1.8 billion in damage in Louisiana and tornadoes with the storm caused some fatalities but basically, Andrew missed the population centers for the most part in LA and we didn't see massive destruction that happened in FL.

Steve

[Ptarmigan]

I remember fears that Hurricane Andrew would hit Texas.