30th Anniversary of Hurricane Andrew this month

[Hybridstorm_November2001]

This week isn't going to be good for my lingering PTSD.

[Hybridstorm_November2001]

Still blows my mind how few people died in SFL
considering the destruction and how many storms after that maybe weren’t that vicious but claimed hundreds or thousands more lives. Was kind of tense here but landfall in LA was far enough west that we just got downed limbs and a couple of days off. I walked out my door to go to work because my boss sucked only to smile and turn back around. My wife at the time was 5 months pregnant, and we had to go bum some food from mom’s. Most of the traffic lights were out on that ride.

Seems like I remember there being very few deaths from the storm itself, maybe a few suicides related but indirectly to the storm itself and probably some accidents after it passed South Florida.

And people touching live downed powerlines.

I actually saw the aftermath of someone who was electrocuted by touching a downed powerline after Andrew. The body was under a tarp by the time I and my cousins got there but I'll never forget the smell or the burnt arm that was sticking out.

[chaser1]

Here is my personal account of Andrew. Fujita and the NHC in their aftermath studies estimated that in my neighborhood sustained winds were 145 mph, with gusts to 175 mph.

https://www.canebeard.com/andrew.html

Here is my personal account of Andrew. Fujita and the NHC in their aftermath studies estimated that in my neighborhood sustained winds were 145 mph, with gusts to 175 mph.

https://www.canebeard.com/andrew.html

Ah yes, fun times LOL. That sinking feeling as we drove back from Homestead that night, and realizing there were NO safe structures to video and document Andrew's landfall. Then, what seemed like only minutes later while huddled against your south facing front door.... came the crash of your rear neighbors metal shed and immediatly seeing it's white panels fly over your roof in a flash. Those severe northerly gusts seemed to suddenly veer ENE in mere minutes. That's when I recall us saying "No Mas", and went inside your house. My memory of the moments and hours that followed later during that Night from Hell are fuzzy. I recall our food rations stashed close by and within arms-reach under that massive oak table where we cowered, and all being thoroughly soaked along with my unopened 7-Eleven beef-jerky seemingly floating away for added injury.

I will say this much - Few things suck more then chasing a Cat 5 hurricane at night, without having any vantage point or any line of sight whatsoever! Then add sleep deprivation and feeling starved with nothing to eat to the mix. All that was left for me to think about during that VERY long night was the fortuitous irony that I might actually die from a record setting hurricane which shared my name.

Btw, while we drove around surveying damage the next day how in the world did you avoid getting any flat tires? I dont remember you getting any.

[canebeard]

Btw, while we drove around surveying damage the next day how in the world did you avoid getting any flat tires? I dont remember you getting any.

I drove to Hollywood, FL that night to stay at friend's house, with electricity, toilet that worked, etc. I stopped at gas station to have a flat tire repaired; and found out that tire had 9 roofing nails in it. Next morning after a few hours of PTSD, drove to W. Palm airport and flew to New Orleans to drive to Lafayette/Franklin to see Andrew again.

[canebeard]

Still blows my mind how few people died in SFL
considering the destruction and how many storms after that maybe weren’t that vicious but claimed hundreds or thousands more lives. Was kind of tense here but landfall in LA was far enough west that we just got downed limbs and a couple of days off. I walked out my door to go to work because my boss sucked only to smile and turn back around. My wife at the time was 5 months pregnant, and we had to go bum some food from mom’s. Most of the traffic lights were out on that ride.

19 died during the hurricane, and about 40 died during cleanup. If Andrew had been moving slower than 22 mph, and the eyewall lasted maybe 1/2 hour (or even 15 minutes) longer, many structures barely still standing by a thread, would have collapsed and killed many more almost frightened to death souls in S. Dade. If I recall hurricane winds only extended out 25 miles from the center.

[cycloneye]

[cycloneye]

[SFLcane]

Thought I’d share a Weather Channel news bulletin from the morning Andrew approached South Florida. Listen to the alarm going off on my tv.

[youtube]https://youtu.be/wzP1bLPhIa8[/youtube]

[cycloneye]

[canebeard]

I saved the following wording from a recon dispatch at Aug 21 0636z, as TS Andrew, near longitude 66w, turned west towards Florida and began to deepen and organize:

Roger on the 1006 mb. It was pretty amazing. We were in heavy rain and winds. Started going haywire after exiting rain.
Made left turn and soon had good radar presentation. All in two hours. Will stay at 1500 ft. until 1030z.

[AtlanticWind]

https://twitter.com/BMcNoldy/status/156 ... wAGdA&s=19

Interesting tidbit

[skyline385]

https://twitter.com/BMcNoldy/status/1561313775134842880?t=3DX4NDjnDAtFRYsbGwAGdA&s=19

Interesting tidbit

I wonder if it has something to do with the fact that Cat 5 hurricanes are typically difficult to sustain. A system making it to Cat 5 some days before landfall would undergo EWRC and weaken and then run out of time before landfall to reach Cat 5. A large system after an EWRC in the Western Atlantic would also find it difficult to avoid land interaction and hence rarely make it to Cat 5 again.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[cycloneye]

[SconnieCane]

https://twitter.com/BMcNoldy/status/1561313775134842880?t=3DX4NDjnDAtFRYsbGwAGdA&s=19

Interesting tidbit

I wonder if it has something to do with the fact that Cat 5 hurricanes are typically difficult to sustain. A system making it to Cat 5 some days before landfall would undergo EWRC and weaken and then run out of time before landfall to reach Cat 5. A large system after an EWRC in the Western Atlantic would also find it difficult to avoid land interaction and hence rarely make it to Cat 5 again.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

We see this on a semi-regular basis...seems the long track majors that are expected to reach the CONUS as a 130kt high-end 4 or stronger never actually do (probably the most dramatic recent example being Irma, Florence and Dorian also qualify for different reasons, Ivan was another). It's nearly always the sneak-attack rapid intensifiers (Andrew, Charley, Michael, etc).

[toad strangler]

https://twitter.com/BMcNoldy/status/1561313775134842880?t=3DX4NDjnDAtFRYsbGwAGdA&s=19

Interesting tidbit

I wonder if it has something to do with the fact that Cat 5 hurricanes are typically difficult to sustain. A system making it to Cat 5 some days before landfall would undergo EWRC and weaken and then run out of time before landfall to reach Cat 5. A large system after an EWRC in the Western Atlantic would also find it difficult to avoid land interaction and hence rarely make it to Cat 5 again.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

We see this on a semi-regular basis...seems the long track majors that are expected to reach the CONUS as a 130kt high-end 4 or stronger never actually do (probably the most dramatic recent example being Irma, Florence and Dorian also qualify for different reasons, Ivan was another). It's nearly always the sneak-attack rapid intensifiers (Andrew, Charley, Michael, etc).

I don’t agree at all that long track MDR majors are ever “expected” to reach the CONUS. And Irma was modeled to recurve for much of her trek. Irma defied the odds with anomalous ridging.

Standard climatology will ALWAYS move a organized stacked TC that reaches 500mb and beyond poleward at the first opportunity available.

[SconnieCane]

I wonder if it has something to do with the fact that Cat 5 hurricanes are typically difficult to sustain. A system making it to Cat 5 some days before landfall would undergo EWRC and weaken and then run out of time before landfall to reach Cat 5. A large system after an EWRC in the Western Atlantic would also find it difficult to avoid land interaction and hence rarely make it to Cat 5 again.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

We see this on a semi-regular basis...seems the long track majors that are expected to reach the CONUS as a 130kt high-end 4 or stronger never actually do (probably the most dramatic recent example being Irma, Florence and Dorian also qualify for different reasons, Ivan was another). It's nearly always the sneak-attack rapid intensifiers (Andrew, Charley, Michael, etc).

I don’t agree at all that long track MDR majors are ever “expected” to reach the CONUS. And Irma was modeled to recurve for much of her trek. Irma defied the odds with anomalous ridging.

Standard climatology will ALWAYS move a organized stacked TC that reaches 500mb and beyond poleward at the first opportunity available.

I was referring not to track forecasts but intensity forecasts much later in Irma's lifetime (basically once it was already clear from the 500mb setup that it was going to make CONUS landfall somewhere) that called for it to reach mainland South Florida much stronger than its actual 100kts...basically what would have happened had the ridge been slightly weaker and not caused the push into Cuba. One of the most dramatic recent examples of why it's hard to get a Cat. 5 landfall in the CONUS even from a storm that has been one for days and days AND the track forecasts strongly support a landfall occurring AND the SST and shear conditions in the storm's path are more than sufficient to maintain that intensity.

[cycloneye]

[cane5]

PLEASE DONT REMIND ME

[Iceresistance]

https://www.noaa.gov/stories/hurricane-andrew-at-30-where-science-has-taken-us

[sma10]

Here is my personal account of Andrew. Fujita and the NHC in their aftermath studies estimated that in my neighborhood sustained winds were 145 mph, with gusts to 175 mph.

https://www.canebeard.com/andrew.html

I had the misfortune of living just south of Eureka (SW 184th St) on 137th Ave. Pretty much on top of your dotted red-line, only slightly north, so zero calm. Basically, a chaser's dream location, as it was all northern eyewall, all the time. Needless to say, the house didn't take things very well.

Just a few memories/observations:

- Already at that time I was a hurricane "nerd". Pretty much dismissed Andrew as a threat - c'mon already north of 26N, and way out at 65W? Gimme a break, he's not making a sharp left (because they just don't do that), and he's certainly not going to move south of west.

- Monkeys. Yes, Monkeys. Near twilight of the 2nd or 3rd day of the aftermath, a family of 6 or so monkeys were ambling up 137th Ave

- Broken shards of roof tile. Everywhere, and in seemingly unlimited supply. 10 years after rebuilding, would still occasionally find a buried piece of tile in the yard