HURRICANE ANDREW

HOW POWERFUL IT WAS

• Hurricane Andrew’s winds were thought to be 145 miles per hour at its height, but the data was revisited in 2002 and determined to be 165 miles per hour. This bumped the hurricane's previous ranking from a Category 4 to a Category 5.
• The morning of Aug. 24, 1992, a storm tide of 4 to 6 feet was measured in Biscayne Bay.
• The nationwide total death toll from Hurricane Andrew was 26, with another 40 people dying as an indirect result of the storm. In Florida, 15 died directly from the hurricane and another 29 died indirectly .

THE DAMAGE

• The damage from Hurricane Andrew was staggering, with about $25-26.5 billion in damages in Florida alone
• Hurricane Andrew destroyed 25,524 homes and damaged another 101,241.
• The hurricane caused more than $10 billion in insured residential homestead damage and $16 billion in total insured damages.

HOW MANY PEOPLE LOST JOBS

• Hurricane Andrew caused major job loss while also creating jobs
• About 600 people in Miami-Dade working in crops production and harvesting lost their jobs after the storm.

WHAT SURVIVED

• Somehow, Florida’s wildlife managed to survive the storm
• although nests and young were not so lucky
• population of wading birds before and after the storm were similar in number