Hurricane Andrew Memories

 

Hurricane Andrew is the topic online today.

I have a lot to say on Hurricane Andrew.

In 1992 we were watching Andrew.

Note graphic above....

Bryan Norcross put it there on Sunday.

Subtle but yes totally happened that way.

I'm starting with the picture of Bryan Norcross as you cannot seperate the two of them. Hurricane Andrew conjures up the image and voice of Bryan Norcross, the days before Andrew became a Hurricane back when it was a weak Tropical Storm. Then when it intensified and turned West.

During and After Andrew.

Bottom line for those of you who don't know. He went out on a limb and rather than just reading over the official info from NHC and NWS he talked on models and possibilities that showed one path might take it to South Florida vs the original trajectory taking it to the North up the coast. In doing that he helped many prepare and we are all aware of what he did staying with us the night of the storm on air even when they lost power at the studio and needed to go into a shelter at the studio he stayed on air with us taking questions and keeping people calm.

 As the last hurricane to threaten South Florida (before Andrew) had turned offshore after scaring Miami silly.... most people in Miami insisted it would turn "just like David" and while I was not there as I was living in LA... my family called. Something about my parents and brothers evacuating to Miami from Miami Beach and someone up on a ladder trying to put shutters on a window and my Grandma afraid he'd fall and kill himself. 

That said...........David turned away. 

Look how close David was when it turned.

People spent a fortune on preparations.

People boarded up their homes.

People evacuated North.

Then got hit my David

In crappy motels 

Not doing that again.

People were buying ice cream...

...before Hurricane Andrew.

"It'll turn away, like David"

They weren't in denial.

Just used to it.

They turn!

Andrew did not turn away.

By the way that red band to the NE of the donut eye.

Really slapped Miami Beach hard.. 

...just saying.

Random memories from Andrew. Not a lot of grammar here. Not writing a novel.

My best friend and partner in chasing Sharon called and said "put on Bryan" she was always sure Andrew was coming, now he seemed to imply it could. She had 72 filled up bottles of Publix Sodas rinsed, cleaned and filled with water. She literally was so sure we'd get a hurricane in 1992 that she saved every Publix Soda bottle to fill up with water. That said, she had no battery operated radio (awkward) and so I lent her one I bought for the shower (figured it was waterproof) and had a family staying by her from New York that was visiting. I gave her a lot of batteries. 

We went to the beach often before the storm... it was about 4 blocks from my house and 7 from hers.

We made one last run to the beach with my 5 year old daughter who already liked going to the beach before a storm and ran into the car refusing to get out. Sharon said "fine, she's coming with us" and we stood on the boardwalk one last time feeling the wind, the wild wind never ever abating. As if someone turned on a huge fan and it was on high and it ripped at your skirt, your hair and delighted my daughter who said it sounded like an airplane and put her arms out wide and ran in circles making sounds like an airplane. 

We watched tourists and people who lived on Collins Avenue in apartments walking over the bridge on 41st Street holding whatever they could take to shelters on their way to the "Park & Ride" buses for the Dolphins games that had been recruited for hurricane evacuations. Always amazed me this system worked so well, yet years later in Katrina I didn't hear anything about such a smooth evacuation. Maybe I missed it.

Surf was wild, though oddly I think there was more sea foam as Floyd passed us by, or the sea foam was blown all the way to Miami as the wind was really ripping. At some point we went home to our families and finished preparations and hunkered down.  

Andrew was a horrible storm, but it moved fast and steady and was abnormally dry in ways, though obviously the rain pounded the house like a million nails were on the roof and the howling of the hurricane wind ...did not drown out the rumbling sound of waves pounding the beach. Howling comes and goes, it's steady and then it slows and then it's steady again. In the lulls you could hear the pounding of the surf. It was wild. We were upstairs in a large closed area on mattresses as we were sure there would be flooding. 

There was no flooding, some puddles and debris everywhere. Trees uprooted, roots up in the air as the big ficus trees flip over on their side as they have shallow root systems. Trees laying on houses sometimes. No street lights for months and months. No stop signs for more than months and months. Talking Miami Beach, where we did not get the eye but we had so much debris and piles of debris outside our homes for months before anyone picked up the rotting, moldy debris.

Friends in Kendall where we'd normally go as they lived inland, lost most of their house. 

I have a daughter-in-law who spent Andrew in a bathtub at the age of 5 with her mother holding her and a mattress over her while her father sat holding the bathroom door shut in Palmetto near Homestead.

One of my sons is dating a girl who lived in the same area, her mother was pregnant with her older sister in a bathtub all thru Andrew with a mattress over her and the husband trying to protect her as the roof was giving way and home destroyed.

This is what happens when the hurricane does not turn away like David and Dorian and Fran and Floyd and the list goes on and on and currently in Miami there's a whole population that doesn't believe a hurricane won't turn away.

And this is my bottomline concern.

Hopefully not this year or next year but some year a hurricane similar to but different from Andrew will not turn away. Might not move as fast or wobble away from the dense metropolitan corridor and people will not believe it's going to hit until it's too late to pack up and evacuate or board up and get the proper supplies needed.

That's it.

Yes, it was wild and awesome to hear and sense the wind as you could feel the house shudder at times while lying on the floor and yet have to tell the worst part was after the hurricane. 

Nothing normal. No electric. No water. No cable TV no WIFI (nowdays) and the whole system and fabric of life is gone, down and there's no estimated time when it will be back. Debris goes out on the swail and looks like a barrier built for some sort of war in the old days. Everything rots in the hot, humid heat and if you have a home to sit in the dark or with a generator complaining you are better off than those who no longer have a house to sit in and all they can do is pick up the pieces, leave or rebuild. Many left, moving up to Broward as if they felt safer there but hey Broward County gets hit too. Hurricanes do not stop at county lines ...

So prepare

be aware

know they don't all turn away

one day...it'll be your turn 

to live the tale

to write about it

another day.

Something to think on...

BobbiStorm

It's very surreal, gotta tell you.

And as I've told others when giving a lecture...

"it's better to safely chase a hurricane with trained professionals than to have a hurricane chase you to your home ...."

Here's a link to a long but amazing video on Andrew in real time as it happened .....