Most of Miami-Dade County emerged from their closets, bathrooms, shelters and in alot of cases whatever was left of their homes to this...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Even though I was only 3, I still remember that night. It was my mom, sister, grandmother, grandfather and I (dad was working a shift for NMBPD) hunkered down in the master bedroom in the wee hours of the morning watching TV.

 

It's pretty incredible that even 15 years later there are parts of South Miami where a large % of the trees are still splintered because of the hurricane.

I remember the before and after well......but I slept like a log during the storm.

 

We were in Key Largo, told to get out, drove back to Westchester, and waited for it. The worst part was afterwards, driving back to Key Largo and seeing your mother absolutely bawling in the front seat because the land is flat with not a building in sight. The sensation you get from the sight you would have seen after Andrew is absolutely sickening.

 

I put up our special Andrew section on the Hurricane Warning blog today. Kudos to WTVJ for putting up their special coverage from 1992 so people could see it as it happened and understand just why it was such a life changing event.

 

The miracle, even to this day 15 years later, is that only 23 souls were lost due to that storm.

 

I moved 2 Florida 2 days before this sucker.

i was visiting family in Ecuador during the storm, but I remember watching the news coverage on tv and being a terrified little 7 year old.

I was 10 at the time and power came back on at our house in Cooper City in less than 24 hours after the storm hit. That in itself is pretty remarkable.

It was pretty interesting that the national and local media thought the damage hadnt really been that bad because they were all focused on the north side. It wasnt until the late morning of the 24th that reporters made it down to our end of the county. Here in Kendall, it still amazes me the lack of concern we had leading up to the storm and it gives me chills remembering how we were piling up furniture, at the height of the storm, behind the front door so it wouldnt blow in.

The day after the storm was the night my parents officially separated. That was a great time for me.

 

I'll never forget that day and the days that followed. I was 6 years old. Spent the entire night waiting out the storm in my parent's closet with my mom, dad, and younger brother. I used to live in Country Walk, so my neighborhood was basically the second picture in Festa's post. (EDIT: After looking at some the pictures and their sources, I think Picture #2 was actually a neighborhood in the development only a couple blocks from my old home.)

 

The pictures posted here and on the WTVJ site Capefish mentioned really brings back memories. After the storm passed, we went to stay with my grandparents. Never returned to the home.

Luckily for me, I started my Junior year of college just one week before the storm hit, so I was safely tucked away in Sarasota. The NBC affiliate in Tampa showed WTVJ's broadcast through the night, so that was weird. At around 6:45 a.m. my parents, who were living in Kendall, called to say how horrible things were. I remember I couldn't get a call into Miami for about a week, yet my parents could call out.

 

A little bit later on the morning of the 24th, a friend of mine and I headed out to Siesta Key to see what was going on out there and saw the ominous storm clouds to the southwest. There was significant surf in that normally tranquil part of the Gulf. However, that was the extent of it. I can thankfully say that I did not have to live through Andrew!

I was 10 years old at the time. I lived in Cutler Ridge and my house was completely destroyed. I will never forget that night or the days that ensued afterwards. At the time I was devastated but it turned out to be a blessing for me and my family. Ill never forget the sheer power that storm had and how it felt in my chest. If you have ever been to a concert and been right next to the speaker youd know what Andrew felt like in your chest. Ill also never forget how the people of South Dade really came together, it made me really proud to be their neighbors and friends.

I put up our special Andrew section on the Hurricane Warning blog today. Kudos to WTVJ for putting up their special coverage from 1992 so people could see it as it happened and understand just why it was such a life changing event.

 

That video was chilling.

 

We will never know how many lives Brian Norcross saved that night with the utility closet stunt. It had been the first time in decades a major storm hit the area and a large portion of the population had never gone through a major hurricane.

Norcross on August 23, 1992: "If worse comes to worst, get in the closet."

 

Priceless quote :mischief

Norcross on August 23, 1992: "If worse comes to worst, get in the closet."

 

Priceless quote :mischief

 

Funny thing about that quote is that he's come out of the closet since then. :mischief

Andrew is one of my earliest memories, at least it hit plenty to the south. Looking back, we were so damn unprepared, if Andrew hit near Coral Springs, it would've been really bad.

15 years? Damn I feel old.

I was twelve years old at the time and was living in Kendall, just two blocks north of Tamiami Airport. I woke up about 2 Am in the morning when I heard the wind and raining coming down real hard. My mom came to wake my brother and I up and we moved to the living room in the front of the house. We were there for about 30 minutes or so as we heard the tree in our front driveway fall over (luckily towards the street and not our house) and shingles and debris hitting every part of the house.

 

It was about this time that my dad said it wasn't safe to stay here and we all moved into my parents bedroom. As we filed in, the trunk of a car came and slammed directly against the sliding glass door in the back shattering it. I remember it took three of us to close the door to the bedroom and even then we had to pry the door shut with two night stands that were in the room. I remember getting into the closet with my brother and just laying down on the ground, listening as if the whole world was coming apart. I tried a few times to listen to my walkman, but it wasn't very long before I had the earphones off again listening to the noise outside. I remember vividly that I would put my ear towards the wall and I heard what sounded like a freight train just outside. It was all scary stuff.

 

The next morning I woke up, glass all over the house, fences knocked down, roofs taken off a few houses down from us and it literally looked as though a bomb had gone off. What was even scarier was when reports of what happend to Country Walk came in and you realize that you are only a good two miles or so north of all of this, you feel as though you really dodged a bullet.

I slept through the storm. And I was in the worst of it too, right on 144th st and 92nd Ave. My mom took me out of my room during the storm and no more than 5 minutes later the wall and window in my room blew in and shattered all over the place. I could've been victim 24.

We stayed at my aunt's house in kendall. I had my birthday party a few hours earlier and I slept through the whole storm. The scariest part for me was having to sleep in the living room the following day with the doors leading to the backyard open cuz their was no air conditioning. I thought some hurricane looters were gonna come and snatch me away.

I was twelve years old at the time and was living in Kendall, just two blocks north of Tamiami Airport. I woke up about 2 Am in the morning when I heard the wind and raining coming down real hard. My mom came to wake my brother and I up and we moved to the living room in the front of the house. We were there for about 30 minutes or so as we heard the tree in our front driveway fall over (luckily towards the street and not our house) and shingles and debris hitting every part of the house.

 

It was about this time that my dad said it wasn't safe to stay here and we all moved into my parents bedroom. As we filed in, the trunk of a car came and slammed directly against the sliding glass door in the back shattering it. I remember it took three of us to close the door to the bedroom and even then we had to pry the door shut with two night stands that were in the room. I remember getting into the closet with my brother and just laying down on the ground, listening as if the whole world was coming apart. I tried a few times to listen to my walkman, but it wasn't very long before I had the earphones off again listening to the noise outside. I remember vividly that I would put my ear towards the wall and I heard what sounded like a freight train just outside. It was all scary stuff.

 

The next morning I woke up, glass all over the house, fences knocked down, roofs taken off a few houses down from us and it literally looked as though a bomb had gone off. What was even scarier was when reports of what happend to Country Walk came in and you realize that you are only a good two miles or so north of all of this, you feel as though you really dodged a bullet.

 

I lived in Country Walk when Andrew hit. Once the storm ended, my dad took me to see what had happened to the neighborhood. It was one of the most surreal things I've ever seen. It was right after everything had just died down, so looters hadn't come in yet, and everyone was outside of their homes surveying the damage in complete shock. Nobody really said much to one another either, as if there no words for what we were seeing.

i was 8 and lived in Carol City, i basically slept through the storm except for a brief moment when i woke up with my grandpa and saw our porch roof torn off. we went 2 weeks without power, it was hot as hell, saw my grandpa walk around in nothing but his underwear that night like its all good, but thankfully that was the worst of it.

 

the man refused to buy any wood for the windows because he kept insisting Andrew wasnt coming, at the last minute he took the closet doors off and used those instead. :|

The miracle, even to this day 15 years later, is that only 23 souls were lost due to that storm.

Jesus, that was a miracle. I think the destroyed house count was high-five-to-six-figures, and only 23 died?

 

Then again, probably thousands more after wished they were dead, having to deal with that level of apocalypse.

 

Cape, I'm assuming your parents had wished they had stayed in Key Largo? Andrew was not a very big storm. I was 12, I remember in Orlando we had neither a cloud nor a breeze.

I was only a year old back then. We went over to Ft. Myers and stayed with my g-parents.. crazy.

I think that 23 killed # is off. I believe that is just the # for the US, and there where anywhere from 2-10 killed in the Bahamas(?) as well. I could be mistaken, but I think thats the case.

Cape, I'm assuming your parents had wished they had stayed in Key Largo? Andrew was not a very big storm.

Yup, that point was made....but mommy was called into work after the storm so all Metro Police Officers got paid.