Photo courtesy of Dowsay.
HURRICANE ANDREW: PREPAREDNESS AND RESPONSE
On the southern end of Florida, the warm waters of the Caribbean Sea and the Gulfstream converge, providing weather conditions that bring great storms from far out in the Atlantic Ocean. Because of this, South Florida is situated in the middle of what is in effect a “hurricane alley,” and the fireservice has long made hurricane preparedness one of its primary concerns.
At 4:55 a m. on August 24, 1992, the eye of Hurricane Andre-w, a category4 hurricane (see box on page 58), made landfall in south Dade County, Florida, which spans the southern tip of the Florida peninsula, bordering Monroe County, which includes the Everglades and the Florida Keys. Two minutes later, a 164-mph wind gust was recorded at the National Hurricane Center in Coral Gables, Florida. Shortly thereafter, the center’s radar was lost.
Hurricane disasters are not new to South Florida; Andrew was simply the latest of such storms. However, since south Florida had not experienced a major storm in 27 years, many residents were either unaware of or had simply forgotten how destructive a category 4 hurricane could be. Andrewleft the worst natural disaster in U.S. history in its wake: 1.4 million people were without electrical power; 63,000 residences were destroy ed; and 250,000 people were left homeless. Thirty-nine people lost their lives.
Dade County was the only urban county hit by Hurricane Andrew before the storm continued through the Florida Everglades and on into the Gulf of Mexico. The countv contains four municipal fire departments — Coral Gables, Hialeah, Miami, and Miami Beach—and the Metropolitan Dade County Fire Department, which provides comprehensive public safety services for 22 municipalities. The area struck hardest is serviced primarily by the Dade County Fire Department; however, the southern portions of the cities of Coral Gables and Miami also were severely damaged. Following are reports provided by the three fire departments whose jurisdictions were most severely affected by the hurricane.
