Hurricane Andrew hit 25 years ago and joined ranks of historic U.S hurricanes

By any standard, Hurricane Andrew was historic. It was the third-strongest hurricane to make landfall in the United States since reliable records had been kept, with top wind speeds of 165 miles per hour.Andrew shocked a generation that had never experienced such a hurricane, engendering a deep respect for the power of these huge rotating storms.

Certainly there’s more to significance than just how strong they are,” he said. “Hurricane Katrina in 2005 was certainly not among the most intense in terms of wind speed. It was a Category 3. But that one became infamous because the water-retention mechanisms that were in place didn’t hold up. Galveston too, was deadliest but nowhere near strongest. Hurricane Andrew is way up there. Andrew was one of the very few that ever hit the United States as a Category 5 hurricane.”

The storm destroyed 28,000 homes. It forced insurance companies to pay more than $15.5 billion in claims. It accounted for 15 direct deaths, a toll many considered light, considering the vast area of destruction. Another 25 were counted as indirect deaths, and the Miami Herald reported another 43 deaths that could be linked to the storm, a figure now used by the National Hurricane Center.

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/florida/fl-reg-hurricane-andrew-anniversary-20170823-story.html