
Hurricane Andrew was a Category 5 hurricane that struck the Bahamas and the south-eastern United States in the second half of August 1992. The most severe impact of it was felt in the state of Florida. There it destroyed more than 30,000 homes, left hundreds of thousands of people temporarily homeless and inflicted over $25 billion dollars’ worth of damage on the local economy as sustained wind speeds of 165 miles per hour hit some regions in Miami-Dade County. An estimated 65 deaths resulted from the storm, though as with all hurricanes, it can be difficult to establish an exact number, as some deaths were only partially related to it. Andrew was one of the most destructive hurricanes in the history of the United States.[1]
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Hurricane Andrew chronology of eventsHurricane Andrew chronology of events
Hurricane Andrew was one of what are known as Cape Verde hurricanes. This means it formed out of hot air moving out of western Africa and over the Cape Verde Islands westwards towards the Caribbean. It began to form into a storm in the mid-Atlantic around the 14th of August 1992 and continued its western trajectory. It veered somewhat north-westwards and as a result it avoided the Lesser Antilles and most of the Greater Antilles in the Caribbean. This meant it did not pass over much land and gathered strength out at sea. On the 22nd of August it formed into a hurricane and continued to gain momentum, eventually becoming a Category 5 hurricane, the strongest hurricane type. Andrew then passed over the Bahamas on the 23rd and early on the 24th of August before reaching southern Florida later in the day on the 24th. Afterwards it passed over Florida into the Gulf of Mexico and continued westwards before turning sharply northwards. It then hit Louisiana on the 26th of August, but the storm had weakened considerably by then and dissipated in the days that followed as it passed north into the American Midwest.[2]

Andrew was an incredibly destructive hurricane, a rare one which managed to maintain itself as a Category 5 hurricane even as it made landfall. Most hurricanes decline considerably in strength as they come in closer to land and tend to weaken to a maximum of a Category 3 or Category 4 hurricane once they make landfall. Andrew didn’t and Florida was badly hit by it on the 24th and 25th of August 1992. Estimates of the number of homes which it destroyed vary. Most agree at least 25,000 were destroyed, while others place the figure closer to 50,000 depending on what definition of a house being ‘destroyed’ is used. Over 100,000 homes were badly damaged and hundreds of thousands of people were left in insecure accommodation temporarily, though many were able to return home after limited clean-up and repairs.[3]
The number of fatalities is also not agreed on. Around two dozen people died in the initial impact of the storm, but several dozen more died from knock-on effects from injuries sustained or medical complications which arose during the emergency. The death toll was therefore around 65 when all factors are taken into account.[4] It was also one of the costliest hurricane disasters in the history of the United States, costing the US economy $27 billion dollars in damage, over $60 billion in today’s money. Millions of people were left without power temporarily. Considerable damage was also inflicted on the Bahamas and Louisiana, though not on the same scale as Florida.[5]
Extent of migration caused by Hurricane AndrewExtent of migration caused by Hurricane Andrew
As with all major hurricanes in modern times in the United States, a weather warning was in place days before the hurricane arrived and tens of thousands of people temporarily moved to get out of the way of the worst impact of it when it landed. Some people would have ended up in temporary accommodation for months or even years thereafter as their homes had been destroyed. However, over time lots of people returned back to their original domicile.
This was not the case, though, in many instances. Andrew was unusual in that it fuelled a considerable migratory pattern that was already underway in Florida in the late twentieth century. Through the 1980s and into the early 1990s many people had been relocating from Miami-Dade County into Broward County slightly to the north. That process accelerated greatly after Hurricane Andrew. Many people who had lost their homes in the storm joined the exodus. This continued for years thereafter. Demographers in Florida estimate that by 2001 roughly 230,000 people had migrated from Miami-Dade County to Broward County. Many of these would have migrated anyway, regardless of whether or not there had been a storm in August 1992, but at the same time many others were driven to migrate to Broward County because of Hurricane Andrew.[6]
Demographic impact of Hurricane AndrewDemographic impact of Hurricane Andrew

The long-term demographic impact of Hurricane Andrew has been to contribute to a broad demographic shift in southern Florida, one which has been underway since the 1960s. The mass arrival of Cuban and other Latino immigrants to Miami in the second half of the twentieth century, primarily owing to the fallout from the Cuban Revolution, combined with demographic realignments in Miami-Dade County and Broward County in the aftermath of Hurricane Andrew, has seen Miami-Dade County emerge with the largest concentration of Latin Americans in the eastern United States.[7] Hurricane Andrew was not exclusively responsible for this demographic shift, but it contributed in its own way to it. In the process an enormous amount of suburban sprawl has occurred in Miami-Dade as the Miami metropolitan area has grown southwards. Miami-Dade’s overall population has grown by 700,000 since 1992.[8] Similarly, Broward County’s population has grown from around 1.3 million to nearly two million today. Therefore many people in southern Florida today will have an ancestor who lived in a different part of the state in decades gone by.[9]
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See alsoSee also
Explore more about Hurricane AndrewExplore more about Hurricane Andrew
- Florida Newspapers, 1901-2009 records collection on MyHeritage
- Florida, Voter Registrations records collection on MyHeritage
- Florida, Marriages, 1970-1999 records collection on MyHeritage
- Florida, Divorces, 1970-1999 records collection on MyHeritage
- Florida County Deaths records collection on MyHeritage
References
- ↑ https://www.weather.gov/news/220822-hurricane-andrews
- ↑ https://www.weather.gov/lch/andrew
- ↑ https://www.washingtonpost.com/history/2024/10/09/hurricane-andrew-damage-florida-lessons-milton/
- ↑ https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/8656186/
- ↑ https://www.weather.gov/news/220822-hurricane-andrews
- ↑ https://www.cbsnews.com/miami/news/hurricane-andrew-unprecedented-migration-broward-county/
- ↑ https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/castro-cuban-exiles-america/
- ↑ https://www.bradenton.com/news/state/article168278187.html
- ↑ https://florida.reaproject.org/analysis/comparative-trends-analysis/population/tools/120011/120000/