Hurricane Andrew.....

I was 14 when it hit. Family and I stayed (we lived in Homestead) when it hit. Homestead looked like a bomb was dropped on it.
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I was 14 when it hit. Family and I stayed (we lived in Homestead) when it hit. Homestead looked like a bomb was dropped on it.
There was no homestead, I remember the national guard patroling most of the area (Kendall)because of looting... Crazy times
 
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I was in a Townhouse in Kendall. Nothing happened to our place but the adjacent town homes to our unit had lost the entire outward facing wall. It looked like the back of a dollhouse. People's beds and furnishings were hanging off the edges. It was crazy. We had no power for 10 days. The looting and price gouging were out of control. National Guard in the streets checking licenses to make sure you belonged in the area.
 
I stayed home when it hit, because they said it was going north to hit NMB or Ft Lauderdale, but at the last minute, it went due west.
The storm seemed to hit for a solid 4 hours. It wasnt that long, but I kept waiting for the Eye, and it never hit. The house around my family and me was slowly disintegrating, but it held up enough to spare us.

I found out later that the Norther Eye Wall of Andrew went over my house. It was the worst part of the storm. 165+ mph winds. Concrete structures damaged. It was crazy.
 
Third year med student at Jackson Memorial. School closed, we were told to go volunteer at a Red Cross shelter. Homestead looked like Hiroshima. Guy came in the tent with a concussion. Looked at the back of his eye with my brand-new ophthalmoscope and saw what looked like a swollen retina. How can a third year med student call in a chopper for a med-evac? What if I was wrong? Helicopter radioed back and said the guy had a seizure in the chopper, but they stabilized him. Chief said tell the med student he did good. Thirty four years and four continents later, never seen anything like that.
 
I was 8 years old living in Carol City. We had a tornado touch down in my neighborhood and I just remember it sounding like train was right outside the house. The after math was crazy too. Missing so many days from school and just being without power for weeks.
 
I was 5 spent the storm at Baptist Kendall just remember my dad telling me water was being blown thru the concrete walls of our house. Our house was at SW 184 and 117 Ave.
 
Was working for the city of Hallandale, prepped all day. It was an evacuation zone. Driving at around 5 pm towards the beach on hallandale Blvd was eerie. I was the only one on the road.
 
I was in the Reserves by that time working at Homestead AFB for my weekends.
Had to go down that following weekend to find our Intel Detachment building and collect what we could.

Nothing left. Took a while to even find the remains of the bldg. no landmarks, street signs etc.
BX and Commissary which were the size of a Walmart, had like one wall fully standing.

Saw a UPS truck sitting on top of a demolished strip mall on the way.

They found one of the F-16’s that couldn’t bug out, due to maintenance, 2 miles away. It had been steel cable tied to the tarmac.

NSG Homestead Card Sound, which I occasionally worked at, was similar. Building was still standing as it was built of solid CBS with no windows, but the elephant cage antennae array built of power poles the size of a football field, was obliterated.
 
My family live at 33rd and Collins for nearly 30 years. Their condominium building lost nearly every window. My abuela still talks about it to this day
 
I was 8 years old and was lucky enough to be on Baptist hospital power grid and got power back within a week. Was lucky enough to be out of town during it on vacation so didnt have to go through it but ill never forget the destruction it caused.
 
Anyone go to lollapalooza days before? I remember driving home thinking WTF is going on. There was bumper to bumper cars leaving the keys at 2am. The next time I visited the mainland, every power pole, tree, building was gone to the turnpike extension.
 
Great post! West Kendall. Still remember coming out of our hiding spot in the bathroom with my dad, and him bracing the giant window at the halfway point landing (2 story townhouse). He took a sheet of plywood and a broom handle and braced it on his shoulder and it was like a giant fist hitting the window over and over again. Watched him trying to absorb the blows, but wasn't really doing much myself. Then the window exploded in on us and a big shard of glass gave him a gash across the top of his head, took the hair right off. Few inches lower and it would have impaled into his face. We bailed and retreated into the downstairs bathroom but the worst of it was passing. Next morning saw about a 1 inch gap all along the ceiling line of the house where the roof had tried to lift off.
 
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