This last week we had the anniversary of one of the most
devastating storms to eve hit the United States. On August 24th ,1992; Hurricane
Andrew made landfall in Dade county Florida, Crossed the Peninsula, going back
over the gulf and land falling again in Louisiana. Damages were estimated at 25 billion dollars
making it, at the time, the most expensive natural disaster in history.
Andrew was named on the 17th of August as a tropical storm. Andrew spent several days fighting off weather conditions that would have destroyed a lesser storm. Then conditions became more favorable on the 21st, and by the next day, Andrew was a hurricane. In 36 hours it went from a tropical storm to a category 5 hurricane. Going over the Bahamas it weakened significantly and it looked like the worst may be averted for the mainland. It was not to be as Andrew rapidly reintensified to a high category 4 only hours before landfall. It remained category 3 strength over the trek across S Florida, an unusual thing, wreaking devastation the whole way. On the 26th it made landfall again in SE Louisiana, then weakened as it became part of a front dumping flooding rains up the east coast.
Many people did not evacuate from hurricane Andrew. In the aftermath of the storm, thousands were left in a landscape that looked like a war zone, and felt like one too. The storm had sent large portions of the state back into the middle ages with no electricity or running water. Authorities were overwhelmed and unable to keep order. People banded themselves together in groups to protect their neighborhoods with a wild west feel of shoot first, ask questions later. Social order had completely broken down and survival was all that was left.
As a result of hurricane Andrew, and its aftermath, the government began taking a new approach to disaster response. In those days, response began locally, then county, state and lastly federal. Since that time, disaster response has gone the other way, and in large scale disasters, it becomes a federal government takeover of the situation immediately declaring Marshall Law. Survivors are not allowed to stay behind and are shipped off to camps set up for them to be provided for by government.
We saw this use of camps extensively in hurricane Sandy where people had to literally live in concentration camps for weeks on end. In hurricane Katrina, military went door to door confiscating weapons that owners might have used to protect their property from looters, while looters got to keep their guns and rob the now unprotected homes in undamaged areas. Even in smaller scale disasters like tornadoes, local police use the federal militarized style plan for disaster relief by cordoning off the area completely and operating under Marshall Law style.
The legacy of Hurricane Andrew lives on in the memories of many and its effects are still felt to this day whenever a disaster strikes anywhere in the country. August 24th 1992 was a day that fundamentally changed everything.
Andrew was named on the 17th of August as a tropical storm. Andrew spent several days fighting off weather conditions that would have destroyed a lesser storm. Then conditions became more favorable on the 21st, and by the next day, Andrew was a hurricane. In 36 hours it went from a tropical storm to a category 5 hurricane. Going over the Bahamas it weakened significantly and it looked like the worst may be averted for the mainland. It was not to be as Andrew rapidly reintensified to a high category 4 only hours before landfall. It remained category 3 strength over the trek across S Florida, an unusual thing, wreaking devastation the whole way. On the 26th it made landfall again in SE Louisiana, then weakened as it became part of a front dumping flooding rains up the east coast.
Many people did not evacuate from hurricane Andrew. In the aftermath of the storm, thousands were left in a landscape that looked like a war zone, and felt like one too. The storm had sent large portions of the state back into the middle ages with no electricity or running water. Authorities were overwhelmed and unable to keep order. People banded themselves together in groups to protect their neighborhoods with a wild west feel of shoot first, ask questions later. Social order had completely broken down and survival was all that was left.
As a result of hurricane Andrew, and its aftermath, the government began taking a new approach to disaster response. In those days, response began locally, then county, state and lastly federal. Since that time, disaster response has gone the other way, and in large scale disasters, it becomes a federal government takeover of the situation immediately declaring Marshall Law. Survivors are not allowed to stay behind and are shipped off to camps set up for them to be provided for by government.
We saw this use of camps extensively in hurricane Sandy where people had to literally live in concentration camps for weeks on end. In hurricane Katrina, military went door to door confiscating weapons that owners might have used to protect their property from looters, while looters got to keep their guns and rob the now unprotected homes in undamaged areas. Even in smaller scale disasters like tornadoes, local police use the federal militarized style plan for disaster relief by cordoning off the area completely and operating under Marshall Law style.
The legacy of Hurricane Andrew lives on in the memories of many and its effects are still felt to this day whenever a disaster strikes anywhere in the country. August 24th 1992 was a day that fundamentally changed everything.
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