33 years ago this morning, NWS Miami captured one of the most terrifying radar loops in U.S. history: The eyewall of Category 5 Hurricane Andrew making landfall just south of Miami, Florida. The loop stops because the radar was blown off the roof of the National Hurricane Center. A nearby residence recorded a wind gust of 177 mph. About 63,000 homes were destroyed, and over 101,000 others were damaged. Andrew left roughly 175,000 people homeless, caused $27.3 billion in damage, and left 65 peopl

Hurricane Andrew, which hit Florida in 1992, was the costliest hurricane in U.S. history and forever changed Florida’s approach to natural disasters. Twenty-five years later, we have Hurricane Irma, a storm that experts predict will be even worse. Below is a comparison of Irma and Andrew at scale. Stunning. One recent estimate showed that Irma packs more than five times Andrew’s destructive potential. Its hurricane-force winds cover an area roughly the size of Massachusetts. 📰 http://grist.org/