Replies

Tornadoes were the cause of much of the horrible damage from Andrew in South Florida.

Poor construction was the primary cause of damage in Andrew, but where tornado-level winds hit there was no defense. I, too, have always understood those to have been spin-off tornados, but according to this meteorologist, who has a fascinating write-up of his entire Andrew experience, it's understood to have been “mini-swirls at the wall of the eye:

"Post-event visitors included Tim Marshall, whom I knew from our Great Plains storm-chasing experiences, and Ted Fujita, each of whom came to perform detailed damage surveys. Fujita attributed a lot of the heaviest damage in Naranja Lakes and nearby areas to “mini-swirls”–horizontal-shear eddies on the inner eyewall. He specifically and deliberately declined to refer to the mini-swirls in the eyewall as “tornadoes” .... He could not establish physical vertical continuity of the eddies entirely upward into Andrew’s intensely convective eyewall plume, precluding their classification as tornadoes, by definition. He also expressed some doubt to me that eyewall tornadoes are real, despite all the reports, in absence of direct evidence (photo, video, or something none of us knew about then–very high-resolution mobile radar).
http://stormeyes.org/wp/2012/08/hurricane-andrew-a-20-year-retrospective/

If you read the whole thing, see also his explanation for the rare occurrence of lightning during a hurricane that happened in Andrew.

Much of his descriptions remind me of my own experience during Andrew, although I lived in Miami Lakes so was well away from the peak brunt (although the local gas station awning collapsed -- as they always do in these storms! -- and many houses had missing roof tiles and other superficial damage). I tried to get to S. Dade the next morning to help one of my secretaries whose apartment lost its roof (just as her cell service cut off, describing it to me from the bathtub with her son in her arms). I couldn't get past Coral Gables for the debris.

Another stark memory this writer brings back to me is the rush at the stores before the storm. I had a huge shipment that had just landed at our warehouse by the airport, so I went to one of the box stores off the Palmetto to buy more shells for my shotgun, figuring, "Miami. Hurricane. Looters." Next day everything was secure, but this guy's account is the first I have ever heard of actual looters. Of course there were, and I'm glad someone was armed to defend.

Spent the next few days helping direct traffic (so hot in the days that followed!) and getting my shipment off to Brazil, which, ironically, was on a boat that was hit by a storm and got stuck on a sand bar for six months - ugh.

Best wishes to all TX Freepers impacted by this storm.