[dirtboy]

Irma and Andrew were completely different threats. Andrew was a wind event. It was a relatively compact storm that impacted a limited part of the state, but did so catastrophically. Irma impacted just about the entire state as mostly a flooding threat. Both high wind and flooding can trash real estate in different ways - just ask the folks in Houston what a rain event can do. Houston never got any significant winds from Harvey but is looking at tens of billions of dollars in damage solely from rainfall.

Too many people focus on the wind aspect of hurricanes (as does the Safford-Simpson scale), but water is the main killer and damage causer. Katrina, Ike and Sandy are prime examples of that.

[ichabod1]

People say sand gets into everything. Wrong! Water gets into everything. Amazing property of it. Good News! Mechanic told me my truck will live again after being Harvey flooded.

[dfwgator]

If Andrew had hit 20 miles north of where it did, it would have been 10 times worse.

As crazy as it sounds, South Florida did dodge a bullet with Andrew.