Hurricane Andrew
Post-analysis on Andrew revealed that the storm was often stronger than operationally reported between early on August 22 and early on August 26. In real time, the National Hurricane Center assessed its peak intensity as , which was upgraded to 155 mph (250 km/h) in a post-storm analysis after the season ended. However, a 2004 paper by Christopher Landsea and others concluded that Andrew became a Category 5 hurricane near the Bahamas on August 23 and reached maximum sustained winds of 175 mph (280 km/h). The paper also indicated that Andrew briefly re-intensified into a Category 5 hurricane around the time of landfall in South Florida early on August 24. The storm was found to have been slightly stronger while approaching Louisiana, but the landfall winds were decreased from 120 mph (195 km/h) to 115 mph (185 km/h).
Effects of Hurricane Andrew in The Bahamas
Hurricane Andrew first made landfall on August 23 as a Category 5 hurricane on the Saffir-Simpson scale, with winds of 260 km/h (160 mph). The hurricane struck the island of Eleuthera, which has a population of around 8,000, and is generally about 1.6 km (1 mi) in width. Prior to its arrival, the hurricane caused the coastline to recede about 3 mi (5 km), which was followed by what was described as a "mighty wall of water", or a storm surge. The Current, a small village in the northwestern portion of the island, recorded a surge of 7.2 m (25 ft). There, more than half of the houses in the village were destroyed, and the rest of the buildings sustained minor to major damage. On nearby Current Island, the hurricane destroyed 24 of the 30 houses in the village. The island's only road was heavily damaged, with parts still flooded more than a week after the storm.