Effects of Hurricane Andrew in Florida
Strong winds from the hurricane significantly affected four counties in the state, which damaged or destroyed over 730,000 houses and buildings, while leaving more than 1 million without power. The storm surge impacted portions of Miami-Dade County, peaking at around 16.9 feet (5.2 m) just north of Homestead near the Burger King International Headquarters; the surge caused significant damage to boats and to the Charles Deering Estate. The nationwide maximum rainfall total from the hurricane was 13.98 inches (355 mm) in the western portion of Miami-Dade County. No major flooding was reported in the state. The hurricane caused about $25.3 billion (1992 USD) in damage and 44 deaths in the state—15 directly from the storm's effects and 29 indirectly related. Many other sources, however, estimated that Andrew caused more than $32 billion in damage in the state. Andrew was, at the time, the costliest hurricane in the history of the United States; it was surpassed in subsequent years by Hurricane Katrina in 2005, Hurricane Ike in 2008, Hurricane Sandy in 2012, and hurricanes Harvey, Irma, and Maria in 2017.
Hurricane Elena
Pinellas County suffered some of the worst damage from Hurricane Elena in Florida. At the height of the storm, over 500,000 of its residents were without electricity. Forty-four single-family homes were destroyed, 31 more were damaged, and several condominiums, townhouses, and commercial buildings were damaged or destroyed. The hurricane also wrecked or irreparably compromised nearly of coastal bulkheads and inflicted minor damage on more. Most of the affected seawalls were degrading or poorly reinforced. Seawalls with higher standards of construction generally remained intact, though even in those cases, overwash from the Gulf of Mexico topped the barriers and deposited large volumes of sand. The hurricane cost roughly $100 million in Pinellas County.
Elena's track parallel to the Florida Panhandle subjected the coastline between Apalachicola and Pensacola Beach to particularly severe conditions that resulted in "significant" property damage there. In Apalachicola proper, winds tore large roofs off buildings, and data from Florida's Department of Natural Resources indicate that 20 residences and one community building in Franklin County were damaged or destroyed. Structural failure was prevalent along the county's waterfront and on islands such as Dog Island; however, it was mainly limited to poorly constructed buildings. Several miles of roadways in the county sustained significant damage, and about of bulkhead was destroyed. Low seawalls allowed crucial points of the causeway to St. George Island to erode, causing it to fail. In Escambia County, the hurricane left $2 million in damages. Throughout much of the remainder of the Florida Panhandle, structural damage was limited, though 100,000 people in the Pensacola area lost power. The configuration of the southern tip of Cape San Blas in Gulf County was changed by the storm. The hurricane wiped out eagle nests, generated freshwater fish kills, and affected other species of wildlife at the St. Vincent and St. Marks National Wildlife Refuges. St. George Island and Honeymoon Island State Parks were heavily affected, with appreciable but lesser damage in numerous other protected areas. U.S. Route 98, which closely follows the coast in this region, required extensive repairs after being undermined in nearly two dozen locations.