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 Ivan
Ivan caused an estimated US$20.5 billion (2004 USD) in damage in the United States alone, making it the second-costliest hurricane on record at the time, behind only Hurricane Andrew of 1992.
As Ivan made landfall on the U.S. coastline in Florida, there was heavy damage as observed in Pensacola, Gulf Breeze, Navarre Beach, and Pensacola Beach, dwellings situated far inland, as much as from the Gulf coast, along the shorelines of Escambia Bay, East Bay, Blackwater Bay, and Ward Basin in Escambia County and Santa Rosa County, and Fort Walton Beach, Florida on the eastern side of the storm. The area just west of Pensacola, including the community of Warrington (which includes Pensacola NAS), Perdido Key, and Innerarity Point, took the brunt of the storm. Some of the subdivisions in this part of the county were completely destroyed, with a few key roads in the Perdido area only opened in late 2005, over a year after the storm hit. Shattered windows from gusts and flying projectiles experienced throughout the night of the storm were common. As of December 2007, roads remained closed on Pensacola Beach because of damage from Ivan's storm surge.