History of Florida
Hurricane Andrew in August 1992 struck Homestead, just south of Miami, as a Category 5 hurricane, leaving forty people dead, 100,000 homes damaged or destroyed, more than a million people left without electricity, and damages of $20–30 billion. Much of South Florida's sensitive vegetation was severely damaged. The region had not seen a storm of such power in decades. Besides heavy property damage, the hurricane nearly destroyed the region's insurance industry.
Effects of Hurricane Andrew in Florida
Outside of Collier, Broward, Miami-Dade, and Palm Beach counties, rainfall totals remained below , though over of precipitation fell over a small portion of southern Lake Okeechobee. Winds in Lee County left sporadic power outages, uprooted trees, and damaged the roofs of some houses, though losses overall were fairly minor. Additionally, high winds resulted in the closure of the Cape Coral Bridge. Along the coast, the hurricane produced a storm tide of at Fort Myers Beach. Winds reached in Captiva. Abnormally high tides were observed as far north as Homosassa in Citrus County, which reported a storm surge of at least in height. At the Miccosukee Indian Reservation, the huts and trailers of the Miccosukee were severely damaged. A young girl at the reservation went missing and was not found until nine days later. In Glades County, the emergency operations center recorded a wind gust of . Twelve funnel clouds were reported in Highlands County, though they remained unconfirmed. Effects from the storm in Central Florida were limited to light rainfall and winds in a few counties. Brevard County reported elevated wind speeds, though winds were no more than at any of the locations. Precipitation of at least occurred as far north as Alachua County.