Here is an article from the KW Citizen about the 20 year anniversary of Andrew.
Remembering devastating Hurricane Andrew 20 years later
BY ADAM LINHARDT Citizen Staff
alinhardt@keysnews.com
Ohio native Kelly Koch moved to Tavernier 20 years ago to escape the northern winter chill that tormented her bad back and knees. She lost her job up north and, like many mainlanders, pointed her car south and didn't stop until she passed the Last Chance Saloon in Florida City.
It's a decision that placed her in the middle of the devastation left behind as Hurricane Andrew swept through South Florida.
Koch, who works as an accounting clerk at Niles Sales and Service in Key West, settled in a mobile home on Hood Avenue that winter. It wouldn't be until August that she had her "welcome to Florida moment," she said, laughing, on Tuesday.
It was then that she huddled in the concrete mobile home park office as winds whipped palm trees outside before finally killing the power. Hurricane Andrew, with its Category 5 winds, was making landfall in Homestead, leaving a path of destruction across much of the southern tip of the Florida peninsula.
Koch's trailer survived, but she lost her phone line. She, like so many others, got in her car and ventured out looking for civilization, but had a hard time finding it.
"We were driving north and it was just ungodly devastation," Koch said. "I remember seeing a U-Haul truck on top of a sign, and really, just all these people walking around looking completely lost. They all looked totally unsure of what was going on and what to do."
She found a pay phone at the corner of U.S. 1 and Campbell Drive by Ganim's Restaurant.
"The restaurant was gone, but the phone out front was still working," Koch said. "The line went down the block."
Koch didn't know it then, but the storm was going to change her life beyond the immediate inconvenience of no phone or power.
"I was looking around and thinking, my house is OK, I'm OK, but they're not," Koch said.
Over the next 20 years, Koch would become one of the standout volunteers for the American Red Cross in Monroe County, said Officer J.B. Hunt.
"The storm definitely pushed me in that direction," Koch said. "I volunteered for a few months and then I decided I needed to hang around longer. What people may not understand is that people needed help for months and months afterward."
She paused.
"Twenty years later, it's still very vivid in my mind," Koch said. "It's a day I'll never forget."
Andrew would prove to be the costliest hurricane in U.S. history. It made landfall on Aug. 24 and cost some $25 billion, according to AP reports. The storm did the most damage in Homestead, but Upper Keys residents felt the wrath, as wind damage was extensive.
The 20-year anniversary this week was not forgotten by Katha Sheehan, formerly of Key West, who now lives in Homestead. Sheehan lived in Key West for 27 years before moving north, where she works on a farm. Sheehan was best known as the owner of The Chicken Store on Duval Street who long championed the island's nomadic birds.
The Lower Keys lost power, but didn't suffer much damage like what was being reported in the Upper Keys and in Homestead. Sheehan ventured north and was shocked by what she saw.
"There didn't seem to be much damage until I got to the 18-Mile Stretch," Sheehan said. "It looked like a giant hand swiped everything away."
The storm forever changed emergency management in Florida, said Monroe County Director of Emergency Management Irene Toner. She didn't take over that job until 1998, but it was clear the stamp Hurricane Andrew left in its wake among state emergency planners.
"It was a wake-up call," Toner said. "Building codes were changed, training and logistics were improved. All those things were impacted."
One of the biggest changes was the staging of equipment and medical needs before a storm makes landfall. Planners now have statewide emergency teams made up of and operated by the counties that move in to help neighboring emergency responders, Toner said.
"For example, if there's a Category 3, the state will begin positioning equipment near Monroe County like at the Homestead Air Force Base or wherever they need to be," Toner said. "If we need chain saws and body bags, we will get them."
As Toner spoke Tuesday, meteorologists upgraded Tropical Depression 9 to Tropical Storm Isaac as it inched westward in Caribbean Sea, according to the National Hurricane Center.
"It's always on your mind," Sheehan said of the burgeoning storm. "It's hard for anyone who has lived here for a period of time and lived through big storms to not pay attention."
alinhardt@keysnews.com
arty:ya-hoo
