During the early morning hours of August 24, 1992, one of the most powerful hurricanes to ever hit the US made landfall just south of Miami, Florida. Hurricane Andrew was a very late first named storm of the otherwise quiescent 1992 season. The full track is shown here, but most noteworthy is that it was a Category 5 storm over the Bahamas and heading into Florida.
My friend and veteran hurricane chaser Michael Laca is a native Miamian, and recorded some video before, during, and after Andrew's passage through the area. After 20 years, he made a monumental effort to convert his old analog tape recordings to digital format so this historic footage can live on. Please take a few minutes to watch his video clip... it's quite humbling.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lO0TGcRm6LM
There is an infamous final radar image captured by the radar on the roof of the National Hurricane Center when it was located in the Gables One Tower along US Hwy 1 (the + symbol on the map). This was at 4:35am when the wrath of the monster storm was only halfway over. If anything positive can be found about this storm, it's that 1) it was extremely small which limited the areal extent of the strongest winds and 2) the eyewall didn't pass directly over the Miami metro area.
You can read more about the history and aftermath of Andrew at:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hurricane_Andrew
http://www.srh.noaa.gov/mfl/?n=andrew
http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/06/12/2845424/hurricane-andrew-20-years-later.html
http://www.npr.org/2012/08/23/159613339/hurricane-andrews-legacy-like-a-bomb-in-florida
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