30th anniversary of Hurricane Andrew making landfall

INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — It has been 30 years since the historic landfall of Hurricane Andrew. On Aug. 24, 1992, the Category 5 hurricane came ashore in the pre-dawn hours in south Florida with maximum sustained winds of 165 mph. Andrew is one of only four Category 5 hurricanes to make landfall in the U.S. since 1900.

The catastrophic storm destroyed approximately 49,000 homes and damaged an additional 108,000, according to NWS Miami. In total, it is estimated the damage was $26 billion. At the time, Hurricane Andrew was the costliest natural disaster in U.S. history, but that would later be surpassed by Hurricane Katrina 13 years later.

Hurricane Andrew reached peak intensity with maximum sustained at 170 mph before striking the Bahamas in the days prior. After moving through South Florida, the storm re-emerged in the Gulf of Mexico and eventually made landfall once again in a sparsely populated part of Louisiana as a Category 3 hurricane on Aug. 26. The storm as a whole directly caused 26 fatalities.