Hurricane Andrew Research Paper

Why was Hurricane Andrew so Frightening? Hurricane Andrew took from people, if it didn’t take their lives, it took their homes and jobs. Hurricane Andrew destroyed the stability that took some people their whole lives to achieve. In 1992, Hurricane Andrew took fully developed cities and left splinters in their places.This natural disaster was the cause of fear because its consequences included physical, social, and economic despair. It all began early fall, when it was still warm enough for the hurricane to grow strong. On August 16 a tropical wave off the coast of West Africa became a depression. Starting in the North Atlantic the depression made its way to Dade, Florida. A few days later on August 22 around five in the afternoon the depression reached the capacity at which it could be labeled as a hurricane by meteorologists. Soon, on August 24 at around five in the morning Andrew made its mark in Dade, Florida. Once it was past Florida, Andrew directed itself to Morgan City, Louisiana and struck again around five in the morning on August 26. Hurricane Andrew had wind gusts up to 170 miles an hour and was in the end classified as a category 5 hurricane. A category 5 hurricane has the

Along with damaging buildings hurricane Andrew also damaged people. The hurricane exposed people to life threatening situations in turn causing them to feel elevated levels of stress, anxiety, and depression. Children exposed to Andrew’s wrath were worse off, experiencing symptoms of PTSD. Studies done a year after the hurricane display that 33% of children were depressed, divorces were up 15%, and domestic violence elevated 21%. When the hurricane hit it knocked out most of the electrical grid along with contaminating most of the water. A person’s quality of life would also lower significantly after a hurricane due to an inability to meet basic physiological needs such as food,water, and