432
Russell C. Coile
Amateur Radio Club, N6ICW Telephone Pioneer Radio Club, and Contra
Costa Repeaters.
Hurricane Andrew, Homestead, Florida, August 22, 1992
Hurricane Andrew was a catastrophic American disaster. The local and
State emergency response forces were overwhelmed. Forty people were
killed and 130,000 homes damaged. More than 250,000 people were
left homeless. There were 630,000 people evacuated. Four million people
were without electricity and water. There were 117,000 telephones out of
commission. Some of the problems in Hurricane Andrew were: command
& control confusion; inadequate damage assessment; 30,000 Military
arrived late; too much unexpected mutual aid; unexpected donations
caused problems; lack of emergency power generators; lack of emergency
water and food; fi re engines could not operated in winds greater than 70
mph; no wind measurements; and the National Hurricane Center radar,
computer, & satellite communications failed during storm.
QST had an article describing Hurricane Andrew amateur radio
operations in Florida in its December 1992 issue, (Kandel, 1992). RACES
hams had been mobilized before the hurricane and were on station inside
the Dade County Emergency Operations Center, a 1950 nuclear vault-
like shelter. The shelter building survived the hurricane, but six of seven
antennas and towers did not. VHF antennas which the County, the Red
Cross and the School Board were supposed to have installed long ago
on schools earmarked for shelters had not been installed. Luckily, one
amateur radio repeater in Miami, 35 miles out of the severely damage
area, had survived.
About 150 amateurs came from all over Florida to help in Dade County.
Hams kept the EOC in constant contact with the State of Florida EOC in
Tallahassee, 500 miles away. One amateur radio operator was struck by
lightning and killed as he was providing communications for a helicopter
unloading food supplies. Another ham in a shelter reported by radio that
the hurricane wind had increased and that the roof of the gymnasium
was lifting fi ve feet off the building during gusts. He helped evacuate the
shelterees to lower fl oors after breaking open some locked doors. The roof
eventually blew off. This was the worst hurricane to hit this part of South
Florida in 27 years. Amateur radio operators supported more than 80 city,
county, state, and federal agencies for nine days.