Hurricanes: Their Nature and Impacts on Society - Climate Science ...

168 HURRICANES: THEIR NATURE AND IMPACf ON SOCIETY
of building supplies following Andrew. With higher dem<strong>and</strong> for building
materials, prices went up <strong>and</strong> rebuilding slowed. As a result of homes left in a
damaged state during the rains <strong>and</strong> resultant water damage to structures that
followed Andrew, "partial losses went from bad to worse, <strong>and</strong> many became
total losses", further increasing the costs of Hurricane Andrew to the insurance
industry (Noonan 1993). An interesting question is whether these costs ought to
be attributed to Hugo or Andrew.
Hurricane Andrew provided some with economic benefits. Two weeks after
the storm The Miami Herald announced that "The gold rush is on" as job
seekers flooded south Florida (Alvarez 1 992b). To some in the construction
industry the storm came to be known as 'CSt Andrew" due to the dem<strong>and</strong> for
construction that it left in its wake (Noonan 1993). The Miami city government
expected a net financial gain due to the storm's second- <strong>and</strong> third-order
impacts (fanfani 1992). Clearly a number of public <strong>and</strong> private groups <strong>and</strong>
organizations profited significantly from the storm's passage.
Although Andrew devastated South Dade County, "the hurricane's impact
on Dade's economy could have been much worse," according to a report by
the county's planning office (Filkins 1992). Andrew's path of most severe
damage took it well south of the area that generates the most economic
activity. Figure 7.2 shows how close Andrew came to being a much worse
impact. The bulk of Dade County's businesses were not dramatically affected,
which facilitated recovery. However, while the county planners expected a
healthy recovery for Dade County in terms of aggregate economic indicators,
they were much less sanguine about the future of southern Dade County,
where Andrew had hit the hardest. They feared that communities such as
Homestead would never fully recover.
Casualties
Difficulties in determination of a hurricane's economic impact are also present
in attribution of casualties to a hurricane (cf. Garcia, Neal <strong>and</strong> Tanfani 1992).
There are casualties directly associated with a hurricane, such as drowning due
to a storm surge. There are also casualties that are indirectly related to a
hurricane, such as a heart attack during the storm or being struck by lightning
while sorting through damages in the days following the event.
The DOC Disaster Assessment attributed 14 deaths directly to Andrew's
l<strong>and</strong>fall in south Florida (DOC 1993). A FEMA assessment attributed 40
direct <strong>and</strong> indirect deaths to the storm (FEMA 1993). Hundreds of people
were injured (DOC 1993). That there were not more casualties is partly due to
good fortune, but also largely a result of long- <strong>and</strong> short-term preparedness
efforts. The relatively low loss of life in Florida should not be interpreted to
mean that future hurricanes do not have potential to take a large number of
lives. As experts note, large loss of life is a constant threat from l<strong>and</strong>falling