(MIAMI, FLA) — If you have lived in South Florida for decades, then you remember what happened 30 years ago.

This week marks a somber anniversary of the August 24th, 1992 landfall of the buzz saw that was Hurricane Andrew in Homestead, Florida.
The Category 5 hurricane was responsible for 44 deaths in Florida and up to $34 billion worth of damage.
FAU economist Sofia Johan says a similar storm today would be even costlier.

She says that’s because the population in South Florida has doubled in the last 20 years, and the population’s wealth has quadrupled.
So far this 2022 Atlantic Hurricane season, South Florida has yet to see a named storm let alone a hurricane.
Currently, the National Hurricane Center is monitoring a tropical wave located a few hundred miles west of the Cabo Verde Islands where Hurricane Andrew also first developed.

Graphic Courtesy: National Hurricane Center

The new disturbance continues to produce disorganized showers and thunderstorms, according to the NHC.
Environmental conditions could support some slow development of this system while it moves westward to west-northwestward at around 10 to 15 mph across the tropical Atlantic during the next several days.
The system has zero percent chance of formation over the next 48 hours and a 20% chance through the next five days.