Hurricane Andrew, 33 years ago

Someone in my family (named Andrew) has a framed Miami Herald front page in his home office from the day before landfall with the huge headline of “Millions Flee Andrew’s Wrath”.

And exotic snacks rejoiced.

IIRC the storm whipped up the Atchafalaya and caused oxygen reduction and fish kill. Crawfish had plenty of rotting food and less predators. Prices were lowest I’ve ever remembered.

I was a recent college grad living in Metairie.

My grandparents and parents harassed me into packing up and evacuating to Baton Rouge.

Metairie was untouched. Baton Rouge got hammered.

Wild to think that was also the first named storm of the year.

Hit close to Morgan city and the eye went up Joey’s 90 and the right side of storm tore through every small town on 182 which ran parallel to 90. Then made a sharp right turn right before laffy and straight down 10 into the BR area.

Andrew is responsible for the south Florida storm building codes that are now standard on the gulf coast.

It was my first semester at LSU and I was setup in some temporary dorms. I woke up the next morning after our hurricane party because the power was out and we were sleeping on vynil mattresses without sheets. It was Africa hot. I went outside and there was a lot of tree damage. I knew power wasn’t going to be restored anytime soon and classes had been canceled. I loaded up my gear and drove home. I didn’t know at the time that I had walked out during the eye. I thought the storm was over. What a terrible drive home on the middle of the interstate during the backside of that storm haha.

My son was being born at the Old Woman's hospital.