North America

Early Monday morning, August 24, 1992, Hurricane Andrew boiled in from the Atlantic and slammed through southern Florida before veering across the Gulf of Mexico to tear into Louisiana. Screaming like a siren, with sustained winds of 140 miles per hour [230 km/​hr] and gusts of at least 164 miles per hour [260 km/​hr], the storm leveled 165 square miles [430 sq km] of south Florida. Andrew left 250,000 people homeless, destroyed an estimated 63,000 houses, and left 38 people dead. “The damage was unprecedented in the United States,” said a veteran claims specialist for an insurance company, “the worst I’ve ever seen.”

The Witnesses were not immune to Hurricane Andrew’s fury​—3,500 of them were left homeless because 1,120 of their homes were damaged, 150 beyond repair. Ten Kingdom Halls were damaged too.

[Pictures on page 14, 15]

Hurricane Andrew devastated southern Florida on August 24, 1992, and left 3,500 Witnesses homeless