Storm story . . .

We are all relieved to see the people of New Orleans making evacuation moves. There is a self-preservation area in my psyche that breathed a sigh of relief when I learned that there are proactive preparations underway there.

We experienced Hurricane Andrew's coming ashore and passing directly over. The southern end of the county experienced the calm in the eye and the eyewall winds on both sides of that calm area. We, as a population, became famous for the widespread destruction that was visited on us.

There were stories, though. At Florida International University, the parking and traffic department was then housed in a temporary trailer next to the public safety building. That building is a real aircraft control tower which still remains from the time the whole campus was nothing but an exurban airport.

The walls of the that tower are made of poured, reinforced concrete. By sheer luck, the trailer was situated on the leeward of that control tower. The wind-shadow of the building gave shelter. It was one of the few trailers in our whole county that suffered very little effect from the storm.

The aircraft control tower, itself? All of the laminated, inches-thick, safety glass was blown out of the observation room at the top of the tower.

But, none of it hit that trailer . . .