Hurricane Andrew struck the southern portion of Dade County, FL, at 5:05am on Monday, August 24, 1992, causing incredible destruction of homes, businesses, Homestead Air Force Base, etc. Miami International Airport sustained high winds from the hurricane and debris was all over the airfield including the runways. A sizeable percentage of airport/airline employees could not come into work because their homes and/or cars were either destroyed or seriously damaged. Others could not come in because roads were blocked with downed power lines and trees.
Despite the horrible situation our county was in, hard work and dedication by MIA's management and dramatically reduced staff got the airport operational by mid-afternoon Tuesday, August 25th and commercial airline flights resumed at that time. Concourse C was out of service because a temporary connector to it from the main terminal had blown down. We had fifteen gates out of service, mostly due to jetbridge damage. Some of the airlines operated a reduced schedule for a day or two until the rest of the gates became operational. We not only got the main terminal operational but we also got the former Eastern Airlines maintenance base laid out and striped that week to handle numerous Air Force C-5A and C-141 cargo relief supply flights that were vital in helping out residents in the devastated areas of our county.
The above memo was scanned and placed on this site to keep MIA's aviation history accurate. There is pathetic distortion of history over time without accurate record keeping and documentation on the internet. I was disturbed to read a news article online from the Orlando Business Journal on Friday, August 20, 2004 where Bill Jennings, Orlando International Airport's Executive Director, stupidly stated that they worked so hard to get back up and running a day after after Hurricane Charley on August 13th, 2004, because Miami International Airport was shut down for four days after Hurricane Andrew. Jennings stupidly further stated that they felt they really couldn't afford to do that because their airport is really important to the Orlando economy.
Jennings' false stupid comments not only exaggerated our one-day closure to four days but they insinuated that MIA's airport staff didn't care about Dade County's economy as much as MCO's staff cared about Orlando's economy. Nothing could be further from the truth and the record needs to be set straight. MIA's reduced staff worked hard long hours under very trying conditions to get MIA operational as soon as possible and we were successful. False comments from the director of another airport 12 years later are uncalled for, minimize our outstanding efforts and performance after a devastating hurricane, and are a futile attempt to rewrite the actual history of what really happened. A retraction is in order, Mr. Jennings.
The Orlando Business Journal article is at http://orlando.bizjournals.com/orlando/stories/2004/08/16/daily65.html
