{"id":10982,"date":"2012-08-24T00:59:20","date_gmt":"2012-08-24T04:59:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.synchrosecrets.com\/synchrosecrets\/?p=10982"},"modified":"2012-09-25T20:30:13","modified_gmt":"2012-09-26T00:30:13","slug":"cone-of-uncertainty-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/themysticalunderground.com\/?p=10982","title":{"rendered":"Cone of Uncertainty"},"content":{"rendered":"

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The cone of uncertainty <\/a>is the strange shape you see in the graphic above. It\u2019s one of those terms with which most people in South Florida are familiar. It means the predicted path of a hurricane becomes less certain the farther out in time you go and if you fall within the cone, you need a keep an eye on the news and check in regularly with the National Hurricane Center. You\u2019re not supposed to focus solely on the broken black line that is the predicted path of the hurricane. This hurricane, by the way, is actually Tropical Storm Isaac, which as of 11 PM on August 23, is not yet a hurricane.<\/p>\n

But today, August 24, marks the 20th<\/sup> anniversary of Hurricane Andrew, a category 5 hurricane that slammed into Homestead, Florida, in 1992, with recorded wind gusts as high as 177 miles an hour. \u2013 282 km\/h. \u00a0Andrew was a small, compact storm that intensified rapidly.<\/p>\n

I remember that I was in a drug store, picking up a prescription, when I saw a special weather alert about the storm on a TV behind the pharmacist\u2019s counter. I saw the words Category 5<\/em> and that our area, just 70 miles north of Miami, fell within the cone of uncertainty. I rushed home and Rob and I started putting up our hurricane shutters \u2013 aluminum panels that took hours to install.<\/p>\n

In those days, we had the Internet, but it was mostly message boards and bore little resemblance to the Internet in the 21st<\/sup> century. I don\u2019t think the National Hurricane Center was even online back then. Hardly anything was online. Our daughter was just three at the time, so that night we all slept in one room, with the cats positioned in their usual spots. I heard wind and rain during the night, but nothing extraordinary. We woke up the next morning, still had electrical power, and our only damage was a downed papaya tree.<\/p>\n

There wasn\u2019t any news out of Miami until Dan Rather got down there a few days after the storm hit, then the full horror of the storm\u2019s damage became apparent. At that time, it was the costliest hurricane ever and remains as one of the strongest to ever hit the U.S.<\/p>\n