The previous Hurricane Andrew damage slide looked at these cars up close from the side, while this bird’s-eye perspective peers down from 13 stories aloft. Even though this seemingly freak phenomenon occurred outside Andrew’s maximum winds, it’s a result of Bernoulli’s principle: a decrease in the fluid’s pressure and/or potential energy (such as forced by an obstacle) is accompanied by an increase in its speed. Airflow accelerated in that manner around the IRE Financial building (then housing the National Hurricane Center). In this case, over spaces of just a few yards, that caused gusts to reach speeds found in the eyewall miles to the south, flipping the blue car through the air and atop both the concrete wall and the car beneath.
Coral Gables, FL (24 Aug 92) Looking SW
25.7131, -80.2776
Stacked Cars from Above
The previous Hurricane Andrew damage slide looked at these cars up close from the side, while this bird’s-eye perspective peers down from 13 stories aloft. Even though this seemingly freak phenomenon occurred outside Andrew’s maximum winds, it’s a result of Bernoulli’s principle: a decrease in the fluid’s pressure and/or potential energy (such as forced by an obstacle) is accompanied by an increase in its speed. Airflow accelerated in that manner around the IRE Financial building (then housing the National Hurricane Center). In this case, over spaces of just a few yards, that caused gusts to reach speeds found in the eyewall miles to the south, flipping the blue car through the air and atop both the concrete wall and the car beneath.
Coral Gables, FL (24 Aug 92) Looking SW
25.7131, -80.2776