Those numbers are large, but they still do not fully convey what Andrew was. They don’t say what it felt like to step outside and find that familiar streets had become unrecognizable. They don’t describe neighborhoods flattened into debris fields, the long lines for critical supplies, the heat that came in the aftermath, the weeks  without power and the inky darkness at night, or the stunned silence of people trying to make sense of what remained.

Books and survivor accounts from Andrew return again and again to the same truth: disaster was not only the wind speed. It was the tearing of ordinary life. It was the moment when a home, a workplace, a school, a small business, a pantry, or a neighborhood—the things we hold most precious—suddenly became utterly vulnerable. That’s why Andrew still belongs in our hurricane conversations, especially in a year when the forecast may tempt us to relax.

Some may say that we are “due” for a major hurricane landfall but science doesn’t work that way. NOAA explains hurricane return periods as averages across long spans of time, not a countdown clock. Storms don’t keep calendars or neat routes.

But history is in some sense a very wise teacher. It reminds us that South Florida sits in the middle of hurricane alley and that the risk is historically very real. It reminds us that long quiet stretches can make us feel safer than we are and blur our perception of risk. These long stretches of good fortune can soften memory, delay our planning, and make preparation seem like something that can be deferred until later, until it is perhaps too late. But remembering Andrew is a rebuke to that kind of thinking. Preparation is needed now, not later.

For families, preparation means checking water, food, medicine, batteries, flashlights, documents, evacuation plans, pet needs, and neighbors who may need extra help.

For businesses, it means thinking ahead about employees, payroll, operations, customers, facilities, insurance, communications, and how quickly a disruption can ripple through a community. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation recently found that 69% of small businesses have no disaster plan, and 36% could not pay employees beyond one month after a disaster. In a storm, those are not abstract business risks. They are families, paychecks, jobs, and local recovery.

At Bridge To Hope, we also know that the impacts of storms aren’t distributed evenly. Families already living close to the edge can lose food, wages, transportation, power, and access to medicine very quickly. A quiet forecast may lower the odds of a busy season, but it does not lower the value of preparing early.

So we pray this season is uneventful. We hope every storm turns away. We hope the forecasts prove generous.

And we prepare anyway.

Not because we’re afraid, but because we remember. Not because panic helps anyone, but because care does.

Please do not lower your guard. Check your plan. Help someone else check theirs.

Because Love Does.