Blair, S.M.; McIntosh, T.L.; Mostkoff, B.J. 1994. Impacts of
Hurricane Andrew on the offshore reef systems of central and 
northern Dade County, Florida.  Bull. Mar. Sci. 54(3): 961-973.
 
On 24 August 1992, Hurricane Andrew passed in close proximity to 
eight natural reef biological monitoring stations and eleven 
artificial reef sites offshore of Dade County. Eight qualitative 
visual surveys and eight quantitative photogrammetric surveys 
were used to estimate the impact of the hurricane on the natural 
reefs. The forereef slope of the offshore (5 km offshore) reef, 
between 17 and 29 m, was most heavily affected with lesson levels 
of damage occurring on the middle (4 km offshore) reef and least 
loss of organisms noted on the inner (2.5 km offshore) reef. The 
impact to the hard coral, soft coral, sponge and algal components 
varied on a given reef tract. The algal community consistently 
showed the greatest loss (40 to >90%) of benthic cover. The 
sponge community was slightly (0-25%) to heavily (50-75%) 
impacted, showing the greatest loss on the offshore reef and 
least on the inshore reef. Soft corals showed a similar trend 
with 25-50% loss and 0-25% on the offshore and inshore reef, 
respectively.  Hard corals were least affected with a moderate 
loss of benthic cover (38%) on the offshore reef and slight loss 
(< 23%) on the other inner two reefs. The effect of the storm on 
artificial reefs (i.e., steel vessels, prefabricated modules, 
concrete structures) varied greatly. Impacts ranged from no 
impact, to movement, to partial or total structural modification. 
No pattern of damage relative to location, orientation or depth 
of the reef material was discernable.