(CBS4) SOUTH MIAMI-DADE Al Sunshine's life wasn't the only one changed forever in August 1992.

"We didn't get very much notice," said James Murphy. "Trust me no notice at all."

"I don't think we were fully ready," said Frank Hunt. "We didn't know the degree what a hurricane could do."

"Back in 1992, you have to realize our ability to forecast hurricanes was much less than it is now, especially for track," said Chris Landsea.

When Andrew roared ashore, nobody realized it was a Category 5 monster, capable of blowing down buildings as if they were a house of cards. 15 people died; a quarter of a million South Floridians were made homeless overnight.

South Dade neighbor Frank Hunt was one person who was left homeless.

"All of a sudden at about 2 or 3 in the morning, me like a fool I opened up the door a little bit and it almost took me out," said Hunt. "And it was the fear everybody had at the time--the trees, the shingles going across the street, all the debris."

Andrew left us with a lot of tough questions and painful answers. Few expected a direct hit in South Miami-Dade. That left too many local residents poorly prepared for what was to come.

"The best guess was it was going to hit a little further north, Broward or Palm Beach," said Christopher Landsea, of the National Hurricane Center. "But we know back then we had an average error of about 100 miles either side in one day.

Without predicting such a powerful storm, local emergency planners couldn't know they'd have to get ready for a quarter of a million people with nowhere to live, no food, no water, and no electricity in the searing summer sun of late August.

"The biggest problem was we didn't remember how bad hurricanes could be," said Chuck Lanza.

"We weren't ready. We weren't ready for a couple of reasons. One is we hadn't prepared ourselves for the big storm, the Hurricane Andrew Type of storm, and secondly we hadn't looked at the long term effects of it on the economy."

The Economy was an estimated $25 billion worth of damage in 1992. Homes, condos, and commercial properties were destroyed overnight. It served as a vivid reminder that our building code was being ignored, too many corners cut to keep up with South Florida's growth.

"You have to remember that before Andrew we were, what, 20 years without one," said Lanza.

"There were a lot of people who grew up in this town who didn't remember what a hurricane was," said Charles Danger, with the Miami-Dade Building Department. "We were not [read] and we paid the price."

And we're paying the price still today. Just check out your homeowners' insurance bill. The insurance industry rates never dropped down to pre-Andrew days.

And while a lot of residents here still have a lot of bad memories. Some have some very good memories too.

"I helped everybody in my neighborhood," said James Murphy, as he held back tears.

Murphy lost his home, but he remembers how Andrew also brought out the best in so many neighbors here.

"I tell you right now, neighbors helping neighbors was the greatest thing in the world."

And Andrew also taught weather scientists like Chris Landsea, whose parents lost their home, how hurricane experts needed to improve their forecasting.

"Compared to 15 years ago, we actually are able to have 1/2 as much forecast error," he said. "Yes, it's a 50 mile error in 1 day compared to 100 miles back in 1992."

Another painful lesson it took Hurricane Katrina to each us: Better pre-planning for disasters, moving critical relief supplies into regional distribution centers before a bad storm hits.

"Andrew is not over. Wilma is not over," said Danger.

"They are living in places that are substandard. You know and these are consequences that linger on when you have a disaster of that magnitude."

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