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Article snippet: MIAMI — Every hurricane tells a story. Hurricane Andrew in 1992, with a 17-foot storm surge and winds so intense that they destroyed the gauges meant to measure them, was the disaster that changed construction standards in Miami and much of the southeastern United States. Katrina in New Orleans and Rita in Houston, both in 2005, taught terrifying lessons about evacuations. For millions of people drawn to Florida for its sunshine and its reputation for easy living, Hurricane Irma, whose story is still playing out, was their first major hurricane. It was not mine. I covered more than a dozen hurricanes over more than three decades as a New York Times reporter before I left in 2008 to teach journalism and work on environmental issues at the University of Miami. Over those years, many things changed. Sporadic radio and television advisories have morphed into round-the-clock coverage on local television, CNN and the Weather Channel. Forecasts have become far more accurate. Preparedness is infinitely more advanced. And with climate change, storms are viewed not just as acts of nature but perhaps of unwitting human intervention as well. Years ago, banks and other businesses gave customers paper hurricane maps so that they could plot the latitude and longitude of developing storms. Now nearly everyone is glued to their phones and computers, watching projected storm tracks play out in real time. Still, many things have remained the same: Hurricanes often confound the fore... Link to the full article to read more