08/24/2026
34 years ago, Hurricane Andrew devastated Homestead and much of southern Miami-Dade. In Opa-locka, however, many of our buildings emerged relatively unscathed, though even some of the city’s most iconic structures didn’t escape without a few scars.
Pictured here is Dan Wick, then Assistant Director of the Opa-locka Community Development Corporation (today Ten North Group Ten North Group ), standing beside a seven-foot brass finial. How did it end up on the ground?
Hurricane Andrew ripped the massive architectural ornament from the top of the historic Hurt Business Center at 490 Opa-locka Blvd.
More than three decades later, the finial has never returned to its place atop the building — a small but lasting reminder of the storm that reshaped South Florida.
Much like the devastating hurricane of 1926, Opa-locka was largely spared from Mother Nature’s worst. Perhaps our inland location was one of the most consequential choices our founders made nearly a century ago - helping create a community built not only to endure, but to survive.
