How Hurricanes Have Disrupted and Defined Past Elections

For some Florida residents, Hurricane Matthew may conjure up memories of another election-year storm that hit when a different Clinton was on the presidential ballot.

In 1992, pundits predicted that the Category 5 Hurricane Andrew could significantly impact the results of an unpredictable three-way race involving Arkansas Gov. Bill Clinton, businessman Ross Perot and incumbent President George H. W. Bush.

At the time, there was considerable hand wringing over the speed with which Bush's administration responded to the crisis. "Where in the hell is the cavalry on this one? For God's sake, where are they?" lamented Miami-Dade County's emergency operations director Kate Hale to reporters. The president's terse response from the Rose Garden was: "I'm not going to participate in the blame game."

Eventually, more federal resources were deployed to the Sunshine State and a New York Times/CBS News poll that September showed that a majority of Florida voters approved of Bush's handling of the disaster.   

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