If hurricanes are so bad.... (Punta Gorda: housing, trailer, news)

[lorriem]

Originally Posted by Kurt

I have a couple of more years to go until I can leave Florida. I am here because I committed to a job and have to stick it out. Please realize that many people cannot just up and leave. If you are older and have just a few more years before retirement you are really stuck--your reemployment options with benefits are extremely limited. In fact, that goes for many younger folks, too. Life is not always so simple. Sometimes folks just get trapped. Many of us are just ordinary people who did not necessarily move here for the weather alone--we came because of a job. We will finish our job and get out. But I do agree it does no good to keep carping about hurricanes. I do think Florida will fare a bit better with better building codes in the future. But we will get slammed again--only a matter of time. Oh, I should mention that some of us cannot sell our house at a decent price and the insurance is eating us up. Until the real estate market turns some are stuck in a bad place.

We are leaving Fl after 3 years and have our house on the market.We bought another home in NC.It is hard to sell now so we just might rent it out.Hubby is 65 but is still working and will continue with his same job up there.The INS is just to high to live here and NC is more afforable.We moved here in Aug of 2004 just time for the hurricanes every other week end what a welcome.

[Suncoaster]

If hurricanes are so bad, why doesn't everyone leave FL?

First, they really ARE "that bad." The major ones are heartbreakers, with jobs and homes lost, lives ruined. Don't believe me? just look at Andrew. And Charley. And Katrina. and on and on.

But where would we all go? Tornado alley, where if you're lucky you have, oh, maybe 15 -30 minutes warning. Where the windspeed can be up to 318 mph, not 155. Or maybe out west. With all the wildfires. earthquakes. mudslides. droughts. more wildfires. Or how about anywhere ELSE in the southeast - with more hurricanes. and tornados. and even more wildfires.

Or we could all go to beautiful New England, with its delightful nor'easters, blizzards, ice and black ice and more ice. And freezing sub-zero cold you could freeze to death.

Every place in the US has something, whether it's floods or hurricanes or tornados, fires, blizzards, terror attacks - it's always something. So the only thing we can do is: live where we'd love to live if we are fortunate enough to have the option, learn as much as possible about the particular problems the area faces and do the best we can, with what resources we have, to deal with it.

[lorriem]

Originally Posted by Suncoaster

If hurricanes are so bad, why doesn't everyone leave FL?

First, they really ARE "that bad." The major ones are heartbreakers, with jobs and homes lost, lives ruined. Don't believe me? just look at Andrew. And Charley. And Katrina. and on and on.

But where would we all go? Tornado alley, where if you're lucky you have, oh, maybe 15 -30 minutes warning. Where the windspeed can be up to 318 mph, not 155. Or maybe out west. With all the wildfires. earthquakes. mudslides. droughts. more wildfires. Or how about anywhere ELSE in the southeast - with more hurricanes. and tornados. and even more wildfires.

Or we could all go to beautiful New England, with its delightful nor'easters, blizzards, ice and black ice and more ice. And freezing sub-zero cold you could freeze to death.

Every place in the US has something, whether it's floods or hurricanes or tornados, fires, blizzards, terror attacks - it's always something. So the only thing we can do is: live where we'd love to live if we are fortunate enough to have the option, learn as much as possible about the particular problems the area faces and do the best we can, with what resources we have, to deal with it.

I think you live with what scares you the least.We lived in Ca for 25 years and earthquakes never scared me as much as lightning and tornados and we lived through the 1989 earthquake. Life went on and I never gave earthquakes a second thought.We also lived in NH and had the freezing sub-zero cold but you get use to it and when the temp reaches 40 you feel warm.I just do not like living in the lightning capital of the world that plus ins co leaving the state so you have no choice but to pay outragious payments.

[DesertRose702]

Before experiencing Andrew, I thought a hurricane was merely an annoying windstorm with lots of rain. Maybe the power would go off for a few hours, then business as usual the next day. Consequently, I went to sleep in our den. I awoke when the lights went off. My husband and adult children were standing in the doorway looking at me. The wind was howling like a banshee and there were cracking noises. The patio doors were actually bowing in and looked like they would crack at any minute. My son said we need to get into the closet - quickly. The four of us crammed into our walk in closet off the master bedroom. We were in there for SIX hours listening to the wind, rain and other sounds that could not be identified. When we were finally able to come out, windows were broken and the floors were flooded. To make a long story short, the power and water and phones were off for about 30 days. Life, my friends, did not go on as usual. We stayed at a friend's house out of the wreckage zone. Post Traumatic Stress Disorder is not a joke. If you haven't been thru a category 5 hurricane, you are lucky. We were finally able to move and chose an area with high ground and no hurricanes. Miami is 15 feet above sea level! Las Vegas sits 2,163 feet high. Perhaps other things can happen here but not flooding or hurricanes. Vegas is not for everyone but we love it. Cheers to you all and I hope you find your near perfect place!

[lady22]

I agree, I use to reside in St. Louis. When we had a Ice storm and we were without power for a week in the cold. No food, all the hotels were booked up. I would prefer to be without power in a warmer climate than a cold one.

[sapling]

I've lived in Florida for 18 years, but moving around for college and jobs since then, I'd have to say hurricanes aren't the worst of it.

CA has it's earthquakes (experienced a 5.6 there just a couple months ago). Iowa has hail and tornados (experienced a hail storm there with balls about 2 inches in diameter). Any area around large bodies of water will sometimes have flooding.

The nice thing about hurricanes is you get some warning. We pack up and leave if it looks like a Cat4 or 5 will hit us. Generally, your house will be ok if you 1) don't have a lot of really tall pine trees around it and 2) don't live in a flood plain. We did lose part of our roof in Ivan (just the shingles, not the woodwork underneath), but there was no major damage.

The most annoying part about bad hurricanes for people who dont live on the beach is the loss of power, sometimes for as much as a week afterward.

My recommendation: Hurricanes aren't that bad if you live away from the beach, have supplies for after the storm, and are prepared to take a 2-day vacation if a bad one is headed your way. My family has only had to leave town once in 20 years. Don't keep pine trees on your property - plant nice big oaks that aren't right beside the house.

[brokencrayola]

I was having this very same discussion with my husband last night. We were watching on tv about the new HGTV Dream Home which happens to be on a small island on the Fla. Keys. I would assume that area would be very vulnerable to hurricanes, possible flooding etc. I know that Islamorada (where the home is) was hit with flooding in the 1930's (before hurricane tracking) and it wiped the whole island out. I know it is probably beautiful there, as well as warm and sunny. I am not sure I could live there though. I would feel vulnerable on that spit of land with the Atlantic ocean on one side of me and the Gulf on the other. Even with early hurricane tracking I could easily have repeated damage or destruction of my home and everything I own. Even with insurance I would possibly have to go through many months waiting for the home to be rebuilt or fixed (and live elsewhere), live without power for who knows how long, and lose things that money simply can buy back. Hurricanes happen every year, even though they may not hit you or affect you that often. Yes, I live where there is snow and cold temps in the winter, but no hurricanes, no tornados, no earthquakes, very few ice storms. I think you can live in certain areas of the US and be pushing your luck more than some areas. I lived many years in S. CA and was in my fair share of earthquakes and hate them. I was in the 71' quake there. If you live in S. CA you are very likely to be involved with earthquakes, if you live in the midwest you are very likely to have tornadoes affect you, and if you live in Fla. and along the lower coastline above it you are likely to suffer the consequences of a hurricane at some point.

[boatguy]

I went through 3 hurricanes in Marathon, FL, middle of the Keys in 2005, wasn't out of power but 2 hours maybe. You deal with it.

[AliceT]

It's not so much the hurricanes that are so bad as the result of the hurricanes reaching so far inland in recent years. Hurricanes used to be coastal issues and folks living along the coast would head inland toward Orlando, stay a day or two until it was over and then head for home to see what damages were sustained.

But now, since 2004, with the hurricanes packing a bigger punch, lasting longer and making a path clear across the state and, as is sometimes times the case, regaining strength over water and coming back to hit us again from the opposite coast. The hurricanes are not as devestating nor as sudden as tornadoes. Having experienced them both, I'd stand outside and weather a hurricane any day of the year. But a tornado? Not for a second. The real issue is what happened after the hurricanes of 2005 - insurance companies going broke and the difficulty or getting affordable insurance - particularly in a mobile home or in a trailer park. Heaven help you if your home sustained considerable damage during a hurricane. Getting insurance for the repaired or rebuilt home would send homeowners to the poor house, if they could get it at all. And I know people who are still fighting for their insurance companies to make good on policies that were in effect when their homes were destroyed or severely battered. So it's not the hurricanes but the man-made issues after the fact.

I can't help but wonder about people who "prepare for a hurricane" but neglect to have an alternate means to cook, supply power or have at the very least several weeks worth of non-perishable food and medicines on hand. I lived in my garage for 10 days after a hurricane because the power was out, there were no trees to shade the house and the sweltering heat of the FL summer was just too much to bear. I cooked breakfast, lunch and dinner on a propane grill and had enough food & supplies to last for a couple months, if need be.

It takes so little effort to provide for yourself if you do it methodically and regularly. Keep several extra and full propane tanks on hand, buckets of charcoal and lighter fluid and just about any device made of metal with an indentation can become a makeshift stovetop in a hurry. Neighbors were cooking in an old wheelbarrow because they neglected to take their grill in when a storm came along. It's not rocket science. You do not want to be a refugee after a storm. I was still expected at work, still had to care and provide for my horses, cows, poultry and dogs. Just like everyone else, I had plenty of warning that the storm was coming and I made efforts beforehand to top off my supplies, put feed and water-sensitive items into water tight bins and then secured those as far out of harm's way as I could.

People who flee with just the clothes on their backs are the ones who suffer. Unfortunately, a lot of people do exactly that and those are the people that news crews focus their attention on. The city people create a larger problem after the storm has passed but for some reason, their woes are always blamed on the storm. It wasn't the hurricane that made them fools.

News crews always zero in on the inner city folks but not the farmers. Why? Because farmers know to prepare all year long. Sure, they were without power too. But they all have or pooled their resources and helped each other out. They have to. You don't leave to stay in a motel when you have cows and horses and poultry as well as a full time job away from the farm. People who live in the cities or in apartments have become so accustomed to the conveniences of city life that they lost sight of what's important. After the hurricane, they go right back to the same patterns. For the life of me, I can't figure out why. Actually, I believe that was the mentality of the masses when the Great Depression hit.

Live for today, not a care in the world, just charge it. History repeats itself. We are overdue for another Great Depression and it'll be interesting to see what the schools tell children what caused it. I can assure you it had nothing to do with a hurricane.

[tallrick]

I love hurricanes. They give days or weeks of vacation, and are a chance to get to know your neighbors. There's just something exciting about those hurricane watches and warnings, seeing people filling up stores, hearing the saws and hammers boarding up, I love it! Food is no problem, I have months of canned food on hand, and can go fishing. The cistern holds plenty of water especially in the rainy season. At my parent's home we keep wood, roofing paper, nails, tarps and tools ready. When a 40 foot tree fell in the Florida room, it was fixed by the next day. My home is almost hurricane proof. Hurricanes can be fun.