[doggiebus]

You take them with you. If you have to go to a shelter, there is usually one hurricane evacuation shelter in your area that allows people to bring their pets, you have to pre register way before a storm as space is limited. If there is no shelter that allows pets in your area, you go to a friends or relatives with your pets, you should never leave them behind. Or you can leave the area all together and head away from the storms predicted path. During Andrew we had three dogs and a hamster all in a little bathroom riding out the storm.

[brinkofsunshine]

The pictures on the website were mostly, from what I can tell, of towns along the coast. Those are the places that will take the biggest hit from a hurricane.

After living in Orlando for 16 years now, I have pretty much no fear of hurricanes. When Charley came through in '04 it went directly over where I lived. It was more exciting than anything else. My mom and I went outside for some of it, and then when it got worse we took the ourselves and our pets into the bathroom (which wasn't really needed anyway, just us being cautious). We lost power for a few hours.

The next day when we went out to inspect the area, the worst of it seemed to be downed trees and powerlines. Some pool screens and roof damages around, but not much. I wouldn't let a fear of hurricanes keep you from moving to Orlando. A strong storm hitting there is a pretty rare occurrence.

[stars99]

Originally Posted by doggiebus

You take them with you. If you have to go to a shelter, there is usually one hurricane evacuation shelter in your area that allows people to bring their pets, you have to pre register way before a storm as space is limited. If there is no shelter that allows pets in your area, you go to a friends or relatives with your pets, you should never leave them behind. Or you can leave the area all together and head away from the storms predicted path. During Andrew we had three dogs and a hamster all in a little bathroom riding out the storm.

How did the hamster do?

[Sunny-Days-in-Florida]

With todays technology you usually can count on knowing a hurricane is coming withing 2 days to 7 days head of time.

Someone here had posted a perfect hurricane plan a while back.

They even had a corner in the garage with hurricane only supplies that went into a trailer along with needed supplies and a power generator.

They also had pink totes to grab personal items such as photos, licenses etc if the time comes to put them in the trailer.

He stated he could be out of the house and driving within 30-45 minutes of any warning.

The most important thing is to be prepared and have a plan to leave if needed.

If you researched the records you should know that it has been several years that a bad hurricane has hit Florida.

For me, hurricanes is one of my least worries when we move to Florida.

[TXRyan23]

Originally Posted by Sunny-Days90

For me, hurricanes is one of my least worries when we move to Florida.

Yep, You have a much higher chance of losing your job (if you can find one), being kicked out of your house/apartment, and death by starvation then being devastated by a Hurricane.

Good to see you Sunny, btw

[pianogal]

Originally Posted by ComposerRyan

I was just researching hurricanes that had hit Florida in the past and after browsing all of the facts and damage photos, I have to admit I'm a little bit freaked out about what hurricanes can do.

I am thinking about moving to the Orlando area but now I'm afraid that the moment I move there I will lose my house. I'm not sure if I'm being reasonable, but I checked out these photos and just don't want to see this kind of thing happen:

Hurricane Charley Photos

So, my question is this: how do you recover from a hurricane like this and does the CENTER area of Florida get hit as hard as the coastline?

No, the center of Florida does not get hit as hard as the coast. These pics look like they were from the Punta Gorda area where the hurricane came ashore. We lived in Orlando through all of the 2004 hurricanes. I stood at my patio door and watched Charlie blow through...it was fascinating but didn't look like much more than an afternoon thunderstorm from inside the house. We lost a couple of roof shingles but that was the extent of the damage from all 4 hurricanes that year. We were in a neighborhood of 1960-1970 era homes then and we did lose electricity for several days in all 4 of the 'canes. However, that was the ONLY time in our 18 years in that home that we ever had even the slightest bit of damage or even lost power in any hurricane.

In our current neighborhood of homes built in 2003-2005 according to the new hurricane codes....there was 0 damage - no shingles even moved and no one even lost electricity because the lines are underground.

So, if you're concerned about hurricanes, I would move inland and make sure the home was built since the new hurricane code went into effect....it was sometime after Andrew decimated south Florida. I'm sure you could find out from your realtor.

[Profiler]

Originally Posted by mango23

Your sons roof was no good then. How many of his neighbors lost their roof? Or in the whole town for that matter?

A previous owner had done an off the books conversion of the carport, and I did tell him not to buy it but the fact was he did lose his roof. Many of his neighbors had roof damage and I had damage to my own roof and it wasn't termite damaged, it was damaged by flying debri and I live fifteen miles away from where he lived and many of my neighbors had roof damage also and they were all fairly new homes built after Andrew so hurricanes are something to worry about in Fl. though I don't stay up nights worring about it

[ComposerRyan]

Thanks again everyone for your informative replies. It's great to hear from people that actually live in Florida and an overall positive attitude towards dealing with hurricanes. I'm aware that I'll probably suffer from damage from a hurricane if I am to move to Florida, but the pay off will be warm weather and a nice place to go to college.

Btw, I've heard many of you mention the hurricane code that went into affect after Andrew...any solid date that I could go by to make sure the house was built after the code went into affect?

[TriMT7]

Originally Posted by ComposerRyan

Thanks again everyone for your informative replies. It's great to hear from people that actually live in Florida and an overall positive attitude towards dealing with hurricanes. I'm aware that I'll probably suffer from damage from a hurricane if I am to move to Florida, but the pay off will be warm weather and a nice place to go to college.

Btw, I've heard many of you mention the hurricane code that went into affect after Andrew...any solid date that I could go by to make sure the house was built after the code went into affect?

The building code was updated in 2004.... maybe even 2008, but definitely 2004 at least.

[doggiebus]

Originally Posted by stars99

How did the hamster do?

LOL, We actually forgot about him the first half the hurricane, and when the eye went over we were able to run to the kitchen and rescue him. Luckily we did, because we didn't board up the frenchdoors next to his tank (we thought the hurricane was going to go further north, before it turned) and the french doors were blown in, when a neighbors separate garage eves went flying into the our doors. So he did fine. I take all hurricanes very suriously after going through Andrew, even a Cat 1.