Single mom looking for honest opinions of southern Georgia or Northern Florida (Atlanta: insurance, sex offenders)

[Christylee73]

I would like to move to either southern Georgia or northern Florida and am in need of honest opinions. I need to be within 45 minutes of a children's hospital ( preferably Nemours) unless you can recommend a better one down there as I have a daughter that has a rare disease and needs treatment every 4 weeks for the rest of her life. I also have 7 y/o twins so I need to be in a decent school district. My older daughter is cyber schooled so an area with good internet access is a must. I've been looking into these areas and am not having much luck finding someplace with low crime, no or low amount of sex offenders, crooked local law, sink holes, tornados, hurricanes etc. I would like a small town feel but not someplace that won't accept outsiders. I also need an affordable area since I am on disability from complications after having cancer. If anyone has any suggestions I would greatly appreciate it.

[LovelySummer]

Hello Christylee73,

You may obtain more accurate and detailed information if you post in one of the areas further south. Atlanta is pretty far north so I'm not sure how many posters in this forum would have the level of detail and knowledge that would really help you. You might consider posting in the Savannah, Columbus and/or Macon forums in Georgia and/or maybe the Jacksonville or Tallahassee forums (assuming they exist) in Florida.

I just looked and there appears to be a Nemours hospital in Orlando - although Orlando is more central Fl than north Fl. There might be some locations that give you a small town feel outside of Orlando (if you are open to going that far south). The weather is definitely better there than north Fl or south GA.

Good luck to you, and I hope that you and your children find the perfect place!

[Christylee73]

Thanks for your help. I didn't realize that I had put it in Atlanta I'm new at this. There is a division of DuPont, Nemours in Jacksonville so that's why I was looking into that area. Although Orlando had warmer weather which is exactly what I'm looking for I was concerned with hurricanes in that area and crime was pretty bad there too according to city-data.

[deacongirl]

Check out Amelia Island.

[Christylee73]

I looked into Amelia Island and as beautiful as it is hurricanes are an issue because it's an island and unless I hit the powerball it's out of my price range. Looks a little too touristy for me. I have no friends or relatives down there so if we would have to evacuate I would have no where to go but thanks for the input.

[deacongirl]

It isn't touristy. It is a real town with history. If you are worried about hurricanes than don't go to Orlando either. There is no place that will meet your child's medical needs and be 45 minutes from a children's hospital that is not at risk of hurricanes in south ga. or northern fl.

[AtlJan]

Why are you interested in this area? It sounds as if, with your daughter's health issues, it might be better for you to be somewhere where you have friends and family.

Nevertheless, if you like the Amelia Island area but find it too pricey, one of the nearby towns of St. Mary's Ga or Yulee FL may fit the bill.

[Christylee73]

Warmer weather will help her health wise. We really don't have anyone where we're at either so either way we're on our own but at least getting her away from so much cold will benefit her. My kids come first and if I really had help where I'm at I would stay. I've been looking into the Kingsland area. Any thoughts from anyone? Driving time from there to the Nemours in Jacksonville is about the same as the drive we do to get to the one in Delaware. I really wasn't interested in the Orlando area due to crime issues not hurricanes.

[ATLTJL]

Unfortunately, you'll still have the cold to worry about in Jacksonville. Not as bad as you're used to, but it's above the frost line....so it does go down to the 40s in the winter.

There are some pretty decent and inexpensive areas between Jacksonville and St. Augustine along US 1 that you can look into. Not sure who lives there, so I don't know exactly what crime is like, but the Nocatee area is one to look at if you can afford it.

I'd avoid south Georgia because I don't know how robust the healthcare system is there. When you're in north Florida, there are lots of hospital options. You can always get to the main Shands hospital in Gainesville for rare conditions, and if you have good enough insurance, you can use Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville. There are other options around as well.

Orlando is warmer, but as you noted, crime isn't the best all around there. Of course, it does have some perfectly fine areas. Hurricanes are generally not an issue that far inland, but they can produce some damaging winds. You're not going to have a Katrina or Andrew situation in Orlando, though.

[Christylee73]

Today we got almost a foot of snow and 8 to 20 degree temp without the windchill seem to be the norm lately. 40 for us would be a heat wave. Someone had mentioned Yulee so I've been looking into that and I will check out Nocatee. Right now she goes to Nemours but Mayo does all of her blood work because they are 1 of only 4 labs in the US that can do the specialized testing on her blood. We've never been to Mayo but I know they could handle her condition too. I was only checking into Nemours down there because it would be an easy transition for her Drs up here to work with them in Jax. Thanks for your help. I'll also see what I can find along uS 1.