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We stayed during H Gorges. The police got on their bull horn wanting us to evacuate. We did and went to a school shelter. The driveway was horseshoe and the ones in front wouldn't move there car, but had a gab fest with other friends coming in. I got out and asked them how high they thought there car would go up the flag pole? Will soon find out if you don't move it! That did it and we came home, and took the bare essentials out of the car. Just for the heck of it I drove down to the end of our street. Our neighbors were eating popcorn, drinking beer, watching TV. I think we were the only ones that left. If it got to bad I'd be hitting the roads. I'll say one thing about Wal-Mart, during H Wilma our east side Wal-Marts let ones with RV'S from the east coast stayed in the parking lot. There were about 60 RV'S.
One thing I learned during hurricanes and power outages is, the Chinese restaurants cook with propane anyway, and the I WOK was open for business during H Wilma.
I rode out both Cat 2 and 3 storms in my house with no problems. If we had a Cat 4 I might have considered leaving. And definitely for a Cat 5. We lived in Broward County when Hurricane Andrew ravaged Dade County. So we only weathered the outskirts of that storm. It scared us half to death. I would never stay in a Cat 5, it's just not worth it.
Man, im from the UK and am not used to all this hirricane talk. Im movign t florida in the coming months for a few years I reckon, gonna have to get used to it i guess! x
I'm one that can't evacuate so here's how we do it....
Cat 1, 2, 3...stay home
Cat 4 and 5 we go to a central location....the building's been around for 50+ years so it's not going anywhere.
My house was built in 73, I'm not in a flood zone (you'd better call Noah if mine floods) I had a few shingles blow off and lost some screens on my back porch.
I do realize just how lucky we were to be on the west side of town and missed the brunt of all three.
Feel out your neighbors and see what they do also.
I do suggest you make your hurricane box. We have one and pull it out the end of every June.
I've since moved, but during the 35+ years I lived in Florida I only evacuated once, for Andrew, and all things considered we could have ridden that out.
We were about 15 to 20 miles inland, so short of a category 5 hitting us dead on we wouldn't have left. Lots of wind, rain, and the possibility of a tornado I guess. But we never had a problem. I was the 5th generation of my family on Marco Island. My mother and her family weathered Hurricane Donna when she was a little girl on the island. Because of her memories of that my mother always evacuated if it was going to be any where in our general vicinity on the Gulf Coast. My sister and I didn't though. My sister even stayed just off Marco Island during Andrew.
In all honesty, the only thing I do miss from living in Florida is the hurricanes. We always had hurricane parties. Tons of fun!!
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