Hurricanes Drive New Residents Out of Florida

How any hurricanes does it take before you pack up and move out of Florida?

One little girl was reported to have hopped on her bike trying to get back to her previous hometown in Ohio because she was so frightened by the prospect of a hurricane hitting her new home in Florida.

Our landscaper's son and girlfriend leave father stranded with sole operation of his landscaping business as they head back to Michigan after their first brush with a major hurricane in the summer of 2004.

After the very active 2004 hurricane season, a neighboring homeowner of less than one-year put her home up for sale and is frustrated by the slowdown in home sales.

Home buyers are lured down to Florida for many reasons: to retire, to escape the snow, or to find a lower cost of living "California" lifestyle.

My husband and I moved to Florida in the fall of 2003, following the dream of owning our very own home in an area similar to California: outdoor lifestyle, beaches, and Walt Disney World. Natural disasters were not new to us. We knew we were trading in earthquakes for hurricanes but at least with hurricanes, we thought, there would be a warning. Little did we know how terrifying the post-warning time-elapse would be.

The day the Culligan man came out to the house to install a brand-new water softener, Hurricane Charley, a category 4 hurricane, was expected to come right up Tampa Bay. The Culligan man terrified us with his assessment that our 9-foot sliders would come crashing down. Was it too late to board up?

We paced the 1600 square foot home while the Culligan man's morning installation dragged out into the afternoon. We agonizing over whether we should board the windows to protect ourselves and our three cats from harm should Hurricane Charley do exactly what he predicted. We canvassed the neighborhood, assessing what our neighbors were doing and nobody nearby was boarding up their windows, although a few homes a few streets over were boarded up. The homeowners had left town.

We were prepared with flashlights, battery-powered radios, candles, matches, bottled water for drinking and gallons of water for miscellaneous needs and canned food. Our stress levels were mounting and we thought the Culligan Man would never leave. What do to, what to do we asked ourselves over and over again, keeping our eyes glued to the Weather Channel, alternating quick peeks into the local weather stations.

Eventually, the Culligan Man left and were left alone to sit tight through the storm. We were much relieved when, at the last minute, Hurricane Charley took a hard right turn and hit Punta Gorda instead. It was a relief for us, although we knew then that at any time it could have been us. But moving to Florida had been our lifelong dream and we were determined to stick it out.

Ten hurricanes: Charley, Frances, Ivan, Jean, Dennis, Emily, Katrina, Rita, Wilma, and Alberto over the next 3 summers and it was our turn to move out of the state of Florida and go back west at the beginning of hurricane season 2007. We decided we'd gladly exchange hurricanes for earthquakes because the worst part about living in hurricane country was in the waiting, wondering, and worrying if you were going to be hit next.