Natural Disasters in Florida

UM Review RN, ASN, RN · May 14, 2006

Actually.....all of them. Florida is on a peninsula and hurricanes can hit anywhere, which means tornadoes, floods, and wind damage that occur with a hurricane can happen anywhere.

land64shark · May 14, 2006

True. Though some areas are particularly vulnerable to tremendous disaster should they be hit head on, such as the Tampa Bay area.

grannynurse FNP student · May 14, 2006

True. Though some areas are particularly vulnerable to tremendous disaster should they be hit head on, such as the Tampa Bay area.

With the exception of Orlando and Gainseville, all of Florida's major cities are located in disaster prone areas. And quite a few people forget at our fire danger which generally starts in Maarch and continues thru May. We have a large fire burning here in Charlotte Cout. Last weekend it was Lee County and during the week, the East Coast.

Grannynurse:balloons:

land64shark · May 15, 2006

Yes, what I meant was that the Tampa Bay area would likely suffer serious flood damage from storm surge because Pinellas county is a peninsula and a surge could be pushed up into Tampa Bay. There have been numerous graphics of what the area could potentially look like in the event of "the big one" or even a "medium one". Something like at least 2/3 of Pinellas county and lot of Hillsborough county (including the entire downtown Tampa) would be underwater. For Charley, they were predicting a cat 3 to hit the Bay area head on with up to an 18 foot storm surge. There's not much land in Pinellas county that's above even 10 feet. Max Mayfield has said that his biggest concern is New Orleans and second is Tampa Bay.

caroladybelle, BSN, RN · May 15, 2006

All of them, actually.

Theoretically, the inland areas should be safer, as hurricanes tend to break apart and drop strength on landfall (except, oh Andrew). Tell that to all of us in Central Florida that had major damage from 3 straight hits (Charlie, Jeannie and Francis).

Take into account that large inland areas of Florida were swampland, and that Mother Nature invariably reclaims what belongs to her, and there are few "safe" areas of Florida. I live within 20 miles of Iron Mountain, the highest point in peninsular Florida and the flooding nearby was major.

Be aware that storm surges frequently occur even without a storm making any landfall. Clearwater Beach got clobbered by a storm surge from Opal, even though the storm stayed in the Gulf and never came close to landfall on that portion of the Coast.

Even in the absence of a close landfall or flooding, the inland areas more frequently have tornadoes spawned by the storm, or bad weather, therefore flooding is not the always the main issue.

58flyer · May 15, 2006

As far as hurricanes go Jacksonville is the least likely to get a direct hit. This is because the jetstream dips down south during the hurricane season and tends to steer Atlantic storms away. But that same pattern also tends to drag Gulf storms across the state and turns some Atlantic storms over Jax, Francis and Jeanne for example. By then the storms have weakened, but you can still get damaging winds and flooding. I know that after Francis there were areas in Jax that lost power for 5 days.

When Dora hit in 1964, it was the only hurricane to make a direct hit in Jax in recorded history. That was over 40 years ago.

henayneiCLNC · May 17, 2006

statistically the Sarasota area is the least likely to get hit - but don't go thinking that means never :)

UM Review RN, ASN, RN · May 17, 2006

statistically the Sarasota area is the least likely to get hit - but don't go thinking that means never :)

Just curious, but could you tell me why, and whose statistics?

mrsalby · May 17, 2006

I am from the pan handle area---Fort Walton Beach. This area has a tendancy to get slammed from time to time. Even Katrina wiped out some of the area on the west side. The road between Destin and FWB had to be rebuilt. This area doesn't get a lot of mention since it wasn't a direct hit. Areas in the north end of the counties faired fairly well although hurricanes and strong thunder storms spin off tornadoes in that area.

BUT, let me say...the area is BEAUTIFUL and I would and will go back there in a heartbeat when my situation allows...my husband is Air Force active duty (retiring soon) and we are stationed elsewhere at the moment and I want to finish RN school. Then FWB here I come.

Good luck on deciding where to go!

henayneiCLNC · May 18, 2006

I had a client how had wanted to move to Florida and had charted the strike statistics from as far back as they had been kept - he showed me his chart - he chose the Sarasota area because of those statistics

and I was born and lived the vast majority of my 52 years, in Sarasota - the only hit I know of in that time was Donna Sept 1960 - it has been 46 years since that last hit -- in fact it has literally snowed 3 times as many times in my 52 years in Sarasota as it has been hit by a hurricane :):penguin: we even had one White Christmas about 1988!!:roll

Danish, MSN, APRN, NP · Feb 5, 2007

Im in the Tampa area (28 years now) and we have not had a "direct hit" in that time period. HOWEVER, we are always getting the outskirts of hurricanes and tstorms that cause massive damage. In my opinion, you cannot move to FL trying to avoid a storm...its going to happen, you can only prepare yourself and go on with your life. If you are afraid of wind and hurricane damage, dont come to FL :)