FLHurricane.com: hurricanes are after me

What is it about me and hurricanes? Seems they follow me.

I'm Canadian and married an American guy in the USAF. I moved to South Carolina in 1989. Then along came Hurricane Hugo. I had no idea what to expect and thought my husband was insane when he gassed up both cars and came home with groceries, batteries, flashlights, water and ice. I thought come on, we're over 100 miles inland so nothing can happen. Was I wrong! We lived in Sumter, SC and the town was trashed by Hugo. No power for a week and no water for 3 days. I got sick and tired of cold showers in the dark and boiling water for coffee on the bbq. Lucky for us we lived in apartment at the time so didn't lose anything. I'll never forget the sound of a tornado tearing thru the park next to us and shearing off the tops of the pine trees. The trees, powerlines, roofs, a/c units and the like were all strewn over the town. My neighbor was rescueing squirrels that were cold and wet and shaken from the storm. I'll never forget the sight of uprooted live oak trees!

We were transferred to Homestead AFB in south Florida in 1991. The first thing I did was get renter's insurance and make plans for what we'd do in case of another hurricane. We returned from a vacation in August 1992 to see Hurricane Andrew forming in the Atlantic. Great. We debated when to evacuate. I ended up evacuating to Tampa with my kids the day before an evacuation was called. drove across Alligator Alley in the middle of the night. Everyone thought I was nuts when I told my fellow employees that I was evacuating, the manager told me I was fired. I said whatever.

We were in base housing. The house withstood the winds except for the windows and carport. So everything was water damaged except photos and other important things that we had safely stashed away.

Homestead AFB was destroyed and we were essentially homeless! We were later transferred up to Georgia.

Anyway we later moved back to Florida and would only live in non-evacuation zones. Everyone thought we were crazy. Come on, a hurricane isn't that bad they'd say. And yeah I'd say, you've never been through one, let alone two. We had 2 houses in the Clearwater area and for both we had bought plywood and cut it to fit the windows and doors before any hurricane watch was ever called. We were prepared. Our neighbors thought we were nuts.

So I've been away from Florida for nearly 4 years and all has been quiet for hurricanes.

Well guess what, I decide to move back to FLorida. I had contacted a real estate agent in Clearwater and told him I want a house in a non-evac zone. He wondered why. So I go down to Clearwater to look at houses and do paperwork on Aug 11 with Bonnie heading into the panhandle and Charley in Cuba. Then here comes Charley, right at Tampa Bay where I am!!

I found a house while I was down there. The house is in a non-evac zone, non-flood, has hip roof, block construction and built over 20 years ago. The first thing I'd do when I move in is cut back the trees. Damn I wish the current homeowner had done that.

Here comes Frances!! I'm supposed to close on the house on Sep 16. So now I'm sitting here in Canada watching Frances and hoping it doesn't trash my new house. So what if the house is in Clearwater. It only takes some strong wind gusts to knock down a few trees, especially if they have some rot in them.

Now here comes Ivan and the same question remains, will I be moving to Florida next week? My car left for Florida this past Wednesday and the movers are supposed to load the truck on Monday.

Jeez, so do you think maybe I shouldn't move back to Florida? Do you all want me to stay away?

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