http://www.weather.com/tv/tvshows/hurricane-week/vulnerable-and-overdue-hurricane-cities-20130717?pageno=2 Not a great feeling to have where you live be #1 on the list of cities long overdue for major hurricane mischief.
Being overdue for a hurricane doesn't increase the odds of one occurring in any given year, at least... Unlike living on a major fault where the longer it's been since the last quake...the more at risk you become. Hopefully Tampa will continue to be fortunate. I remember when Charlie was supposed to make landfall near Tampa and a lot of residents fled inland to Orlando...and then Charlie turned south of Tampa and crossed inland so fast that it didn't lose much energy...slamming into Orlando and all those Tampa folks.
Charlie actually came in at Punta Gorda.... about 100 miles south of Tampa. If it had struck the Tampa region at that strength it would have been devastating.... but we wouldn't be overdue!
Lost 1/2 my roof with Charlie and then the other 1/2 with Jean, not very fun times...Power was out 13 days, the pool paid dividends because it enabled us to bucket water to the toilets and wash the funk off our bodies... I was raised in Florida without A/C but damn it hard to imagine it today until all the power goes out. It makes you appreciate a rainstorm to cool things off. We lost 9 equipment barns to Charlie at the farm and loads of fruit but it's Florida, it happens from time to time... Dave if you get the call to evacuate I would put you up in the Lake Placid area until Tampa regains some normalcy.
Appreciate that offer Ralph.... hope I would never have to take you up on that. I too grew up in Florida without A/C until the 7th grade..... and my first two cars which took me through college and a year after were both without A/C. It would be quite daunting now to go without it in either home or car and it's what I have told my family over and over again about a hurricane.... no power = no A/C, TV, frig, etc.
Well hopefully not but the offer stands, one of the reasons I moved away from Ft. Myers was you had to leave three days before the hurricane hit because evacuation traffic. I have real concern that the Tampa Bay area with what, 5-6 million people will have major evacuation issues. And to top it off Tampa floods in a good thunder storm, what happens if 12-18" falls down in a Cat 4 storm. Living in the country we are accustomed to frequent power outages so most houses have a generator. I can't run the entire house with my Honda generator but I can run the parts that count. It helps keep things somewhat civil in hard times...
The roads around here would indeed be clogged with traffic. I live a couple of miles off US 19 just south of Tarpon Springs so I think I would head north to one of the east-west running state roads before heading inland. That way I would stay away from the heaviest Tampa area traffic.