Heard that there are some that are going back to their destroyed home in Key West, gathering things that are still good, and are going to leave Key West and Florida. There will probably be some that will move out of Florida period. Heck, some folks here are still recovering from Mathew last year and then Irma hits! They don't care about the nice salaries they are making, the nice winter weather here or that they live near relatives......they've had enough! Can't say I blame them. Family safety is much more inportant than a high salary, nice weather, etc. And, there will be some that "financially" can't leave right away, like us. And, still yet, there are those that will stay no matter what weather disaster happens. Seen that happen in "tornado alley" Oklahoma and other tornado prone areas. If we owned a home here, and it had been hit twice by hurricanes, we have to give "selling/moving" some very, very serious thought. What would you do?
I really don't know what I'd do because Ive never been in any bad weather situation, at least bad enough to destroy my house. Unless absolutely necessary I wouldn't move to an area that had hurricanes. I know CA has earthquakes but they're not as often as tornadoes or hurricanes. Ive moved plenty of times but never because of weather. It was either because of my husband's job or a better or bigger house.
When we moved here, we really never gave the word "hurricane" a thought. Before Mathews and now Irma, we'd been thru two Tropical Storms since moving here in Jan 2009. One was a lot of rain and other a lot of wind, but nothing like Mathews or Irma. When we moved here, we had to get use to the high humidity, which made hot days even worse. Actually, we thought the winters, in even northeastern Florida, would be warmer than they get. We were wrong. With a high of 45, a few days last winter, that sure wasn't a "Florida warm day" to us. Have really never heard of anyone leaving Florida, the southern parts of the Gulf States or the Eastern Atlantic Coastal areas, due to hurricanes. That is until now.
I think that when your house is destroyed, that might be a good time to make a change. Do I want to rebuild here or should I just go somewhere else? I'm not surprised, but someone else will rebuild on the same spot, or move into their house if it hasn't been destroyed, so I wouldn't expect Florida's population to decrease.
Actually, on a Jacksonville, Fl relocation forum website, someone done a Thread about my Thread here. Asking, "Are you contemplating leaving JAX or Florida now?" Only two replies said "yes" out of four pages of positive replies. No matter what happens here, most residents think JAX and all of Florida is definitely Utopia.....best place in the world to live. Of course, we laugh and think that's a joke, but that's us.
My older brother has a place near Orlando, but he's only there in the winter, sometimes longer when he and his wife have work at Disney World. They work there each winter and sometimes they'll come early or stay late as long as Disney World is giving them enough hours.
I've thought I'd love to visit the Florida Keys some day. Probably never will. But maybe the place needs to be turned into a seasonal camping type place. Close it down during hurricane season. I don't know but some people are dealing with some terrible things. I feel bad for them. I don't think I would have the strength to rebuild. I think I'd only live there with a tiny house, I could haul out at the first alert of a hurricane.
Eventually easy going Florida got pissed and said NO MORE ... Nevah no more ... So it was up-stakes and move time ...