We lived through Hurricane Charlie. Never having been through a hurricane before (hubby had one go over his house in Miami decades earlier), I laughed and said he didn't need to bring in the heavy BBQ. The next day the newspaper said the fire truck had lifted inches off the ground. All the block homes on the street had their screen rooms gone, decks gone and everything including sheds out of sight. Frame and mobile homes were often missing and just a slab left. On Main Street, weak buildings were destroyed ...the wind blew out the windows and took off the roof. Our friends left their block home in Port Charlotte and fled to Orlando but the hurricane went that way. They escaped safely and found their home intact. You never know. What people there did was buy hurricane shutters for their windows. It had been decades since a major hurricane came way in the harbor. I worked at SMH and on our hurricane map there was hardly a spot in Florida where a major storm has not hit. It doesn't matter where in the world you live there is always something if you are prone to fixate on it. We just do what we can and then let it go. By the way, our block home was fine minus a birdcage. We had no shutters.
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