Quote:
Originally Posted by Tamsin
Hello everyone!
We are renting in Lake Sumpter Landing area. We have never been in a hurricane before and this is our first visit to the Villages.
Please be kind if these questions are ridiculous.
1. Do we have to worry about the life threatening storm surge the news is reporting? Will our neighborhood flood?
2. Should we drive to the Orlando area and get a hotel room in a high rise building?
3. If we stay here, what should we do to prepare?
Thanks for any help you can give!
|
Laughing. Understand that TV weather reports make things seem as far bad as possible. They are alarmist. They report the worst possible effects to keep you anxious and watching. For more accurate weather, go to Weather Underground online and search for The Villages. The current forecast is that we will get about ONE INCH of rain over the next 24 hours from this storm, with winds of 25-35 mph.
The ocean is, what, sixty miles west of us? No storm surges. When Hurricane Irma dropped 12” of rain, no houses in The Villages were flooded, due to the outstanding engineering for run-off control.
Before the storm, don’t rush to the store and buy huge amounts of water and toilet paper. You aren’t likely to need it. Just keep some on hand. Do fill the car with gas, in case there are supply problems between here and Tampa for a few days. Don’t buy a generator. You won’t need it. If a hurricane goes over, stay inside in a room with no windows, like one of your bathrooms. But it won’t. After it passes, stay in your house for a day, ideally, to give the grounds department time to pick up palm fronds off the streets.