In case of emergency (e.g. hurricane)
 

Thinking of those poor, unfortunate people in Texas, just wondering if we had just a few hours or a day advance notification what would you pack up to take with you and where would you go?

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Wherever Jim Cantore Is Not.
 

When we lived in Palm Harbor, FL (near Clearwater on the FL Gulf Coast) we would have come wherever Jim Cantore was not going. We watched the Weather Channel religiously in 2004 and 2005. The Villages would have been a good place to come in 2004 and 2005 even though I hear they did have some damage back then from at least one of these storms. Lots of storms in 2004 and 2005.

From what I have seen in the annual hurricane readiness documents, this is a shelter in place location. So unless someone is predicting a category 5 storm, I will be here. Cat 5 may get me to move, BUT (and this is a big BUT), you might be worse trying to leave with traffic, etc.

I've had to evacuate several times to escape forest fires in California and hurricanes in Florida. I've found that the truly irreplaceable items can be packed in a few boxes. Take lots of pictures inside your home for insurance claims, pack all old photos and pack all your insurance/financial/credit card documents. One of the reasons we moved to The Villages is that we are far enough inland that we don't need to worry about evacuations any more.

We have evacuated for hurricanes in South Carolina. Cash, medications, important papers/photos, and your family are what matters the most. We may never have to evacuate here, but we should have a hurrIcane kit to survive a week or more without power.

Chances are that you will have at least 3 days notice of really bad impending hurricane. I will head to Atlanta or beyond to Tennessee.

The suggestion to take pictures is great. Grab the laptop and financial documents, too.

If the car still has room, I suppose Mrs. Trap can come, too.

Please TAKE Mrs Trap with U.....:pray:

Here in The Villages, we are about the same distance from the Atlantic, and closer to the Gulf of Mexico, than Houston is to the Gulf of Mexico. Can you imagine 40 inches of rain in 4 days?

I hadn't heard or read anything about that. Anyone here at that time know the specifics? flooding damage? wind damage?

Wow, she is one lucky lady. I hope she appreciates you. In fact, I think I will show my husband this post to prove there are still some men like you out there.

Shelter in place, are you ready for a week without power--no a/c ,no refrig

I lived in NC and have suffered through several hurricanes. A week without power is grindingly dull. The cure, however, is quite simple --Hurricane Party!

We weren't here, but heard there was a bit of tornado damage.

You can Google the tornado of 2007. It did a tremendous amount of damage near Mallory, Caroline, Sabal Chase, and other Villages on the eastern side. That event also killed 19 people in Lake County.

Been there, Done that....find the local watering hole that has a generator and hope they dont run out of booze.

More than a week is tough....two weeks gets unbearable.

And if you ever have to evacuate dont forget your pet's needs too.

The "Groundhog Day" tornado had nothing to do with a hurricane. Was not even during hurricane season.

Shelter in Place
 

First, to answer the OP question about what you would take if destruction of your house might be imminent. My late wife unhesitatingly would say, "The family photo albums." Virtually everything else could be replaced.

Having said that, with regard to safe havens in Florida if fleeing a hurricane, The Villages is in an excellent position. A comparison to Houston with regard to their relative distances from the Gulf of Mexico is quite misleading.

Houston, and the surrounding area is low and flat, with marsh lands and bayous keeping the area relatively wet in normal times. The soil is clay that resists letting rainwater sink into the already damp soil. The Villages is on the traditional Florida sandy soil that allows rainwater to quickly sink from the surface, and/or flow into retention ponds and nearby lakes.

Remember that in a weather emergency, The Villages area is where people living in the coastal areas are told to relocate TO.

Fleeing to another state, if your choice, should be done early in the weather forecast. During a previous hurricane event in Houston, people died in the crush of traffic trying to get out of town at the last minute.

In 1979 when living in Pensacola my in-laws in Savannah had a hurricane and were without power and had some damage. We drove to Savannah to help them. While I was there, another hurricane was 250 miles south of Pensacola headed due north.

I took off back to Pensacola, which is normally an 8 hour drive from Savannah. When I got on I-10 at Tallahassee headed west and knew I had 195 miles to go, I drove the entire way between 80 to 100 mph and never passed a car. That is the truth, I was the only car westbound on I-10. However the eastbound lanes were full and bumper to bumper the whole way.

When I got back, we had a swimming pool so first thing I did was to secure all the patio furniture into the garage. I was really tired because the evening before I was up late, so I went into the hallway and closed all the bedroom and bathroom doors and turned on the radio. Just then the power went out and I got a pillow and laid down. The next thing I knew I had slept through the entire event. The next morning I walked outside and because we had several pine trees in our backyard, I noticed the pool was filled with pine cones. We didn't have birdcages in Pensacola, everyone fenced in their pools. The hurricane had turned slightly northwest and went up Mobile Bay, but the Pensacola airport a 1/2 mile from my house did report the highest winds at 95mph.

https://www.google.com/maps/vt/data=...=1&h=200&w=632

We tried to escape in our RV from one of the 2004 hurricanes by visiting a friend in Nashville. Spent a few days there and came back right in the path of the same hurricane, now a tropical depression, in the Carolinas. Oh well.

Flood Insurance
 

We moved here in February of 2004, just in time to get settled in for the hurricane season. (The kids said the bad season was our fault:1rotfl:) I brought in some bagged top soil and used them for sand bags when I saw what a hurricane can do with regard to flooding. Good thing I did! The water came up and covered our lanai right up to the sliding glass door. Thank goodness I had those bags or we would have had water inside. Between those bags and the towels I placed along the bottom of the door, we got no water inside.

Since that first year, we have carried flood insurance. People tell me often that we are in a low risk area. True, but we are also a peninsula and surrounded by oceans. I prefer to have it and not need it than to need it and not have it. It is not that expensive. FEMA says that 20% of flood insurance claims come from low or minimal risk areas. Countless people in Texas had no flood insurance because there had 1) never been flooding in some of the places that did, 2) those places were considered "low risk".

We will hunker down in place IF the big one ever comes.hopefully not. Having lived on Long Island we saw a few no power for a week floodong( nothing like Texas) thank God. You can stock up on non perishable food, cook on your BBQ in a safe area, listen to the radio and wait it out. Truly think we're in a safe enough area.Hopefully we'll never have to experience it though.

Having lived in Tampa for 17 years I had to laugh about the Jim Cantore remark.

During all the hurricane worries in the early 2000's, the first question I asked was " where are they sending Jim Cantore?
If he's coming here we're evacuating!"

And if Jim Cantore comes to Chicago right before a snowstorm, I'm heading for The Villages pronto :).

I would bring my dog, a bag of dog food, my meds, my wallet and a bottle of water. And some socks.

I wasn't living here at the time but my neighbors who were here at the time in Mallory told me the Mallory Hill Country Club was pretty much flattened. I know someone who lives in Mallory whose roof was blown off while she was in the house and she lives around the corner from me.

We probably wouldn't stick around. Our A/C went out during a heat wave when we lived in NJ and we spent the night in a hotel until the repair could be done.

Probably will stay in place here in St. James; been through an EF4 and a EF5 tornado before so I'd probably ride it out. I have a 6500 watt generator that I can keep some things going.

We lived in Pinellas County for over 10 years, including the 2004 & 2005 hurricane seasons. There is about five days notice. Three days with more certainty. In the summer of 2004, we packed up and secured our window offices in a high rise building three times before our employers gave us the time off to go secure our home and evacuate if necessary.

During the 2004 storms, three of them criss-crossed Polk County and destroyed one of our relatives' homes in Lake Wales. (90 minutes south of us and inland.)

We were "shelter in place" people until we saw the results of a Cat 3 storm on south Florida. Our two cents. It is not worth staying if it has a chance of heading your way. It is also not worth leaving if you don't leave early enough to miss the bumper-to-bumper end rush.

Living near the coast, we always kept the cars filled with gas and had a five gallon gas can filled during the season. (Used it at the end each season.) We also had hurricane cash in smaller bills, as no electricity, no ATMs. Important papers in plastic zip lock bags ready to go. Photos scanned and back up computer drives. Medicines refilled and ready. Cleaning supplies and gloves. Bottled water, paper goods, plastic utensils, manual can opener, non-perishable food. Extra propane tanks (plus a grill with a side burner). Some had generators. (Some had generators stolen as in the evening silence, they are readily located by sound.) Blankets, pillows and packed clothes. First aid stuff. Flashlights, batteries. Battery operated radio. (We had a portable battery operated AC/DC TV in the days before digital signal.) Electronics chargers. Sunscreen and insect repellent. A lot of people had hurricane shutters or cut plywood for their windows. (We learned later that garage doors were likely the first place to be damaged by wind, which would then let wind inside your home and pop the roof off. Florida has since passed new building codes requiring the garage doors to be strengthened. Our garage doors are not as reinforced as those installed in Miami, for example, but better than we had in our home back then.) Those are the things we remember most from the hurricane "drills" we went through then.

We have a much greater peace of mind living in The Villages. We are less inclined to think we will have to evacuate or have something more than a prolonged rain event, but we will never say "NEVER".

We also remember the tornado damage that went through The Villages and Lady Lake area that has been mentioned by others in this thread. There is an exhibit on this event, with photos and news articles, on permanent display at the Rohan Recreation Center.

We lived in Palm Harbor from 1996-2005. I sure remember those 2004 storms as it seemed Palm Harbor was often in each of those target areas. We only got quite a lot of wind and rain-- coming in sideways-- from one of them. I remember throwing all kinds of stuff in the pool though so that they did not become missiles. Had to get everything out as soon as the storms left. Hurricane Weather in Palm Harbor, FL Local Health Safety and Environmental Information - What you need to know

I would return to the Palm Harbor area to dog and house sit up to the point that the retired Lt. Com in the Navy died and then the widow's sons started helping her out a lot more. She was a retired realtor and CIA analyst. Quite interesting to talk to and they traveled a great deal when I was the go to for dog watching and house sitting. I also had to make sure their house was OK when weather threatened but they were a good ten feet higher in elevation than where we were.

That Groundhog Day 2007 Tornado was quite a shock. 2007 Groundhog Day tornado outbreak - Wikipedia

Skip....you were down here when Sandy hit Long Island...and when it hit it wasnt a hurricane.

Those that sheltered in place...in Fire Island, Breezy Point and other low lying areas...quickly regretted it. Sheltering in place can sometimes be the most foolish option.

After Harvey, im thinking of getting flood insurance. Can you imagine what the amount of rain that hit Texas hitting TV.

Re: Not hurricane sandy
 

We, lived on LI during hurricane Sandy. Laughing a bit-our government did not declare it a hurricane, SHAFTING THE INSURANCE COMPANIES as most people did not have hurricane coverage. We lived about a mile up from the water. People on the water-homes then worth over a million each found boats through their homes-I HAVE PICTURES. We were without power for 6 days.

Sumter County NOT providing Sand Bags!!
 

Sumter County and THE VILLAGES are NOT assisting residents get sand bags. WILDWOOD- Yes, Lake County -
Yes, Marion County - Yes. I think it is time to replace the current County Commissioners. They do not appear to have the best interests of their constituents in mind. WE need answers fron out CCD's as well!