Hi. I grew up in Florida. We always stayed for hurricanes. It
F it was a cat 5, no. But a cat 3 is probably fine is their house has somewhat significant structure.

We would stay, see the damage of the house. Secure items and then most places would be without power for a week or two. Directly after the storm and after we would secure our home, we would take off to Atlanta or another city up north that did have power for the week.

Most people leave, then you sit in lines for hours and hours to get back to home to see if there is damage. Never again. Now we stay, then leave.

Anonymous wrote:I am from a hurricane prone area and most people don't leave. It can be hard to get back to your property. Being without fresh water and electricity for a while is doable. Humans literally lived for eons with either.

humans lived without fresh water for eons? When was this?

My sibling is inland and never evacuates and is not that worried for this one….but they aren’t waterfront Tampa!

I have a friend that got really stuck in Houston that year of the bad storm and flooding. His neighborhood typically did not flood and his house way high, but a levee broke or something and they were totally stuck for over a week. The ended up using one of their small boats to get supplies. They left Texas shortly thereafter!

I am from a hurricane prone area and most people don't leave. It can be hard to get back to your property. Being without fresh water and electricity for a while is doable. Humans literally lived for eons with either.

We are coastal just north of Tampa. Our country just issued evacuation orders. We aren't leaving. We are fully prepped, as always. We have a whole house generator. Plenty of food and water. Our home is built to withstand hurricane force winds. We aren't likely to flood because we are up higher. We don't evacuate for category 1, 2, or 3. We start thinking about it at 4. We would leave for a 5.

Floridians (and anyone who lives on the coast) are used to hurricanes and tropical storms. While the rest of the country watches every shift, we are planning hurricane parties. It's almost time to break out the snacks and the booze!

Luckily it looks to be headed more south now. The tampa surge likely won’t happen.

Anonymous wrote:
Yes, I know, but I'm a worried. Does anyone know if you are in a mandatory evacuation area and you don't leave, does that mean that they will not come help you, correct?

DeSantis clearly stated this a day or two ago. If you choose to stay in an evac zone, do not call for help as they will not dispatch rescuers. I generally think he is an atrocious human being but on this point I agree with him. Residents have had more than enough time to leave. Asking others to risk their lives because you changed your mind mid- or post-storm is selfish.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have two sets of friends who live waterfront in Tampa. One refuses to evacuate. The other has. They are obviously worried about their homes. I'm concerned with their lives.

How will staying help save their homes? I get (although don’t endorse) the people who don’t evacuate for wildfires because they can work to save their homes sometimes but what can a couple humans do about storm surge? (Not from hurricane country as you can probably guess.)

I guess they are worried about looters? or they just don't want the disruption of going to a hotel. I really do not know. I just know they are staying.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is really location dependent. If I was in an apartment on the 3rd floor+ I wouldn’t leave either.

That is nuts. Not having power or ac for days, perhaps trapped in an apartment with a flooded impassable 1st level

Yes and who is to say how structurally sound the building is. I would absolutely not stay.

Anonymous wrote:My family members are heading inland to Orlando last I heard. Staying in a waterfront house is a bad idea with the forecast, but there's nothing you can do to make them leave.

Yes, I know, but I'm a worried. Does anyone know if you are in a mandatory evacuation area and you don't leave, does that mean that they will not come help you, correct?

Anonymous wrote:I have two sets of friends who live waterfront in Tampa. One refuses to evacuate. The other has. They are obviously worried about their homes. I'm concerned with their lives.

How will staying help save their homes? I get (although don’t endorse) the people who don’t evacuate for wildfires because they can work to save their homes sometimes but what can a couple humans do about storm surge? (Not from hurricane country as you can probably guess.)

I have a facebook friend who's not evac'ing. They've been busy putting up their shutters and putting away all loose items. But they say they've never evac'd and aren't doing so this time either.

Anonymous wrote:This is really location dependent. If I was in an apartment on the 3rd floor+ I wouldn’t leave either.

That is nuts. Not having power or ac for days, perhaps trapped in an apartment with a flooded impassable 1st level

My family members left and went to relatives in NC.

Anonymous wrote:Eh. I am from a hurricane area and have never evacuated for a Cat 3. It’s just not bad of a storm. A Cat 5, or something that was a Cat 5 for a long time and carried that possible storm surge? Different story.

This is dumb because Tampa could easily end up with a storm surge much worse than some Cat 5 storms— Sandy was a Cat 3 and ask NY how that went.

Also Tampa is not a “hurricane area” and there is a lot of concern about what happens there if it is hit given the topography.