Joe and I moved from the snow and sleet of NE PA to South Miami, Florida back in 1976. We had never heard of a hurricane and boy were we surprised when one actually was headed towards our home. This was many years after our moving out of our first apartment at Kings Creek Village to our first home in Cindy’s Place in South Miami. It was Sept. 1979 and the hurricane was David.
We thought what good fun and planned a hurricane party. We got together with friends at their home on a golf course. Well things got a bit dicey when the palm trees in front of their house were bowed almost to the ground. We were not partying any longer, it became nail-biting time. As we sat watching the weather reports on TV we became even more nervous. We were lucky it passed us by with only 70 MPH winds. We never took a hurricanes approach lightly again.
So as I watched folks walking on the beach in Florida yesterday I say, “How Stupid”.
How could you take the chance that this Category 4 storm with somewhere between 120 and 140 MPH winds would not turn inland and strike with the force of Andrew that hit Florida or Katrina that hit Louisiana with such destruction. It is insane to stay on the coast when history has shown that these powerful storms cause destruction beyond anything you can imagine. History does repeat itself.
Never again would Joe or I take a natural disaster for granted. With a hurricane you have many days notice and you should secure your property and evacuate. Your property will be their when you return, but the loss of your life would be an unreasonable risk for safeguarding a few of your precious THINGS…
Finding our Paradise in South America 
yep, I agree, that’s one of the reasons that we chose Ecuador, no hurricanes. Now if we could just get a heads up on earthquakes 😦
Hello my wife and I live in Loxahatchee fl just west of west palm beach I have lived here all my life this was not that bad Florida power and light has done a lot of progress in 12 years since the last one we went thru this time power never went off in 2004 off for 1 week . We were blessed too. We have a house in Playas Generial villamil there you have earthquakes and tsunamis. When the earthquake in Ecuador earlier this year my wife flew over and volunteered for 1 week in a hospital in monavie. We are all blessed .
Adam thank you so much for your comment. So happy your experience with Hurricane Mathew was good. Joe and I lived in Playas for about a year when we first came to Ecuador. When are you returning for a visit? Be well, Nancy