@bookish1 I remember Frances year! That was a pool party. A couple of weeks before after? that we had a beach party to watch Jeanne come in. I got in the newspaper for that one.
The thing with hurricanes is that the bigger they are (area-wise), the harder it is for the system to maintain stability, and they tend to fall apart soon after hitting land. Frances, by the time it reached me about 25 miles north of Tampa Bay, was barely a Tropical Storm.
The issue with Sandy is flooding. The gusts aren’t incredible (seriously. 85 MPH gusts aren’t that big a deal) but because it’s slow and running into an opposing front, it’s dropping a lot of rain and kicked up a bit of a storm surge.
A 13 foot storm surge in Tampa Bay isn’t too bad. Sure, all of downtown will flood and everything west of US19, but we don’t have basements here for just that reason. Our area is built to drain storm surges quickly. Can’t really say the same about the North East.
The other thing is that even here in Florida, 95% of hurricane related deaths* are completely due to someone abandoning common sense. If the water’s higher than your ankles – STAY OUT. I’m sorry if your cat got out, but it’s not worth dying for. If there are downed power lines – STAY AWAY. If your power went out – Don’t. Put. A. Gas-Burning. Generator. In Your. House. Carbon Monoxide doesn’t like you. We get a few idiots a year who off themselves that way.
*all statistics are totally my own and may or may not be accurate.