I would like to share my experience with hurricanes in South Florida.
In the 80's, Andrew hit South Florida. It was expected to hit the middle part of South Florida, and we had no window shutters in our condo (built in the 70's) so we just moved the furniture to the middle of the room and drove up to Central Florida to stay with my hubby's parents. My brother-in-law left his home in the middle part of South Florida and went to the southern part, which is where Andrew actually hit. He said they sheltered in place in the bathroom and it sounded like a "freight train" was coming through the house. Those were the days when the winds were more damaging than the storm surge. Houses in South Florida were built to Hurricane Code after that.
When we bought a new house in a planned community in 1998, the builder offered either metal panels that could be screwed on the outside of the windows with bolts or accordion shutters that could simply be closed and locked. We could barely afford any upgrades to our house, but my dear father contributed the money for the accordion shutters. For days prior to a hurricane, we would see our neighbors up on ladders installing these heavy metal panels one at a time. We just closed and locked ours. Many would just leave the panels up until hurricane season was over. I felt so lucky. My father passed, but my mother had the same shutters for her house, so it was just a matter of closing everything up.
In 2005, we went through 2 major hurricanes. They were so far up the alphabet that it was Wilma that hit us. We closed the shutters, couldn't see anything outside and listened to the wind that took down a 2-story tree and removed 21 roof tiles from our house. As
@Alligatorob said, the worst part is that the house being closed up becomes stuffy and hot. Afterwards, we went through 3 days without power, and the grocery stores closed early so by the time I got home from work I couldn't buy anything. One night, we were eating canned tuna and chips for dinner. That's when I said, "okay, we're getting out of here". We sold our home and my mother's home within a couple of months and moved everyone to Dallas.
It seems that the longer someone has lived in an area and has not been affected by a hurricane, the less likely they are to evacuate. It is the "newbies" moving there that follow the advice. I just hope for the best for those who have chosen to shelter in place.
We are inland so we are hoping only to see a tropical storm with 12+ " of horizontal rain. I am most worried about loss of electricity. I pray for all people in harm's way, stay safe.
