Member-only story
A Floridian Rides Out Every Storm
Navigating Disaster Preparedness and Florida’s Culture of Complacency
If you are in an evacuation zone, you evacuate. Point. Blank. Period.
Kinda.
Storms change direction at the last minute. Hurricane Ian (2022) was projected to hit Tampa Bay. Some people evacuated south, close to Fort Myers, where the storm actually hit. Fort Myers is 130+ miles away from Tampa, so do you blame them for thinking they were a safe distance from the storm? By the time they found out the hurricane was headed in their direction, it was too late to evacuate.
Even when there is enough time to leave, that doesn’t mean you can afford to. More and more people are living paycheck to paycheck. Evacuation is as expensive as funding a vacation in less than a week. You will have to fill up your tank multiple times, book a hotel (if you’re not lucky enough to know people in a safer city), and buy food and water for the trip itself because you don’t know how long you’ll be stuck in evacuation traffic, board up your home and secure your belonging, etc. etc. etc. Now multiply this by however many hurricanes there are in one season.
Now suppose you or someone you live with has a physical disability. Florida is a retirement state. Plenty of elderly people who did well for…
