Orlando and Hurricanes

[peaceloveunderstanding]

Hello,

I really like Orlando and may consider buying a condo there someday hinging on one factor. Do the hurricanes regularly level Orlando or does Orlando receive a weaker blast.

Thanks.

[accatt2204]

No, Hurricanes never come to orlando like they did last year. Even when they do, they hardly "level" the city. Mostly last year the problem was with trees and power rather than severe structural damage. In my years of living in orlando, I only remember one other Hurricane coming through the city, before last year and that was 1995 Hurricane Erin which was mostly, a nuissance, to me atleast. Other than that we have a great city and I would encourage you to come down here and check out are up and coming downtown as everything seems to be flowing smoothly.

[chgochris]

The fact that Florida seperates the Atlantic and the Gulf would make many who don't know much about hurricanes think that we would have them all the time. Being inland like Orlando is, you would never see the complete devistation of what happened in Punta Gorda or Homestead. With that said however, the winds we had last year in downtown Orlando during Charley(approaching gusts of 110mph) were enough to knock down many trees which in turn fell on homes and destroyed them. One good thing about buying a condo in the core of downtown would be that area didn't lose power during Charley while every one else did.

P.S. It is my duty as a soon to be meteorologist to remind everyone that hurricane season starts June 1st, about 7 weeks away. Get your supply kits ready now.

[neoanderz]

What do you mean by "regularly level"? It's not like the hurricanes just bring every building to the ground or something. In fact, I didn't see anything in Orlando that was "leveled". Mostly it is a matter of roofs coming apart and in worse cases ceilings falling down. Depends on how good your roofing is for one thing. As far as safety goes, there is very little chance of being killed by a hurrican in the U.S. since there is plenty of warning time. Just don't do anything crazy like drive out in the middle of it.

[95-Souf]

Orlando experinced a hurricane season like no other in 2004. Considering what the potiential damage a hurricane can cause (Andrew),.. the area saw minimal damage and is better prepared for not if, but when another hurricane strikes. As a matter of fact,. Im visiting Orlando this weekend, and I still see evidence of damage from the storms of 2004 today. In various places like a Wal-Mart sign along SR 50 near UCF, a partially blown off sign on SR 408 (East-West Expwy), and of course, a few trees here and there that remain in a tilted position. Being that the city lies 45 to 50 miles from the ocean, it doesnt get the storm surge and recieves a slightly weaker storm as it approaches overland.

By the way,..

for those who live in Orlando,

The Baldwin Park residential area is unique,

Its a city, with in a city.

Beautiful....

[Jaybee]

Hurricanes die as they go inland. By the time they reach Orlando, they are not that destructive. If you are buying a condo in the downtown core your property would likely be unaffected. If you buy a cheap house south of Disney or in St Cloud or in East Orange County, your roof shingles may fly off! The hurricanes last year seemed to criss-cross Osceola County once they came ashore, yet came by Orlando and didn't devestate. The pictures of devestation that I saw was mostly trailers and such. Punta Gorda and Vero Beach (each on opposite coasts) was where the major destruction was at. If you came to Orlando today, you wouldn't notice that three hurricanes came through last year. As I understand it, hurricanes only hit here about every 25-30 years, and it's not devestating, but a nuisance.

Not to say things weren't bad for some people, a friend got shingles blown off his house, and when the second hurricane came around, water seeped into the house and damaged the ceilings and soaked everything. He's still waiting for a contractor to fix his house. His house was built during the period before the hurricane that devestated Homestead in South Florida about 10 years ago, and development since (or older home) seem to fare better. You also have to be careful with which builder was the original builder, since they cut corners alot here in Florida depending on who they are. Now people are required to have hurricane straps on their homes, etc. and the newspaper did a major watchdog story on home builders last year and they are shaping up.

My house has a tile roof and was under construction during the hurricanes! No one in my nieghborhood got damaged. Older homes you have to be careful about the trees - the City of Orlando lost about a third of the tree canopy that we had with the hurricanes that blew through. Alot of branches and large trees ended up on top of houses or worse crushing homes.

I think the town has mostly recovered since then. Anyone else have any experience they can point to?

[Orlandoguy24]

My parents' house in Kissimmee got it pretty bad. Most of the ceilings came down and a few walls had to be taken down because of water damage. The main reason was there was no time to fix it between storms ,so with each one the house got worse.

[bluewingzz]

Last year we experienced the last 3 hurricanes and no ones hurt or being killed. So we r pretty safe at the inland position.

[peaceloveunderstanding]

okay, that is what I wanted to hear. I didn't want to buy a condo do have it destroyed by a storm. Sounds Good. I will probably buy one within 10 years.

[Rayman]

Just to set you straight, the 3 Hurricanes that came thru here were at angles and a cat 1 but if by chance a hurricane at the level of ANDREW were to Hit Cocoa Beach or Daytona FULL FORCE Cat 5,, a distance of 50 miles of land would NOT falter this hurricane and winds would be in excess of 100 miles an hour consistant, none of last years hurricanes ever reached a consistant90 mph , maybe 60 with gust up to 90, so to say we are safe is INCORRECT, its just we have be awfully lucky. A direct Hit of a Cat 5 would devestate this area, Windows would be blown out,, all should have a plan to prepare for this, and you will be better in the long run... storm shutters and or Plywood is Reccommended.

[orlfun]

Just to set you straight, the 3 Hurricanes that came thru here were at angles and a cat 1 but if by chance a hurricane at the level of ANDREW were to Hit Cocoa Beach or Daytona FULL FORCE Cat 5,, a distance of 50 miles of land would NOT falter this hurricane and winds would be in excess of 100 miles an hour consistant, none of last years hurricanes ever reached a consistant90 mph , maybe 60 with gust up to 90, so to say we are safe is INCORRECT, its just we have be awfully lucky.  A direct Hit of a Cat 5 would devestate this area, Windows would be blown out,, all should have a plan to prepare for this, and you will be better in the long run... storm shutters and or Plywood is Reccommended.   

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I agree. My biggest concern this year is all the dried up blue tarps still on roofs. A lot of people are not ready and I don't want anymore of my tax or insurance money going to them for not having work done. Wind and water are nothing to these dried up blue tarps.

[prahaboheme]

^if someone still has a blue tarp on their house, its most definitely because they couldn't afford the repairs. In that case, I would be happy for my tax dollars to go towards getting these people back in shape before another hurricane comes through.

btw, I do believe hurricane Charley came through with sustained winds in category 2. There were gusts much stronger.

Also, I remember hearing on the news that the must damage accorded during Charley (the first hurricane) because it got most of the dead trees that should have been taken down long ago. After this, the other hurricanes got the rest. If you look at it from this perspective, we are certainly in better shape for a hurricane now than we were last August. Lets just hope we don't need to be in better shape...

[bic]

I lived on the 11th floor of a condo tower (pictured below) in San Juan when Hurricane Hugo hit Puerto Rico with wind gusts greater than 180mph back in 1989. Given the intensity of the storm and how it devastated the whole island, our unit was relatively unscathed. During the storm, the building swayed in the winds, my family had to hold up the wooden boards covering the windows, and there was half an inch of water on the floor in some places, and it was a terrifying experience. But when the storm passed, our house was still in tact and we didn't experience any damage. Parts of the penthouse roofs were blown off and all of the building's awnings vanished, but that's hardly any damage considering how strong the storm was.

I would say that people should not worry too much about strong hurricanes striking Orlando if they are in a large building. Most of the big threats to your home that are associated with hurricanes don't really occur if you live in a high-rise. There's no tree to fall on your house, flash floods are limited to the amount of water that can leak through your windows, no storm surge, and your roof won't be blown off. You only have to hope that your building won't collapse (but how many high-rises have?) and nothing big flies through one of your windows. Also, since a lot of large buildings have their own generators, you might even get your power back before others in single family homes (though we were out of power and water for 2 weeks).

[cwetteland]

^if someone still has a blue tarp on their house, its most definitely because they couldn't afford the repairs.  In that case, I would be happy for my tax dollars to go towards getting these people back in shape before another hurricane comes through.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I just noticed a leak around the skylight on the back porch several weeks ago. Called a roofer who said, there was a lot of unseen damage from where the shingles had been lifted and then fell back into place (didn't loose any shingles). I called insurance company, and roofer met adjuster about a week ago. They agreed and I'm getting a new roof in about a week. So the statute of limitations hasn't expired and I may be seeing blue tarp for a day or two.

[prahaboheme]

scratch that...

[cwetteland]

scratch that...

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Some tax dollars would sure be nice to help with the deductable