Back a few years ago FL had 3 hurricanes hit it. The first one came in on the west coast and since I live on the east coast I thought it would be best to stay at the kennel in Orlando just to make sure the dogs would be ok. 4 other kennels stayed with their dogs that night. We all were going to take care of all the dogs in the compound if no one could get through after the hurricane. 120mph winds tore up some of the roofs, knocked down trees and destroyed almost every awning that were over the turnout pens. We went around getting all the stuff out of everyones turnout pens and made sure that all the fences were ok. There was about 20 minutes that scared the hell out of me. I had to hold onto the front door so it wouldn't blow off, I was starting to lose the battle but I looked over to the side of me and saw some wire. I wired the door shut.

The dogs slept through everything. They didn't stir a bit.

The next 2 hurricanes were on my side of the state so my kid stayed at the kennel with the dogs. The landfall on one was only 60 miles south of my house. There was alot of damage and flooding but my house escaped with minor damage. We didn't have power for weeks and it sure was strange seeing the National Guard directing traffic with their guns over their shoulders but we went with the flow and ate MRE's for a couple of weeks. There were so many trees down that they just took bulldozers to clear the trees from the streets.

There was one tree in the empty lot next to my house that was leaning a little until yesteday. Yesterday it just fell. Right into my fence. I was in my bedroom and heard a heck of a crash. The last thing in my mind was that tree falling. 4 years later out of nowhere it crashes down and ruins my fence. WTF, now I can't get any FEMA money to fix it. The story of my life.

Hurricanes are one of the reasons I haven't moved to FL yet. That has got to be a very scary thing to have to go through, especially powerless.

Sorry the tree fell on your fence. I had to chuckle when you said it was to late to get money from FEMA. My life is the same way, A day late, and a dollar short!

Thanks for the great story Pat, and I hope the hurricane season is a mild one this year.

Why couldn't this have happened 4 yrs ago? I stuck a piece of lattice over the top so the dogs wouldn't try to jump out for now. My roomie is getting a chain saw from someone so I can cut it up later today.

Good thing the dogs weren't out when it fell. It was just out of nowhere. No wind, no rain, nothing.

Wow. I hope you don't have any hurricanes this season.

We will probably never have one again around here because everyone has generators, window coverings and everything we need to protect ourselves now. I live out in the boonies and we have a great neighborhood when it comes to dealing with hurricanes. We all help each other get the houses ready. We go from house to house and get windows covered, anything that might become airborn secured and trim up trees before the storms hit. I don't think it was the winds of the actual hurricane itself that damaged that tree. I think it got damaged from a tornado that was spawned from the hurricane. I could here it whirring over the house, it dropped all the way down and cut a path of trees right across the street from me. Guess I got lucky there.

That is great you all pitch in during tough times.

Northern FL get hurricanes? Like Jacksonville? We wanna move there.

I don't think they get them nearly as much as we do. I'm about 200 miles south of Jax and about 200 miles north of Miami. Almost directly across the state from Tampa, as the crow flys.

Jax get much colder then us in the winter. Now if you were going to move to the Keys, I would be much more worried about tropical storms and hurricanes. They get something at least once a year through there. They tell the tourists to get out then 12-24 hours later they tell everyone else to get out or give them the info on who to notify if you"re found dead. They have it down to a science down there.

The only thing about Jax or even Orange Park area is the crime and murder rate. We have so much here in MD that we wanna be in a place where it is safe and quiet. I know Jax doesn't have over 350 murders a year but I have read Jax is at 80 murders so far.