It's Been 3,566 Days Since a Hurricane Hit Florida, and Most Residents Are Unconcerned About the Threat

Terrell Johnson
Published: July 30,2015

It's been 3,566 days since the last hurricane hit the Florida coast. That probably explains why most Floridians say they're not worried about the prospect of a hurricane making a direct impact on their state, according to the results of a poll released this week.
One in three say they don't plan to evacuate if a Category 1 storm is coming their way, according to the the latest Mason-Dixon Florida Poll, which surveyed about 800 adults living in Florida by phone between July 20 and July 24. The poll also found that 60 percent of the state's residents said it was either "not too likely" or "not likely at all" that a hurricane would make landfall in Florida this year.
And the younger the respondents were the less likely they were to be worried about storms, the Tallahassee Democrat notes. For residents age 18 to 34, only 28 percent said they thought there was "at least some chance for a hurricane," while 67 percent said they didn't.

A satellite image of Hurricane Wilma taken on Oct. 23, 2005. Wilma was the last hurricane to make landfall along the coast of Florida.
(NOAA via Getty Images)

"The really big finding is the fact that younger people don’t worry about hurricanes," said J. Brad Coker, the managing director of Mason-Dixon Polling & Research Inc., in an interview with the Democrat.
"They don’t think about it. They don’t know what they’re facing if somebody said a hurricane was coming," he added. "They say 'I’ve been through a bad Florida thunderstorm with hail, so how bad could it be.'"
There's little doubt that Florida's recent history with hurricanes – or lack of them, actually – plays a significant role in this. More than 9 1/2 years have passed since the last hurricane to make landfall in Florida (2005's Hurricane Wilma), by far the longest stretch of consecutive hurricane-free years for the state since 1851.
Previously, the state's longest hurricane-free streak lasted five years, from 1980 to 1984. That's especially impressive when you consider the coastline of Florida spans more than 1,260 miles, and an average of eight hurricanes have formed each year since 2005.
(MORE: What America Was Like the Last Time a Hurricane Hit Florida)
Since Wilma, more than 1 million people have moved to Florida, according to the latest U.S. Census data. Many of them likely are inexperienced with the impacts of hurricanes and tropical storms, "and lack experience boarding up a home, cleaning out a flooded home or battling mandatory evacuation traffic," weather.com's Chrissy Warrilow notes.
Older poll respondents, however, didn't share their younger counterparts' optimism. A majority of those polled over age 65 said they felt a storm could hit them while only 42 percent doubted it, the polling company reported.
Location also titled respondents' answers. More than 60 percent of Floridians living in coastal counties like Atlantic and Gulf Coast counties said they'd evacuate in advance of a Category 1 hurricane, while only 54 percent of those living in inland counties said they would.
For stronger storms, 41 percent of those 18 to 34 said they'd ride out a Category 2 storm, while only 23 percent of those over age 34 said they would. If the storm reached Category 3, 21 percent of the former said they wouldn't evacuate, while only 5 percent of those 35 and older said they would.
“People under 34 are just completely out of sync with everybody else,” Coker told the newspaper.
MORE: The Last Hurricane to Hit Florida, 2005's Wilma