This year, more than any in recent memory, hurricane season has devastated large parts of the United States. Millions of people were without power, dozens of lives were lost, and an overwhelmingly amount of damage was done. Despite the fact that Florida was hit harder than almost any other area (besides Puerto Rico and Houston), Americans are still looking to move to the Sunshine state.
Thanks to Hurricane Irma, more than 10 million homes were left without power in Florida. Florida Power and Light is the country’s third-largest utility (number one in the state) and provides power to approximately 4.9 million homes and businesses. After Irma struck the coast of Florida, nearly 4.5 million of those buildings were without power.
“We’ve had over 5 million outages across our territory,” said Eric Silage, president of Florida Power and Light. “That is unprecedented. We’ve never had that many outages. I don’t think any utility across the country has. It is, by far, the largest in the history of our company.”
Every year, roughly 43 million Americans move to various states and cities across the country. These people are fully aware of the seemingly endless hurricane season in Florida, but still plan on relocating there. According to Fortune, all 67 of Florida’s counties has been struck by a severe tropical storm over the past century.
The number of people living in the cross-hairs of these Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico storms has increased from 15.6 million in 2000 to 19.8 million in 2015. Since Florida is currently the country’s third most populous state, it looks like the moving trends will continue and not subside.
Although Florida has traditionally seen a lot of older Americans relocate there, young people are finally starting to branch out as well and move down south. Realtor.com predicts roughly 61% of homebuyers in 2017 will be under the age of 35 years old.
Throughout all of human history, seven of the 10 costliest hurricanes slammed into Florida. Adjusted for inflation, Florida has accounted for 13% of all U.S. insured catastrophe losses from 1986 to 2015, which totaled $68.6 billion (out of $515.4 billion).
According to the Orlando Sentinel, as Florida residents recover from the effects of Hurricane Irma, they had little time to prepare as Hurricane Maria struck the coast.
The state’s weather service said that minor to moderate beach erosion could soon occur and could cause major problems for boats off the state’s coastline. Florida residents, and none traveling or moving to the Sunshine State, are advised to be extremely careful while near water.
It doesn’t look like even the most severe weather storms can prevent people, both young and old, from moving to one of the more popular states in America.
