Storms dash dreams of Florida home
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Florida, which has lured more retirees and vacation homeowners than anywhere else, might be losing some appeal for the same reason it's so beautiful: its place in the tropics.Florida's hurricane-prone geography might be a growing liability. The poundings it has taken recently from hurricanes Charley, Frances and Ivan - with millions evacuated and millions left without power - are making some people think twice about buying property or retiring in a state so vulnerable. If government meteorologists are right, significant weather changes mean Florida will be seeing more hurricanes and more destructive hurricanes in decades to come.Tony DosSantos, 54, a federal employee in New York, is reconsidering plans to retire to the Sunshine State. Florida was high on his list of dream places to move to with wife RoseMaria. But Arizona, with its dry heat and quiet desert, now tops his list. Recent hurricanes convinced him he doesn't want to spend his golden years fleeing life-threatening storms."News reports did a good job of dramatizing what people go through when a hurricane hits," he says. "I don't want to experience that trauma." Santa Fe is looking better to Sheryl Kottler Oshrin, 48. The Case Western University professional in Cleveland spent 12 years in Florida as a college student and at work. She dreamed of owning a home on Florida's Gulf Coast. Now, "The idea of being down there is terrifying," she says. "You look at this storm from your safe cocoon in the Midwest, and it looks really frightening."Hurricane Frances was such a wide storm that on TV, it looked like a huge orange blob out to swallow the state. Ivan, whose strong winds made it at one point a Category 5 storm, the most destructive, was called "Ivan the Terrible." It thundered ashore Thursday near the Alabama-Florida border, crushing buildings in Pensacola, Fla., before heading inland. About 300,000 Florida Panhandle residents lost power.Aside from the fear factor, shoppers are finding that real estate in much of Florida is no longer so cheap to buy and own. Florida has no state income tax, a big draw for prospective buyers. But in some areas, home and condominium prices last year jumped 20% or more amid record-low mortgage interest rates, strong housing demand and investor speculation. Past hurricanes already have roughly doubled insurance premiums statewide. In southeast Florida, premiums have at least tripled since Hurricane Andrew, the nation's costliest natural disaster, damaged or destroyed 130,000 homes 12 years ago.With the new spate of storms, "there will be a group of buyers who say, 'I don't need this,' " says veteran real estate adviser Michael Cannon of Integra Realty Resources in Miami. "People are already paying top dollar for real estate. Now, some may decide to rent rather than buy. If that happens, prices will top off." In the first half of 2004, the average price of a new single-family home hit a record &#36;400,000-plus in Broward and Palm Beach counties, Cannon's figures show. But in the most exclusive neighborhoods in southeast Florida, homes start at around &#36;700,000, and homes right on the water start at &#36;1 million. John Talbott, author of The Coming Crash in the Housing Market, notes that baby boomers buying vacation and retirement homes are helping drive up prices, but he thinks the hurricanes might give some pause. "Such a devastating natural disaster would have to make some of them rethink their choice of location," he says.State officials are quick to point out that Florida has weathered numerous hurricanes in the past and continued to prosper. "Florida has proven itself an extremely resilient state," says Scott Openshaw, spokesman for Gov. Jeb Bush's economic development office. He says Bush and other state officials think this hurricane season will have a short-term effect on investment, but no long-term damage.Building while dodging Hurricane Andrew preceded a decade of spectacular growth in southeast Florida, fueled in part by billions of dollars in insurance payouts. But during that decade, southeast Florida was repeatedly spared a direct hit from a major hurricane. Southeast Florida became the glamorous address of choice for sports, film and music stars. Miami Beach enjoyed a renaissance, with condo towers reaching new heights and "South Beach" becoming a metaphor for everything hot. But even before hurricane activity heated up this year, U.S. retiree migration to Florida had been slowing. In 2000, 19% of people over age 60 who migrated across state lines for retirement went to Florida, vs. 26% in 1980, says Charles Longino, a sociology professor at Wake Forest University. Florida still is the top destination for retirees over age 60 moving across state lines, followed by Arizona, California and Texas, he says. But Longino's research shows three-quarters of all retirees spend their golden years in the same homes and towns they lived in before they retired, a pattern he calls "retiring in place." He doubts Florida's recent reputation as a bull's-eye for deadly storms will put a big dent in the migration there."The odds of having three or four hurricanes in one season are infinitesimal," he says. But the nation's top meteorologists say this season's storms aren't a fluke. Scientists say subtle changes in ocean temperatures and winds are likely to make Florida's annual hurricane season - from June through November - worse in coming years.Prominent academics and scientists from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) say the region has entered a period of more powerful hurricanes than the USA has seen in a quarter century. Florida, with a vulnerable coast increasingly packed with homes, hotels and condominiums, could be at risk of much greater property damage and loss of life in the next two decades.Hurricanes have done an average of &#36;5 billion in annual damage in recent decades; Hurricane Andrew, a Category 5 storm that struck the Miami area in 1992 and did &#36;16 billion in damage (in 1992 dollars), was the exception. But since 1995, scientists say, the waters of the Atlantic and Caribbean have warmed slightly, and wind patterns that served to prevent formation of hurricanes, or break up existing ones, have weakened. As a result, experts foresee more hurricane damage, because storms will be stronger and because so many affluent people now live along Florida's coast in expensive homes and condos. About three quarters of Florida's 16 million residents live near the coast. Frances and Charley together have done about &#36;11 billion in insured damage so far this season. Ivan's damage is yet to be tallied, and hurricane season isn't over.In this new hurricane period, "a &#36;10 billion hurricane won't be a once-in-a-lifetime event. It could happen every three or for years," says meteorologist Chris Landsea of NOAA's Hurricane Research Division in Miami."There's no way Florida won't get more of these destructive storms," says Colorado State University professor Bill Gray, who has studied hurricanes since the '50s.More hurricanes would surely raise the price of paradise: higher building costs due to stricter building codes, higher insurance costs and more storm evacuations. Backing out of buying Already, some real estate agents have seen deals fall through. Paulette Butcher of Century 21 Aaward Associates in Port Charlotte, near where Charley came ashore, says one buyer backed out of a waterfront canal lot with a sale price of &#36;240,000. Another canceled a deal for a single-family home priced at more than &#36;400,000.But agents say the risks haven't deterred buyers elsewhere, especially when they think they're getting a deal. Greg Antonich, a ReMax agent in Daytona Beach, has seen no letup in demand for condo units starting at &#36;200,000 in a converted oceanfront hotel there. Because of hurricane scares, developers haven't been able to line up insurance and close sales. Even so, "We have people clamoring for units," Antonich says. "They are upset because they can't get reservations."Many people outside Florida still think the state's warm weather beats where they live. Bill and Mary Kalmar of Lake Orion, Mich., north of Detroit, plan to relocate to Florida next year, hurricanes or not. The winter cold and snow in Michigan are worse than anything they can imagine in Florida."I think I can outrun a hurricane," says Bill Kalmar, 61. "You can't outrun a Michigan winter."Deep thoughts But even some longtime Florida residents are having second thoughts this hurricane season. Carmel Ellis, 27, who owns a condo near Clearwater, is re-thinking her Florida dreams. Hurricane Charley missed her area, but gave her pause about a long-term plan to live on the Florida coast. "Growing up in Des Moines, I always had a dream about opening my doors and walking out onto a beach," says Ellis, a Web designer. After Charley, she says, she'd be happy with an inland house and backyard pool.To those who lost homes during Hurricane Andrew, that storm was a wrenching financial and emotional loss. Every new storm warning makes them uneasy.Linda and Irwin Bernstein evacuated their 3,800-square-foot home in the suburb of Pinecrest, south of Miami, before Andrew hit. When they returned, "It looked like an atomic bomb had struck," recalls Linda, 65. Their block was unrecognizable. Half their house was gone, and what contents were left were strewn everywhere.They sold the house as is, and moved to a condo on Miami Beach. When Frances brushed the Miami area Sept. 4, they evacuated again."I've thought about leaving Florida," says Linda, who has lived in the state 43 years. "I'd love to have two homes, so we could spend the winter here and summer somewhere else. You can keep hurricane season. We're tired of it."
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ST. PETERSBURG, Florida  - The remains of Tropical Storm Barry brought high winds and heavy rains to Florida on Saturday, but the downpour was welcomed in a parched state that has been battling stubborn wildfires.
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As owner of a beachfront home in Hernando County, Cheryl Labbe has gotten used to rising rates for her homeowners&#39; insurance. During Florida&#39;s four-hurricane barrage, letters
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Shrieking winds and angry sheets of rain thrashed Florida's coast as Hurricane Frances hit land early this morning and was making its way slowly across the state.
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Storm-weary Floridians emerged from east coast hurricane shelters on Sunday as a weakened Tropical Storm Frances moved to the state's west coast after whipping off roofs, washing sailboats ashore and cutting power to nearly 6 million people.
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Millions of people were urged to evacuate their homes as the hurricane gained speed and strength as it bore down on Florida's Atlantic coast.
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FLORIDA was yesterday counting the cost of being hit by four hurricanes in six weeks, prompting recovery plans on a scale never before seen in the United States.
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The prospect that a tropical storm and a hurricane &#151; or possibly two hurricanes &#151; could strike Florida on the same day is something meteorologists say they have never seen.
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Shares of mobile home manufacturers  soared on Monday on hopes of increased business after the  destruction Hurricane Charley wreaked in Florida over the  weekend, an analyst said.
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Hammered by hurricanes in recent years, Pilar Benitez and thousands of other Floridians are coming face-to-face with the dark side of the U.S. housing boom.
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COCOA, Fla.  - Hurricane Frances smothered eastern  Florida on Sunday with drenching rains and fierce winds that  ripped away roofs, trees and boat moorings and cut power to 1.3  million homes and businesses.
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MELBOURNE, Fla. - Hurricane Frances crawled toward the Florida coast Saturday, bringing a potential for 20 inches of rain and heavy flooding and prompting millions of residents and tourists to evacuate during the Labor Day weekend...
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Thousands of Michiganians with second homes in Florida fear the damage inflicted by Hurricane Charley will extend into winter. For some, their winter homes along Florida&#39;s Gulf Coast have been destroyed or badly damaged.
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PUNTA GORDA, Fla.  - Carolyn Kauffman burst into  tears as she got out of her car and saw that Hurricane Charley  had reduced her home to a pile of rubble.
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The seemingly nonstop pummeling of Florida during the past month has been the result of a highly active hurricane season mixed with two unusually stubborn high-pressure ridges funneling the storms in a track directly over Florida.
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HUTCHINSON ISLAND, Fla. - Jeanne, Florida's fourth hurricane in six weeks, piled on destruction in already ravaged areas Sunday, slicing across the state with howling wind that rocketed debris from earlier storms and torrents of rain that turned streets into rivers...
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STUART, Fla. Sept. 2, 2004 - With some homes still swaddled in blue tarp and the deaths from Hurricane Charley still fresh in their minds, Southeastern residents once again warily eyed a menacing hurricane