People are absolutely terrified when they consider the size and the magnitude of some of the storms that we get here in Central Florida.

I’ve heard it said that if we had a high Category 4 or a Category 5, it would absolutely flatten the city of Orlando and there would be nearly nothing left. The fact that our building codes across the center of the state are a bit looser than those along the coastline often leaves people concerned when it comes to purchasing a house here. I’ve even noticed when people put new windows in, they’re thinking, hey, I need to put in those ones they have in Miami.

But as a 20-plus-year real estate professional, someone who was actually born here, nay, I say a native, well, not that kind of native, but I’ve been through many storms.

I’m going to tell you exactly what you need to know, what you should avoid if you are moving to the Central Florida marketplace, and what you can expect once you live here if a massive storm comes our way. Welcome back to the channel. The concerns about this particular topic have stepped it up lately, particularly for two reasons.

Number one, over the past 10 years, a vast majority of the storms are coming in on the Gulf Side. They’re no longer coming up the Atlantic Coast, which means that we have a greater chance of a storm coming from the water and being literally an hour-and-20-minute drive away from the coast. So what that means is storms coming up that part of the state have a much shorter path coming inland to hit Florida.

And as we all know, the storms passing over land tends to diminish their strength. And you can imagine the opposite coast, which was like when I was a kid, a storm might come up through Miami, and it’s got a three- to four-hour drive time before it gets here. And knowing the storm is probably going 12 or 15 miles per hour, it oftentimes has a lot more ground to cover when it comes down the southeast.

And if it’s lucky, it’s a tropical storm by the time it hits Orlando. But is it really dangerous in Orlando, no matter where the hurricane comes from and how far it travels? Let’s take one of the shortest distances that the storm can arrive. We just had Hurricane Milton recently come from the Tampa, Sarasota area, which is approximately an hour-and-a-half drive before it makes Orlando.

And again, it’s going 12, 15 miles an hour. It takes longer than an hour-and-a-half for it to get here, but that’s not a ton of ground to cover to slow the storm down before it hits us. Hurricane Milton freaked a lot of people out because as it’s coming ashore, it was listed as a Category 5 a few different times before it eventually made landfall at a powerful Category 3. Well, by the time it hit Orlando, it was a Category 1. Now, keep this in mind.

With a Category 1, what we mostly deal with in Orlando is roof damage, fence damage, and power outages. Those are the most common. Now, if rainfall is excessive, there will be flooding in different parts of the area.

But I’m going to tell you how to be careful and avoid that if you do buy here. Well, Jerry, didn’t you say a Category 4 or 5 would flatten Orlando? But here’s the deal. I have polled Floridians in the area and I’ve asked them what they felt was the worst storm that they ever had to live through.

Now, my sample size is definitely sus, but overwhelmingly, I hear about two storms of late. People often bring up 2004’s Charlie as one of the worst storms in history. This is also confirmed by an online consensus.

Charlie arrived in 2004 as a powerful Category 4. Again, more powerful than the recent storm we just had with Milton. By the time Charlie arrived in Orlando, it was a Category 1 with sustained winds of around 85 miles per hour. Now, a lot of folks will say that Irma in 2017 was one of the most recent powerful storms that we’ve had.

That powerful storm had around a 75 mile per hour sustained winds when it hit. And there were a lot of trees and power lines down, things of that nature. But if you’re moving to Orlando, which is the most dangerous spots to live? What is the worst way to set yourself up knowing that we’re likely going to have a few powerful storms over a decade if you own a house here? Well, number one, mobile homes.

Maybe even mobile homes and houseboats. I say houseboats because someone made fame this most recent storm by staying in a houseboat in the Tampa Bay area while the storm was making landfall. Shout out to Lieutenant Dan.

But my friends, mobile homes are going to be the first to be told to evacuate if the storms get really crazy. As with any hurricane, there’s always a risk of tornadoes, particularly at the front side of the storm. And with tornadoes, mobile homes do not win.

They are 0 in 1,000 in the battle to withstand a tornado’s damage. Number two, be careful of buying a house under large trees, under large oak branches, things of that nature, if you’re unwilling to do all the tree work to remove them. Now, flooding without a doubt is the number one casualty cause from the hurricanes.

An unsuspecting flash flood takes people out very quickly, and that’s a big danger. But there’s a lot of random stories of people sleeping in their bed and having a tree collapse on their house and crush them underneath. Even in this past storm with Milton, I saw friends posting pictures of their neighbors having massive tree limbs fall and crush SUVs.