Sallade said all 67 counties in Florida have professional management teams. We are far more prepared. Hurricane specialists are predicting a busier than average hurricane season. Eleven named storms, seven hurricanes and three major hurricanes are predicted for the 2000 season, Sallade said. Average seasons produce 10 named storms, six hurricanes and two major hurricanes.
Hurricanes range in categories from one to five with five being the most severe.
According to Sallade, a Category 2 hurricane with wind speeds of 96 to 110 mph, has the potential to flood 13,000 Charlotte County homes. As technology increased, lawmakers became more wise and instituted new laws protecting further hurricane damage and lost lives. Since 1974, new homes are not permitted to be built below nine feet above sea level. Sallade said that homes built between 1956 and 1974 were built only five feet above sea level, including many homes on Edgewater Drive. In August 1992, Hurricane Andrew catastrophically destroyed southern Florida.