Bienvenido a Miami

So much has been said about how beautiful it is in Florida, how nice the beaches are and how blue the ocean is. My neighbors down the road, recently sold their home in favor of relocating to Florida. If there is a place in these United States, besides Hawaii, where I was born and raised, that I might choose to move to, Florida would be close to the top of the list, with California possibly taking the top spot. To live somewhere where temperatures are favorable for shorts, t-shirts and flip flops year around, I might be hard pressed to find a reason to be unhappy.

Having said that, on my short list of reasons for not moving to the Sunshine State, I might include sinkholes and hurricanes. It would be easy to forget, when you’re lounging on the beach beneath the shade of an umbrella, sipping on a margarita, that the likelihood of experiencing the devastating power of a hurricane, comes with the warm weather, palm trees and the close proximity to the ocean, regardless of whether you live on the eastern shore or along the Gulf of Mexico. Such was the situation in recent days when Hurricane Ian swooped in off the Gulf with category 4 (and nearly 5) winds and rain, wreaking havoc as it hit the coastline, swept across the state and turned north. I can’t imagine having to evacuate for an unspecified amount of time, not knowing what awaits you when you return or even if there will be anything left. While a part of me wishes that we were living in that state, I can be thankful under these circumstances that we are not. The lives lost, people hurt, property destroyed, I’m not sure who’s crying louder……..the people affected or the insurance companies that have to open their wallets wide and pay for the thousands of claims being filed. There are no winners here but I would venture that if you have lived there for any amount of time, that you’ve accepted the fact that the rewards justify the risk. You take your licks, heal your wounds, put your shorts and flip flops on, grab your umbrella and head back to the beach……….until another storm rolls in. And watch out for those sinkholes. They’re everywhere. Aren’t they?