My husband and myself are retired (in our late 50's) and living in Louisiana. We were caught up in Hurricane Katrina and are interested in relocating to Florida. We would like to drive out there and experience several areas but because there are so many communities for retirees, we are unsure where to start. We love the coast but are burnt out on dealing with storms as you can imagine. We love the outdoors and fine dining (had a lot of fine dining in New Orleans) and I love to shop. We do a lot of traveling so being close to an airport would be nice. Also would like to be near good medical facilities. Would be willing to spend up to $500,000 for a nice place. Please suggest any communities that you think might interest us and I can incorporate them into our trip to Florida. Thanks for any help you can give.

You want to move from one hurricane state to another?

Hi kmd, I am just above Orlando and about 45 min from the coast. I used to live on the west coast. Here it is just far enough away from the coast where we could have major damage, but not like the coast itself. Close to Wildlife areas, the coast, major airport etc. I would say the most lacking here is that cool "Old City" feel New Orleans had, it is very spread out...I hope you will get more responses....When talking about possible storms coming this way, My overall recommendation would be the mid to Northern part of the state and a bit inland....close enough to get to the coast, and close enought to evacuate out of state if you need to...My parents are always raving about Fernandina Beach area too...Just my opinion...

Sorry about your hurricane experiences. Hope all works out well for you.

Before you proceed, you may have to make some decisions about exactly what kind of community you're interested in. Large, all-retirement? City? Small town? Not near the coast? Near the coast?

I'm gathering that you may be relucant to live in a coastal area (and who can blame you?) but we like the Melbourne Beach area: quiet, mixture of retirees and families, not touristy and covenient to a lot of places. Also, you can still get something decent there for about $500K -- but you better hurry.

Though I'm not personally familiar with it, some people I know have bought in The Villages, a large retirement community north of Orlando. It seems quite popular these days, but again you'd have to decide if that's the kind of place you want to live in.

Good luck.

kmd, inland Florida is no safer or hurricane proof than the coast.

While I don't blame you for being fed up, I suggest looking at the deserts of Arizona or Nevada if you want to avoid the storms and want warm weather.

Inland florida is somewhat safer from "catastrophic hurricane damage" and "storm surge" that was seen with katrina...however you are by no means going to be immune from the potential significant wind damage that can and does occur on an almost yearly basis....in fact the Tampa/Orlando inland area was hit by three hurricanes last year (Charly, Ivan?..) no storm surge related flooding and no levee breaking but significant damage nonetheless. I would reconsider your choices if you are trying to avoiding hurricanes....

The Villages is an option. It generally hasn't fared too badly from hurricanes and it does have a lot to do, plenty of restaurants (although I don't know how many of them would qualify as "fine dining"). However prices there and in some of the other developments nearby are rising *fast*. We have family living in The Plantation, about halfway between Orlando and The Villages. The value of their homes has at *least* doubled in eight years. (Example: my uncle bought one of the few remaining manufactured homes there about 4 years ago for $80k; it was recently sold for about $150k and he did not make any significant improvements to the place).

Hi kmd, I have family living near Orlando and they ended up with a lot of damage to their house last winter.

Just wanted to mention also that I noticed you started a second thread on the same subject. If you cannot find your original thread did you know if you click on your name which is to the right of the Welcome in the upper left hand side of the screen you will be able to pull up all your threads/posts? Well if Fodor's is not acting up that is..they have had some glitches the last several days. Best wishes to you in this very important decision.

Hi KMD

We also have a home on Florida's southwest coast Longboat Key. I can well understand your concerns about hurricanes as I have those concerns too. If I were looking for a home in Florida though, I could easily love the sarasota Bradenton area because of all that it offers. Excellent hospitals, great theatre, and fantastic restaurants and some of the best shopping around. If I decide to move off our island then I would buy on the mainland in Bradenton or Sarasota.

Another area that is wonderful is the eastern shore of Maryland. I know you didn't mention Maryland but if you would consider a middle Atlantic state then Maryland offers much. Again very close to both Washington DC and Baltimore MD and some great hospitals, theatres and restaurants. I know as I live here most of the time. We still run a business and have not retired yet but I know I would miss Maryland a lot!

I have to echo GoTravels comments. Central Florida was affected with mucho damage by all 4 hurricanes last year. If you want to stay away from storms...Florida is not your state.

Check out this site:

http://weather.chron.com/hurricane/hurrarchive.asp

Click on the years and you will see a line representing the paths of all the hurricanes and tropical storms for that year. The area north and west of Jacksonville to the Gulf looks very quiet in comparison to some of the others. Jacksonville would have the medical facilities that you want.

From everything I've read and seen lately, we are in a very active hurricane cycle. How long this cycle will last is currently being debated. You can look at historic patterns, but it will not tell you what the future will hold.