We lived through many, many hurricanes over the years. My family moved to Fort Lauderdale in June 1964, just a couple of months before our first Florida hurricane, Cleo (Cat 3, 8/20/64 to 9/5/64). I think she was a Cat 2 when it made landfall, strong enough to do a lot of damage. I saw the aluminum roof peel off the carport across the street and fly away. I was 12 at the time, and it really freaked me out.
My firsthand experience with a catastrophic hurricane came in August 1992 with Hurricane Andrew (Cat 5, 8/16/92 to 8/28/92). This hurricane hit landfall in Miami, just 25 miles south of us. That was too close for comfort for us in Fort Lauderdale.
Anyway, jump ahead to 2004. In 2004, there were 9 hurricanes that formed in the Atlantic. The hurricanes that affected us (directly or indirectly) were Hurricanes Charley (8/9/04 to 8/15/04, Frances (Cat 4, 8/24/04 to 9/10/04), Ivan (Cat 5, 9/2/04 to 9/4/04), and Jeanne (Cat 3, 9/13/04 to 9/28/04).
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