[OneVike]

It ran northward up the west coast of Florida.

It died at the tip of Florida and became a serious storm system, not a hurricane that skirted the coast to the panhandle. Something Floridians, like my relatives live through often. It's like living in the North and a Winter Storm hits. The media goes nuts. Yet I lived through worse snow storms as a kid.

[dirtboy]

Tell that to the people looking at going without power for two weeks in the sweltering heat, or those flooded in Jacksonville, or those hammered in the Keys or by fallen trees across the state. This storm will rank in the top five in damage even in a weakened state. Had it made landfall as a Cat 5, which was a very distinct possibility until it camped out over the Cuban coast for a day, it could have exceed damages from the next four storms combined. So Florida got lucky.