My family and I rode out the north eye wall of Andrew here in Dade County. It's not truly known what the winds were, but a retired airline pilot on the block recorded over 200 mph before his anemometer blew off the roof. I think the thing was not accurate at those kinds of speeds, but my point is that being in your house while they are going on is scary and dangerous. No way do I want to be in another. But the truth is, in So Fl, with limited roads out, you either leave before you're sure the storm is coming, or you stay and ride it out.
I meant to add that I agree that the media hype for storms is nauseating.
I will add that IMO islanders and 3rd worlders fear hurricanes every bit as much as Americans. Probably more. Possibly though they do not get quite as excited about the smaller ones.
But if the decision is to leave, that decision can't be put off until it's convenient, because that's when everyone else will also leave. Leave at 2 a.m. instead of 7 hours later. You'll be somewhere safe while the rest of them are in gridlock.
It must have been terrifying riding out Andrew. But evacuation isn't always the solution either.
We live in St. Pete, last year when Charley was headed for "the mouth of Tampa Bay" (that's how the weather people put it), they issued evacuation orders.
My husband has to be at the EOC because of his job, and we're near the water (a few miles away), but our evacuation zone is D and we don't flood, so we just board up and stay put during a hurricane.
However, my parents who live about a mile from us, didn't want to deal with the storm (really they didn't want to deal with the after effects of a storm...no electricity, etc.), so they boarded a plane for my sister's in Georgia.
My MIL was in a retirement center, located on the bay, and they immediately transported all the residents to one of their centers inland in Sarasota.
So as it was, when Charley made that jog in at Port Charlotte, my MIL's "evacuation center" saw more weather than she would have seen at her place on the bay; my parents saw more weather in Georgia than they would have seen here; and we, who stayed, near the mouth of Tampa Bay didn't have much more than a strong breeze and a little rain to deal with.
No way of predicting, you just do what you feel is right.