Okechobee is a large, warm lake and storms have fed off of that in the past if I’m not mistaken, so that could help sustain the storm. Honestly though, unless it really picks up a head of steam as far as directional movement it’s going to break down and lose internal wind speed fairly quickly while over land. It can reorganize and regain strength if it exits Florida to the Atlantic or the Gulf of Mexico, that has happened many times. Katrina did that to an extent, but it didn’t spend much time at all over land.
I agree with you and counting on this..