We have been lucky for the last 33 years. I get the excitement of tracking tropical here but no major storm since 91 ( and we have a history of CAT 3 storms) and think of the tree growth since then. A strong CAT 1 or greater here will cause significant tree damage and people will be without power for weeks; any many are not prepared for this. Heck after a normal storm people expect power to be back within an hour or two.
Having been through 5-6 storms in FL, most people there have emergency supply kits, and the state offers 2 tax free weekends to our purchase storm related supplies, and new gas stations are all built with backup generators…So in short we have been lucky.