With the start of the hurricane season less than a month away and 2024 expected to be busier than average, US officials who predict, prepare for, and respond to natural disasters have a message: It’s not a matter of if a hurricane will hit Florida, but when. Even for those not on the coast, the officials said people need to know the potential danger hurricanes pose, such as flooding; and put together an emergency plan that includes a supply kit.

“Everybody in Florida is at risk,” said Michael Brennan, director of the National Hurricane Center.

As if to punctuate Florida’s vulnerability to damaging weather, wind gusts of 114 kph, just shy of hurricane force, were recorded last Friday in Tallahassee, where mangled metal and other debris from damaged buildings littered parts of the state’s capital city.

The National Hurricane Center is predicting that the upcoming Atlantic and Gulf season, which runs from June 1 to Nov. 30, will exceed the yearly average of seven tropical storms and seven hurricanes, and that three of the storms will be major. Not all hurricanes make landfall.

Floridians would be wise to remember 20 years ago when four hurricanes made landfall consecutively in just a matter of weeks, crisscrossing the state and carving paths of disaster, said David Sharp, meteorologist-in-charge at the National Weather Service in Melbourne, Florida.

“Many remember the ravages of the Hurricanes Charley, Frances, Ivan and Jeanne – blue tarps and pink insulation everywhere, along with displaced lives,” Sharp said. “Scars upon the land but also scars upon the psyche of our people.”

“It’s important (to) know what to expect and how to prepare, said Robbie Berg, warning coordination meteorologist at the National Hurricane Center. “A lot of people in Florida have experienced these storms and they can help you through a storm if you’ve never been through one before.”