Alan I agree. Obviously leaving at 4am you avoided a lot of the chaos. Even if it does not hit we will have torrential rain and possible tornadoes as the right side of a hurricane can spawn them. I lived in the Atlantic coast a few miles from the ocean but we were quite a bit above sea level. Those storm surges can wreak a lot of Havoc. Hurricane Michael and Sandy devastated large areas. Around a year after Michael we went through the area on our way north and yards had downed trees and there were still lots of tarps on roofs. Florida has been replacing a lot of major power poles with concrete ones. Many areas like mine have large areas with underground utilities which helps.

Also, there are a lot of retention ponds and they are being emptied by running sprinklers on golf courses and road meridians. There are lots of retention ponds all over. Except for places that may soon be underwater if sea rising continues, Florida has updated a lot of preparations for storms.