[Winkster]

Ok, lets get real then.

Other than a freakishly bad year in 2004 when, as Scwinncoll says, 3 hurricanes crossed central Florida within, I think, 6 weeks - the worst of course being Charley (see my youtube clip below), the last major direct hit hurricane before that was Hurricane Donna in 1960 - 44 years before!

Like I said - it happens, but it's rare. Even David in 1979 hardly had any impact on Orlando with winds well below the tropical depression definition of 40mph (coastal winds were over 100mph).

In fact during the 150 years leading up to 2003, only 59 storms (not just hurricanes but tropical storms and depressions too) passed Central Florida with nothing coming even close to a category 4 or 5.

Of these 59, only 48 of the storms were classed as a "direct hit" (a "direct hit" is a storm hitting a rectangular area, 60 miles wide north to south and 80 miles wide east to west with the city of Orlando in its center).

Breaking this down further, of these 48 storms, only 15 were direct hit hurricanes.

Of the 3 hurricanes in 2004, only Charley was categorized as a direct hit on the Orlando area although the others may have affected theme park operations at WDW.

So, including 2004, that's 16 direct hit hurricanes in 155 years plus an additional 13 classed as a near hit (which may or may not have effected WDW operations). 29 hurricanes in total including the near hits.

Assuming hurricane season runs from 1 June to 30 November (183 days per year) and even a direct hit hurricane may only cause operational issues for couple of days (when WDW closed for Charley, it was only the second time in history that they had closed because of a hurricane) that's a maximum of 58 days difficulties out of more than 28,300 days worth of hurrican season.

Assuming you only ever visit Orlando during hurricane season, that's less than a 0.20% chance of you being affected!

I'd take my chances with odds like that.


Source: The Central Florida Heritage Foundation