Some Florida Transplants Are Preparing For Their First Hurricane

A FEMA administrator warned a number of Floridians with no hurricane experience to take the storm very seriously and to ask neighbors for help.

As Hurricane Ian gains strength and barrels towards Florida, Peggy Dillon, a new homeowner in Manatee County just south of Tampa, recruited her friends and got to work.

She's hunkering down with her daughter to weather the hurricane behind shuttered windows. The shutters came with her new home — a first for Dillon who moved to the state from Colorado less than a year ago. Dillon said she never thought she would have to use them, especially not this soon.

Between July of 2020 through July of 2021, the U.S census estimates about 260,000 people moved to Florida.