Get Ready, Florida: 3,200 Days Have Passed Without A Hurricane, But That Streak Will End ... Eventually

 Heading in to the heart of the 2014 Atlantic hurricane season, it is interesting to note that it has been 8 years, 9 months and 1 week, or 3,200 days, since a hurricane has made landfall in Florida.

This is the longest stretch of consecutive years since 1851 that no hurricanes have hit the state. The longest hurricane-free streak prior to this one was five consecutive seasons from 1980 to 1984.

This is impressive, considering the coastline of Florida spans more than 1,260 miles from the Gulf Coast to the Atlantic Ocean, and an average of 8 hurricanes have formed each year since 2005.

Equally impressive is the barrage of storms that pummeled the state before the hurricane drought.

Wilma capped off the hurricane onslaught when it became the last hurricane to make landfall in Florida on Oct. 24, 2005.

Living On Borrowed Time?

With such a long period of time - nearly 9 years - since Florida's last landfalling hurricane, a number of factors have developed to leave Florida vulnerable for "the next one."

The first is a changing population. As reported by USA Today, U.S. Census population data indicates that as many as 1 million people have moved to Florida since Wilma's landfall in 2005. That's potentially 1 million people who are inexperienced with the impacts of hurricanes and tropical storms and lack the experience boarding up a home, cleaning out a flooded home or battling mandatory evacuation traffic.

But even long-time residents of Florida may be susceptible to a different threat: the threat of complacency.

"Complacency is just a dumb excuse people use to say I'm not worried, I'm not going to get ready," Craig Fugate, the administrator of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, told the Sun Sentinel in 2013. "The price of living in paradise is to get prepared and quit using excuses."

After nearly a decade hurricane-free, it is easy for Florida's residents to forget the importance, as well as the time and financial resources it takes, of being prepared for a landfalling hurricane. But just because a hurricane hasn't affected Florida in years doesn't mean a hurricane will never impact the state again.

The reality is that all Florida residents should continue to prepare for the next one, no matter if it shows up in this year or in 10 years. Florida's lucky hurricane-free streak will certainly end. It's just a matter of time.