Well that is a big question.
Natives in Florida look at Hurricanes as part of the landscape and carry in their back pocket a set of dice to roll when any threat begins to look on track for their region of the state. They fully expect something to occur sometime but are never sure what the damage will be. NORMALLY it is zero. A small percentage of the time, the right storm, the right time, the right tide, the right place - it can be a disaster --- as it was in '04 with Ivan and in '18 with Michael. The dice from the pockets came out and the Fortune tellers prognosticated and the Preachers preached and people made ready. Tea Leaves, Chicken entrails. It all helps.
MOST of the people that made ready had a good roll of the dice. BUT for those that stood in the way of a 2 degree shift of direction ... well.... Its not good. In ten years, you will hardly know there was a hurricane there. In twenty years, it will be just a fog of tall tales.
SO.... WHERE TO LIVE if you move here hoping to avoid hurricane damage 100%. I would suggest Oklahoma, but then it is tornadoes (which is just one other component of hurricanes anyway).
But... for a 99.8 percent chance of avoiding any major damage, you can pick anywhere in FL that is about 5 miles off the coast - any coast. It comes down to what kind of lifestyle do you want.
Most of the heavy gentrified gated type communities are in SOUTH FL. And plenty are inland. My nephew lives in a town just NE of Orlando and loves it. A friend here near Pensacola has daughter and grand-kids in the town of DeLand or near it and they love that (small town flavor yet striking distance of the bigger cities.) Lots of options for lifestyle.
The HIGHEST points in FL are North of Crestview Florida (farm and ranch and forest land) to North of Madison, FL. This includes Tallahassee which is cosmopolitan enough to feel right for people used to the urban life of the NE USA. It has become a go-to area for a lot of retirees that don't want the SOUTH FL experience. There are gated communities, retirement condominiums and more. Florida State University is there along with Florida A&M and there is plenty of culture there.
My favorite is Pensacola (not on the water - but inland about 10 miles). There are some great retirement condominiums and housing areas. Pensacola has a much less urban feel than Tallahassee, and certainly less than South FL.
One thought is to skip FL altogether and go to the finest living county in the area - Baldwin Co, Alabama and seek a condo in the Spanish Fort area which has areas high above Mobile Bay. So it is accessible to both Mobile and to Pensacola. The Florida Panhandle is attractive to a lot of retirees. Many go to the coast regardless of the "risk". But many are filling up the areas inland too. Cost of living is probably HALF that of NJ and 1/3 less than coastal S.FLA towns.
More about history and culture in the area are found at Vic's collection of links at 12ponder.com
SOME GREAT INSIGHT TO HISTORY AND MORE
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