Is Ocala a Hurricane Free Zone?

Ocala has never been hit by a hurricane. It does get the remnants in the form of  tropical storms which can damage roofs, blow down trees and of course damage mobile and manufactured homes. However we have never had the type of devastation that you may have seen on television in south Florida. Ocala property insurance rates are much lower than in south Florida for this reason. It isn’t impossible to get a hurricane but the odds are in our favor. Hurricanes either hit south Florida, travel up the Atlantic coast or go into the Gulf and hit the panhandle of Florida or travel west.

Update 2017 Hurricane Irma hit Ocala. It was greatly weakened by going over land and dry air from the mid west. Some areas like where I live in the SW 200 area saw very little damage. I didn’t even lose power. In other areas there were numerous trees down and some flooding. There were also areas without power for as long as a week.

Update 2021  Hurricane Elsa came on shore just north of Cedar Key and effected the Ocala area as a tropical storm. There was just rain and wind gusts up to around 40 mph. It followed a similar path that hurricane Eta took in 2020 with the same kind of tropical storm rain and wind.