Opinion

Lucky 7

TBO.com
Published: December 5, 2012

The 2012 Atlantic hurricane season came to a peaceful end on Nov. 30. Things were a lot less calm on Oct. 29, when, after crossing Jamaica, Cuba and the Bahamas on preceding days as a hurricane, what has come to be known as Superstorm Sandy gave the Northeast a crippling blow from which it is still recovering.

During its trek north from the Caribbean to Long Island Sound, Sandy inflicted little more than dark skies and stiff breezes on us here in the Sunshine State. In doing so, Florida saw its streak of years in which a major hurricane did not hit its coastline reach seven. Pre-2005, Florida's longest recorded stretch without a hurricane landfall was five years, according to Dennis Feltgen, a spokesman for the National Hurricane Center, in Miami.

Back in June, Tropical Stormy Debby dropped a lot of rain and caused beach erosion, but caused no devastation.

As we never tire of proclaiming, it's better to be lucky than good — or smart. It is a good thing that Florida continues to dodge the major hurricane damage bullet because the state-backed "insurer of last resort" Citizens Property Insurance doesn't have the assets to pay the damage claims from such a storm. Citizens is in the process of divesting itself of policies and getting a handful of private insurers that have entered the market to take them off its books.

Given the continuing financial peril, we hope lucky 7 turns into lucky 11.