Most people in North Central Florida greeted the start of the 2004 Atlantic hurricane season with the usual lack of interest: So it's June 1, ho-hum.

Last year's lackadaisical attitude early on was somewhat backed up by decades of little inland impact from a hurricane. In Alachua County, for example, it had been 40 years since a hurricane did more than blow loose a shingle here and there.

Today, the 2005 hurricane season begins, and there's a decided difference in the way inland Floridians are approaching this six-month period of anxiety that ends Nov. 30.