With time and options running out on Wednesday, some Florida residents who had not yet evacuated ahead of Hurricane Milton addressed a consequential question at the last minute: Stay or go?
Those who opted to leave streamed into dozens of public emergency shelters between Tampa and Fort Myers as the conditions around them began to deteriorate in the hours before the storm’s predicted landfall. Families carried sleeping bags, backpacks and pets in crates.
After considering the dire weather warnings, congested highways and gas shortages, Lennie Rodriguez, 61, left his home in Fort Myers for a nearby high school that had been converted to a shelter.
“It’s too late to do anything else,” Mr. Rodriguez said. “I just want to be on the safe side.”
For days, as Hurricane Milton intensified, state and local officials warned people living in evacuation zones, and in manufactured and mobile homes, to leave for safer accommodations by Tuesday night. But decisions were still being made long after that.
Vincent Bradshaw, a retiree, did not plan to leave his Fort Myers home. But the more he thought about it, the more he didn’t want to take a chance. So he checked into a shelter at Dunbar High School on Wednesday morning.
“I came out fine in Hurricane Ian, but I saw what it did to Fort Myers Beach,” Mr. Bradshaw said. “It ate the beach up.” This time, he said, “I didn’t want to chance it, because you can’t predict Mother Nature.”
Tevis McKinstry, of Fort Myers, said she had always opted against evacuating to shelters when hurricanes were headed her way. This time, she planned to stay with her daughter in a second-floor condo two miles from her own home.
“It’s too late to leave,” she said. “All we can do is cross our fingers and pray.”
Some Floridians moved to safety at the urging of their loved ones.
Adam Seplowe, 58, who lives with his family two miles from the water in Tampa, checked into a hotel inland, about 30 miles north of downtown Tampa, on Wednesday afternoon, as winds picked up and major bridges in the area began to close.
“I had family members calling me and telling me to leave,” Mr. Seplowe said. He ultimately decided to evacuate with his family out of concern over the projected storm surge.
Not all families ended up sticking together.
Outside a shelter at Middleton High School in Tampa, Mia Gomez, 8, sought refuge from the rain under the raised hatch of a car while her family’s paperwork was processed.
She said her father stayed behind to protect their home, but she was not concerned “because he doesn’t worry at all.”
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