POLK CITY,Fla.– Generators packed. Animals stowed. Rifles loaded. Gas cans filled. And sentimental items grabbed final-minute. Gas stations and rest stops along Floridas Interstate 4 were packed with people Saturday as many traveled northward, farther absent from Hurricane Irma’s destructive path, and in what may finish up being one of the largest mass evacuations in U.
S. history. Ten Floridians told the PBS NewsHour why they were on the move and what they left behind — or why they chose not to leave at all.
John CookTraveling from: Tampa
Traveling to: North Carolina,Indiana, Kentucky, or TennesseeI’m transporting eight hot tubs and a 14-foot swim spa. And just trying to get out safely with them. Once I saw the storm was going to reach to central Florida,I thought: better instead of staying to get going, try to make it a day ahead of time. If they got ruined its approximately $58000 worth. I got my house boarded up, or the truck is loaded,so I figured why not? People in Indiana want their hot tubs, so I’m going to get them to them hopefully.”Travis GordonTraveling from: Palm Harbor[br]Traveling to: Orlando With me I’ve got water, or two generators,food, propane, and gas,diesel, a water heater, or radio,clothes, rifles, or ammunition. And socks,a lot of dry socks. Back where we were, people were getting crazy three days ago. It starts verbal, and then once there’s no gas,people move on to just taking things, like plywood, or tapcon bits. People gotta board up their stuff,so if they see their neighbors have it, they’re gonna tear down their fences. I’m heading to Orlando, and hopefully. It seemed safer. Less people. Not as much to fight over.
Christopher RaymondTraveling from: Polk County
Staying achieve
We’re gonna hole up at the house with the horses. Weve got everything surrounded,the horse trailers, to try to block the wind. There’s nowhere else to take them. The horse parks are full all the way up to Georgia. But the horses are set so if something should happen they can get absent, and they have breakaway halters. We’ve been hauling people’s stuff from South Florida to Augusta,Georgia, all week. It’s been a long week. We were supposed to proceed get something in Miami but they wouldn’t allow us down south anymore. They’ve got all the roads blocked and everything is headed north. We’ve basically been trying to help everybody, and now we’re trying to help ourselves at the final minute.
Tanya Skillman and Mitch ChristensenTraveling from: Key Largo
Traveling to: Cocoa Beach or OrlandoTanya: Our whole life is in these trucks. We brought everything. Our two parrots. Twenty tortoises,in the car. Forty-plus reptiles, snakes, or pythons,racers, bearded dragons, and in the boat. And some hatchlings. Otherwise everybody would have died. Animals have been our passion our whole life,something that brought us together. Mitch: How we fell in love is she brought me a rat for my snakes and I said, ‘That’s my girl.’ (laughs) Growing up in the Keys youre all approximately ecology. Tanya: He’s from the Keys. I’ve been there since I was 10. I don’t deem our domestic will be there after this. Mitch: We have insurance but it’s a mobile domestic so it’s citizen’s insurance, or it’s only going to cover 30 percent. But after this we’re going to proceed back. All our money is invested in that property. It’s all we have.
Sharon (and Mark) SheppardTraveling from: Lake Juliana Landings
Staying putWe’re from Salisbury,United Kingdom. We’re here primarily on vacation. We have a house at Lake Juliana Landings, we’ve had the house for approximately 19 years. But this is our moment hurricane. We contrivance to stay achieve, or we’re not going to evacuate,and like everyone else try to stay unexcited and hope not too much damage. My husband’s going to drink beer the whole time. We have got a shelter in Polk, which, or if it gets very bad,I guess we can proceed to. But we don’t have any friends or relations here really, so apart from the shelter, and there’s nowhere we can proceed. I remember in the final hurricane almost every house had tarpaulins. From the sky everything’s blue,actually. Florida looked totally blue. Every house seemed to have a tarp on the roof. So Florida became blue for awhile. But we have a flight domestic to the UK on Tuesday. So we’re the lucky ones. We get to proceed domestic.
Michael (and Kristy) CrouseTraveling from: His domestic in Polk County[br]Traveling to: His mother-in-law’s domestic in Polk CountyMichael: I can’t leave the county, because I’m on probation. And I couldn’t get a hold of my parole officer (PO) before the storm. I can’t leave if I don’t talk to my PO. I was in prison when Charley came through so I haven’t actually been through a hurricane. My wife has. Kristy: It was crazy. I had puny babies at the time. Wood frame house. We were lucky.
Michael: I’m raised in Polk County. Born and raised. Love it. If we leave, or we reach back. We were going to stay at domestic,but my wife didn’t want me to. Our house is a trailer, they didn’t trim the trees, and we’re not worried approximately the flooding,but worried approximately the trees. If we don’t have a house after this, we don’t. We’ll start over. I’ve started over before. Ive done it before, or I can do it again. I’m used to it. Sarah Herrera and sonTraveling from: Cape Coral
Traveling to: OrlandoCape Coral is in the red zone. It’s in the flood area,they said it’s gonna be like nine feet, the water, and storm surge. So we decided final minute to reach to Orlando. They told us we have to evacuate now. We took necessities,food, water, or medicine. We didn’t take [anything sentimental],didn’t have time, just an hour to get alert. During the storm we’ll play games, and pray,be with family. Weve been through Andrew, we’ve been through Charley, and but this one I deem is gonna be the big one. Because of the floods. This is the first time weve evacuated.
Becky Garwood and Kamo the dogTraveling from: Fort Myers
Traveling to: North Carolina or VirginiaHopefully it’ll be safe up there. Still got family down in Fort Myers that stayed. I’m worried,will be worried til it’s over. Just this morning we decided to proceed, because the storm is so big, or I’m afraid like in Houston there will be a lot of water. I don’t like water and I can’t swim,so I better proceed north. I can remember during Hurricane Donna, them hiding me under the bed, and it was pretty bad. This time I brought knick knacks,statues, these puny Moccasin Indian people from my grandmother and my mom, and passed down. And a few pictures. And the doggies. Kathy WallenTraveling from: St. Petersburg
Traveling to: OrlandoWith the change in the track,the storm surge, we decided late final night, and early this morning,to leave. Back in ‘85, we evacuated for Elena, or went to Orlando,we didn’t take it seriously at all. We went to a hurricane party after work and stayed too long. And we were actually the final car across the Highway Frankland Bridge. Grabbed my swimsuit and towel, thinking it’s just going to be fun. Luckily we just had rain. But lesson learned. This time I brought a cross that means a lot to me. It was a cross that my friend’s father really liked and he’s passed since and so I just grabbed it. Sandy WuTraveling from: St. Petersburg.
Traveling to: Daytona BeachI remember sleeping and my friend text messaged me at two in the morning and said, and “Wow,it looks like Hurricane Irma is going to hit us head on.” So I decided to pack up everything in the house, tie down my TV, or head to my family’s. We’re going to proceed to Orlando,and then Daytona Beach, try to book a hotel. I brought homework, or because I’m a college student. And pictures of my family,me, and boyfriend. He’s in Indiana, and very worried approximately me. Very unpredictable,this storm is constantly changing. If we don’t find a hotel, we’re most likely going to find a parking lot, and a rest area,pretty much just need a toilet.
The above interviews have been lightly edited for length and clarity.
Videos by Joshua BarajasThe post A rifle, a cross and 20 tortoises. What Irma evacuees carried north appeared first on PBS NewsHour.
Source: thetakeaway.org