Businesses Boarding Up as Floridians Go Inland to Avoid Hurricane Milton

By Michael Cuglietta and Ryan Gillespie
Orlando Sentinel
(TNS)

Noemi Soto and her daughter Desire Huerta have spent the better part of a month living in their car after getting evicted from their apartment.

But they knew the vehicle was no place to ride out a storm the magnitude of Hurricane Milton, which is expected to blast Central Florida with hurricane-force winds and up to a foot of rain overnight Wednesday and into Thursday.

“I told my daughter we can’t stay in the car tonight, we’ve got to take shelter,” Soto said. “I’ve been through hurricanes before, like Charley and Frances, but I had a home. Now that I don’t have a home, it’s scary.”

The mother and daughter were among the first 50 people lined up outside Colonial High School on Tuesday when the campus opened as an emergency shelter at 6 p.m. Some of the others waiting were also homeless.

Huerta brought her two Yorkshire terriers — Star-Titiana and Samson — who comfort her when she feels anxious. Samson, Huerta said, could sense heightened emotions at the school.

“Right now, he’s fidgety because he’s feeling everyone’s anxiety,” she said.

By Wednesday morning, public schools across Central Florida had become emergency shelters, and thousands of residents without housing or living in mobile homes and flood-prone areas had begun turning up, looking for a place to escape the storm.

About 1,440 people had checked into Orange County’s 11 shelters by noon, including 116 people with special needs, a county official said. More than 600 people were in Osceola County shelters, with Kissimmee Middle School full by early afternoon, and more than 500 were in Seminole County shelters.

Both Lake and Seminole counties issued evacuation orders for mobile home residents and those in low-lying areas, sending more people to shelters. Lake’s public schools also were designated by the state as shelters for those evacuating from the Gulf Coast.

A few dozen families arrived late Wednesday morning at Ocoee High School in west Orange and took refuge in the gymnasium. Some drove themselves while others arrived by taxi cab and Uber.

Before lunch was served, people were sprawled across the bleachers reading or watching videos on their phones. A few had inflated air mattresses and set them up along the perimeter of the gym. Children ran around and played games on handheld devices. And some evacuees waited for rain bands to subside to get outside for a smoke break.

Elba Rodriguez, of Winter Garden, toted a lawn chair and a bag of clothes into the school to add to her makeshift campsite inside she’d set up earlier. Two years ago, she said, she rode out Hurricane Ian at the same school, after seeking a more solid structure than her mobile home.

“I’m a cancer patient, so I need to be safe and I cannot run at the last minute,” she said. “That’s why I’m here so early.”

While Milton has her wary, Rodriguez said she chose to be optimistic as it approached the coast.

“I’m pretty sure we’re going to be fine,” she said.

Kathy Wilkins arrived at the Colonial High shelter Tuesday evening by Lynx bus, which was toting people free of charge. She usually sleeps under a highway overpass downtown. She was eager for a meal and relieved to be inside, she said.

“Since I found out about the storm,” she said, “I’ve been praying to God.”

mcuglietta@orlandosentinel.com, rygillespie@orlandosentinel.com

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