Thousands of people evacuated Central Florida and the Gulf Coast before Hurricane Milton made landfall as a Category 3 storm, in Sarasota County. Many evacuees headed to the northern part of the state, or even Georgia or Alabama. Others, like Kim Hackett, headed south.
She left on Monday, piling into a minivan with her husband, mother and dog, making sure her mom’s wheelchair was loaded up, too.
Whatever couldn’t fit in the car — like her wedding dishes — were quickly stowed away somewhere safe in the house.
“I pulled all the pictures off the wall and we were in the process of getting a new refrigerator, so I had this empty, clean refrigerator,” said Hackett, 60. “I stuck all the pictures in there and tied the door closed.”
“I’ve seen so many people lose so much stuff that I'm kind of numb; I have a numb acceptance about it at this point.” Kim HackettKim Hackett
With that, they embarked on a seven-hour drive from their home in Venice to Miami, where Kim Hackett's son and his wife live.
“You just felt the somberness,” Hackett said from her hotel room in Miami Beach. “Nobody was honking their horns … everyone's kind of in their own head and just trying to be calm and move forward.”
She and her family were among millions of evacuees. Florida Emergency Management Director Kevin Guthrie said that there may be more evacuations than the nearly 7 million during Hurricane Irma in 2017.
The mandatory evacuation orders spanned 11 counties and covered a population of nearly 6 million.
Hackett, along with her husband David, 63, and 75-year-old mother Theresa — and dog, Piper — were at the Mondrian Hotel, where they also stayed during Hurricane Ian in 2022.
Hackett called herself an experienced evacuee, which is part of what made her decide to head south instead of getting stuck moving north. She remembers seeing people stranded when she went north for Irma seven years ago, and still recalls the chaos of Charley two decades earlier.
“Trying to get out when everybody was trying to get out was horrible,” she said, describing the Irma evacuation. “There were cars stranded on the side of the road. There was no gas.”
“People were at rest stops and they were closing the rest stops and not letting any more people come through.”
Gov. Ron DeSantis has said there’s no fuel shortage, with Florida working with fuel companies to deliver gas as it comes into Port Tampa Bay.
Tolls were also lifted around Tampa and Orlando in hopes of speeding up evacuation traffic. Road shoulders were opened to make room on some of Florida’s crowded highways.
Hackett’s had a lot to contend with this hurricane season alone — her daughter, Laura, is a reporter in North Carolina, covering the devastation of Hurricane Helene.
“My daughter was so distressed; she's up there seeing what would happen, and for her to have to worry about us was a big factor,” she said. Her son, Anthony, is in Miami Beach and also pushed for her to leave.
Ensuring her disabled mother could evacuate was another consideration in a long list. Back in Venice, she and her husband own a fitness center.
In waiting out Milton — waiting to see what happens to their home and business — Hackett said that she hopes nothing is damaged or lost, but that she’s used to the devastation of hurricanes.
“I’ve seen so many people lose so much stuff that I'm kind of numb; I have a numb acceptance about it at this point,” she said, describing how she put her important photos in her new fridge and is hoping for the best.
“We're pretty grounded in that we kind of live life appreciating people around us.”
Sandwiched between Helene and Milton, Hackett says she has been focused on staying safe from the storm.
Her husband might head back early to assess any damage at home. Hackett said she and her mom plan to stay in Miami Beach to wait out emergency responders and linemen heading west first.
“The way it's going to hit, supplies are going to be really tight down here as well, and for those of us who have to get back, we're going to stay out of the way.”
Until then, she’s wondering if this will just be the norm for hurricane season, particularly with the effects of climate change.
“We don't need to be worrying about this right now,” she said. “But Floridians are, especially on the Gulf side in Tampa Bay and in Sarasota, having that conversation — is this going to get better?”
Copyright 2024 WLRN Public Media
