Hurricane Milton evacuees take air, roads to Alabama

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. ( WIAT ) — Many people trying to get out of Hurricane Milton’s path are making their way to Alabama. Some are just passing through by car or plane on their way to safety.

Airports in Florida like Tampa and Sarasota do not have any commercial flights incoming or outgoing. Some flights were leaving from other airports like Orlando International Airport in central Florida throughout Tuesday.

Stan Rossetti and his family were enjoying vacation in Orlando when news of Milton came, causing them to find a quicker return flight home.

“Going through TSA was pretty bad, but not as bad as we expected,” Rossetti said. “Want to make sure we get out of there for sure.”

Martha Louise Waters is originally from Birmingham but has been working at Disney World for a year. She said coming home was more so out of an abundance of caution.

“I live in an apartment, and I’m on the fourth floor,” Waters said. “So it’s just hard to know and lots of windows, so it’s just hard to know exactly what’s going to happen. It was a lot of kind of hecticness at stores and everything, of course, preparing for a hurricane.”

While some said the Orlando airport wasn’t too bad, the roads were a different story.

“I never saw so much traffic in my life,” Cynthia Dotto said. “It was like a parking lot.”

Sam and Cynthia Dotto weathered Hurricane Helene at their house on one of the barrier islands near Sarasota. Helene cost the Dottos their cars and brought 18 inches of water into the first floor of their house.

The Dottos said when evacuation orders came out for Milton, they called their daughter to drive down from Indiana, so they could get out. This hurricane season has left the Dottos wondering if living in Florida is really for them.

“It was rough,” Sam Dotto said. “I’m pretty resilient. I can handle quite a bit, but when they tear everything apart, get ready rebuilt and do it again, I’m not quite ready to do it again. I’d rather shovel snow.”

Charles and Norma Crow are on day two of their journey up to Tennessee with their two dogs, not knowing when they’ll head back to their home in Florida.

“He’s got a brain tumor. He’s had terrible health, and so it didn’t feel safe staying where we were,” Norma Crow said. “Our son stayed behind, our younger son, so hopefully everything will be OK when we get back.”

Many evacuees said they aren’t sure what to expect when they do return home, but they have a feeling it won’t be good.

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