‘My six-hour drive took 12’ says Hurricane Milton evacuee

COLUMBUS, Ga.  (WRBL) — A 22-year-old Columbus native moved to Tampa with a dream to start her life, but with a Category 5 Hurricane knocking on the door of that dream, she came back to where her life first began.

Cecilia Mills- Wells moved to Tampa a year ago with a need to experience life outside of her hometown.

“I never lived anywhere but Columbus,” Mills tells News 3. “I never thought about living anywhere until I kind of got the chance to be like, okay I could probably move somewhere.”

Tampa being her father’s hometown, she says going on a weekend trip a few years ago solidified her decision to pick up her life in Columbus and move to Florida.

Wells tells WRBL her life in Tampa consists of spending lots of time at the beach and working at a Heating and Plumbing company like the one her family owned in Columbus.

However, on Monday, Oct. 7 it was confirmed by a trusted Tampa Meteorologist she needed to evacuate due to Hurricane Milton.

Wells found herself seeking refuge in Columbus.

“I was freaking out because I don’t even like tornadoes. I’m from Columbus, Georgia, “Mills says. “There’s tornadoes that have ripped up my old school before, like it’s scary stuff. Weather is scary. So, I was freaked out.”

Wells says she does not live in a flood or evacuation zone, however once Floridians with more Hurricane experience shared their plans to evacuate for the storm, she knew it was time to go.

“The scary part was the people actually being scared.”

Cecilia Mills- Wells, Hurricane Milton Evacuee from Tampa, Florida

She found herself seeking refuge in Columbus.

“ I finished the day at work. We left at like 3p.m. and I dilly dallied,” Wells says. “I was trying to get a rental car because I wanted to have a really good car to be able to drive home and didn’t know if I was going to be stuck or whatever. Well, that was a nightmare, trying to get a rental car because everybody else is unfortunately. So, I finally got the rental car, and I got on the road like 1130 p.m. Monday night.”

“The best thing I ever did was getting off in Ocala and taking a back road. Thank God, after sitting there for like an hour and a half, there was no traffic the rest of the way. So that was amazing because I would’ve been stuck,” Wells shares.

“There’s people they’re still stuck out there today and that’s a nightmare,” she continues. “Like no gas. There’s no gas for hundreds of miles. The traffic is so backed up because nobody has gas and they’re running out of gas.”

Wells tells News 3 while she was evacuating, all she could see was big trucks and military bringing in resources to help those affected by Hurricane Helene.

“But I got here, took like 12 hours still because I got stuck before I got off the back road and the back road took longer. But yeah, my six-hour drive took 12 and I got here Tuesday morning at 9 a.m.,” Wells shares.

For Wells, coming to terms with being back in Columbus was not easy.

“ It’s kind of hard coming back here,” Wells says. “Like I mean, my brother’s my best friend. Like, I will drive across the country just to see him for an hour. But other than that, it’s hard. Like my family was here, like I lost both my parents here .

She finishes by saying, “I love coming home and like being able to like go to my home, that was my house growing up, but it’s like not really home anymore because my parents aren’t there.”

Although it’s hard to be back in Columbus, Wells remembered the community she created for six years at Country’s Barbecue and wasted no time in getting back there.

“I literally didn’t even go to sleep. I came back and went straight to Countries and worked a shift,” explains Wells.

She tells WRBL having people she could come back to made her decision to evacuate easier.

“It’s definitely giving me a sense of peace because I’m not alone,” Wells says. “I had multiple people say my doors open, like we have a bed ready for you. Please get out of there.”

“… I know that people care about me like I have text messages that I still haven’t answered because everybody was trying to get me to come back here like people that I don’t even talk to all the time. Like just knowing that people care about me here was really nice.”

Cecilia Mills- Wells, evacuated from Tampa, Florida due to Hurricane Milton

Wells plans to return back to Tampa by the end of the week. She says it depends on if her job building is still standing.

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