Residents seek shelter from Hurricane Milton in South Florida hotels
DORAL - As thousands of residents evacuate from the west coast of Florida because of Hurricane Milton, many are finding refuge in hotels and motels in South Florida.
A manager at La Quinta Inn and Suites said they were at capacity at the 143-room hotel in Doral and said many people were there from the west coast. The hotel was sold out as of Tuesday.
Noelia Ascurra said that she and her husband were there with four members of her family from Tampa.
"We just decided on Saturday better to come here than go up towards Tallahassee so we came here," she said. "But this is very hard. We still have my brothers and the rest of my family could not come. We just packed up and left our houses there but we are hoping the storm will weaken."
Ascurra said "we are very worried but life comes first."
Her husband William Sarrano said "It was very hard to leave Tampa. We have been there for 15 years and we have never seen anything like this. I always decided if we get a hurricane in Tampa Bay I am going to leave. I don't want my family to go through this."
Kim Benli left Cape Coral with her dogs Misha and Willow and was staying at a Miami hotel.
"I put up my shutters and took scare of many screen doors but this was scary," Benli said. "I do not know what I am going to go back to but I was where for Ian (2022) and I did not plan on staying for one. This one scared the daylights out of me."
Wayne Smith also left Cape Coral and was staying at the same hotel
"We have a home on a canal that is in an A zone for evacuation and we were part of a mandatory evacuation," he said. "We were going to stay but we were worried about the storm surge coming towards us. We decided that with a 12- to 15-foot surge there was no way we could stay. We are at a 7-foot elevation so we are expecting our whole house to be flooded so we decided to be safe and come here."
