Pittsburgh natives in Hurricane Milton's path grapple with decision to stay or leave
PITTSBURGH (KDKA) — Pittsburgh natives who have homes in Florida had to make the last-minute decision to stay or leave on Tuesday before Hurricane Milton makes landfall later this week.
The National Hurricane Center said Tuesday was the last day to evacuate. The latest forecasts show Milton making landfall over Sarasota sometime overnight Wednesday and into Thursday.
Some Pittsburghers told KDKA-TV that they rushed out of town to somewhere safe, while others said they decided to ride out the storm. Some said they are scared to stay but scared to leave.
"I'm a Pittsburgh native. So, I'm used to prepping for snowstorms, not hurricanes," said Marlayna Marquinez.
Less than two months ago, Marquinez and her husband packed up their life in Dormont and moved to Clearwater with their 1-year-old, 3-year-old and their small dog.
"We haven't really been able to enjoy the beach because we went from (Hurricane) Helene two weeks ago, and now we have Milton coming," Marquinez said.
Marquinez hasn't slept much, as she's been keeping an eye on Hurricane Milton as it barrels towards the Tampa Bay area. Marquinez is the assistant manager of the 154-unit apartment complex where her family lives.
The complex is about a half-mile from the water. About two weeks ago, Hurricane Helene didn't flood the apartment building, but it was a different story just minutes down the road.
She said they're surrounded by areas that are under mandatory evacuation. She's telling the residents in their building if they can evacuate to a safe place, follow their gut.
Many of the residents in their building have gone north, but Marquinez and her family are staying again.
"I'm more afraid to leave actually and get stuck in my car somewhere where I don't really know where I'm at than just kind of hunker down and do what we can here," she said.
"I'm going to put our mattress in our guest room and we're going to kind of hunker down in there. It has an extra bathroom in the event that we would need to get into the bathtub and put a mattress over my kids," she added.
Marquinez said traffic is backed up for hours, it's difficult to find gas and many stores are closed.
"It's just kind of like you almost feel trapped in a way. It's just it's getting a little scary. It's becoming like a ghost town," she said.
They're stocked up on water, food, power banks and flashlights.
"We did as much prep as we could. I will say, being our first major hurricane, we could have done better," Marquinez said.
Floridians with Pittsburgh roots flee out of state
Jeffrey Hickman the general manager of The Shipwreck, a bar in Clearwater Beach. He lost his home, car and business a few weeks ago in Hurricane Helene.
"It's hard to play victim when it happened to so many other people," Hickman said.
This time, he's not taking chances. He was looking for flights and found the last seat on a flight to Pittsburgh. He is staying with his family.
"It felt so good to evacuate the state of Florida, evacuate Tampa and Clearwater and get to real safety up here in Pittsburgh," Hickman said.
Churchill's Anthony Roman took the last flight out of Fort Myers before the airport closed.
"We got out in the nick of time," Roman said at his restaurant in Forest Hills.
North Braddock resident Sandy Culligan owns a condo in Sarasota. While the commercial area got pounded by Helene, her condo avoided too much damage. This time, there is more concern.
"We might not be able to communicate with you because our power is going to be out. We're just warning you to stay safe," Culligan said.
While she's glad to be away from the path of the storm, she fears for some of her condo neighbors who live in Florida permanently.
"My main concern is about the people living there. It's just heartbreaking," Culligan said
Pittsburgh-area woman says husband is staying in Florida
Judy Kording lives in McCandless and is the assistant manager of Shaler Township. She and her husband, Scott, have owned a condo in Fort Myers Beach since 2015. So, they're no strangers to hurricanes.
"After Hurricane Ian, we were out of the condo for 18 months. We just got occupancy in May," Kording said.
Her husband has been staying at their condo recently. She said she's been worried sick about him, as he stayed for Helene and didn't want to leave for Milton.
"The intensity and the size of this storm is actually very frightening," Kording said.
"This one, there was a mandatory on Fort Myers Beach. I had an inclination that was going to happen. So, it took me over an hour on Saturday night to find a hotel. I called 20 hotels. It's not an ideal hotel. They flooded during Ian," she added.
Kording's husband made it through traffic back-ups and arrived at the hotel she booked for him in North Naples on Monday afternoon. Now, she's praying for the safety of her husband and everyone else still in Florida.
"He's right on the cusp of the next evacuation. If that happens, he's just going to have to go to one of the Lee County shelters," Kording said.
"There's just a lot of fear down there right now. Hope for the best and pray for Tampa because I think that's next," she said.
