Floridians flee Hurricane Milton, with Minnesotans feeling the effects

(FOX 9) - Kelly Metevia has lived in Fort Myers, Florida for 17 years, but tomorrow she and her family will be leaving their home to get out of the path of Hurricane Milton.

"It's definitely a roller coaster. It's just the ups and downs and where is the track going and the spaghetti models and the updates, and it just becomes very overwhelming," said Metevia.

During Hurricane Ian two years ago, Metevia says the damage was mostly contained to her pool cage. But with a storm surge predicted to be life-threatening and a mandatory evacuation order expanded to include her community, Metevia and her family aren't taking any chances with Milton.

"If we have friends that are willing to take us in, and we can go there for a day just to make sure we're safe, and our kids are safe, the things in our house are secondary. We'll fix it," said Metevia.

Shelly Reiner lives in Minnesota but has owned a townhome on Sanibel Island for more than 30 years.

She says she just finished repairing her property from Hurricane Ian about a month ago, only for Hurricane Helene to fill her garage with 18 inches of water. Now, Hurricane Milton is heading that way. 

"It's hard to do this over and over. You have what they call hurricane fatigue. It's a lot of it's physical," said Reiner.

Reiner says she bought sandbags to protect her townhome, but never filled them because if Milton hits as hard as expected, nothing will stop the water from flooding her home again.

"It's just a matter of I hope the unit stands rather than the pull of that water if it gets too deep," said Reiner.

Despite all this, Reiner says she still plans to retire to her townhouse on Sanibel Island in a year or so, as long as the damage from Milton is manageable.