She should be at The University of Tampa, where she’s a sophomore finance major. Instead, 19-year-old Ella Skinner is back home in Johns Creek this week for her third hurricane evacuation in barely a year.
“They have no idea when we’ll be returning,” Skinner told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “Who knows what’s going to happen to my dorm or anything else on campus?”
Skinner packed for a weekend trip to Savannah, where she met her family. As Hurricane Milton began its path toward Florida, her university closed and she drove back to North Fulton with only the things she packed for the weekend. Skinner is hopeful her ninth floor dorm room will be intact when she’s able to return.
The massive storm has led to thousands of evacuations in the Tampa Bay area, and forecasters have said Hurricane Milton could be catastrophic. For many in Florida — including those who are native Georgians — the decision whether or not to leave isn’t an easy one.
Central Floridians Edward Rasmussen, 77, and wife Pauline, 82, drove to Georgia overnight Monday and arrived midday Tuesday at a Red Cross shelter in Macon with Minnie, their poodle.
“At first,” Pauline said, “I had to twist his arm. But then I said, ‘I’m going if you don’t.’ And I meant it.”
“You’re not going to mess with 130-mile-an-hour winds,” Edward said.
“We feel much safer here,” his wife added, noting they plan to stay through Thursday or “until we feel confident that we’re not going to get blown away.”
They live in The Villages, a Florida retirement community in Sumter and Marion counties. So does Atlanta native Nancy Smith, who isn’t evacuating.
“I get when you live near the water, it’s part of it,” Smith told The AJC on Tuesday. “To be honest, I don’t know if I like it. Every October, this is what you go through.”
Smith says she’s constantly watching weather reports, and though she considered evacuating, she said she plans to stay in the area.
“I know that where we are, we are centrally located,” Smith told The AJC. “We truly are in the safest place we can be.”
Smith said a friend from her time at The University of Georgia lives nearby, and she plans to wait out the storm with her.
“With weather being so fresh on everybody’s mind and the devastation that can occur, I’m going to go to my college roommate’s home to weather the storm,” she said.
Ty Lawrence went to Valdosta State University, which along with much of Valdosta and surrounding areas sustained significant damage from Helene. He’s now in Bushnell, Florida, where he is a head football coach. Although he has family in Moultrie, southwest of Tifton, he and his wife and three daughters are staying in their Florida home, which is about 45 miles inland.
“We want to be here to take care of our stuff,” he said.
He’s cleared off porches, checked on his generator and loaded up on gas and food. He plans to stay in close touch with his mother, who lives about 20 minutes away, and with the more than 100 students he coaches.
“We’ll just have to wait until it goes through,” Lawrence said. “Now it’s just wait and see.”
