Hurricane Milton | The Decision to Stay or Leave

 As Hurricane Milton approached the western coast of Florida, it brought winds and heavy rain hours before it reached landfall. 

“The wind has picked up. We saw 25 mph gusts early this morning around 11 a.m. or noon. Now we're seeing upward I would imagine a maximum 40-50 mph gusts,” Taylor Rogers who was in Sun City Center, FL said.

Rogers said his apartment wasn't under evacuation orders, which, along with his work in the health field, led to his decision to stay.

“So a lot of it had to do with my work schedule. All my friends work in healthcare. So a lot of us are sort of responsible for either in hospitals or outpatient clinics. So we decided to stick it out especially since we live in a second-floor apartment. 

One person who evacuated was Malagros Reyes from Land O' Lakes Florida, who went up north to Virginia and battled to find gas along the way.

“It started with gas. I went out looking for gas. Went to four different gas stations. They were completely out of gas,” Reyes said.

A part of Reyes' decision to leave came from seeing the aftermath of Helene.
 
With the last hurricane that we just had -- Helene. We had 70 mph winds, and that was really bad. I mean could hear the roof knocking. When they said this one is going to be stronger, I thought ‘the last one was bad; I think it's time to go,’” Reyes said.