West Coast Florida Thought They’d Be Spared The Worst, But Now Irma’s Coming For Them
September 10, 2017 by admin
Filed under Choosing Lingerie
Francis Ryan, a 69-year-old retiree who lives in Naples, told BuzzFeed News that he was waiting out Irma in his condo.
Ryan said that he’s one of the few people left in his complex.
“If it’s going to hit, it’s going to hit here,” he said of Irma’s western turn.
Ryan said that it’s too late now to evacuate, and that if he wanted to he should have done it “a week ago.”
“Right now, there’s barely any gas in this part of Florida,” he said. “You know — Florida’s a big state.”
Another Naples resident, Vanessa Medina, expressed frustrations to BuzzFeed News over her parents’ decision for their family to stay in the area during the storm.
Medina said she was already nervous at the early news of Hurricane Irma being a Category 5 storm before reports said the storm was now headed in her direction.
To prepare, her family has put up plywood and shutters as well as sandbags on their garage door in case of flooding. Their house is 6 or 7 feet above sea level, she said, but still Medina is very worried about the rest of her neighborhood.
While most of her friends have fled Naples, her house currently is holding 27 people through the storm, she said.
Bill Fassold, a spokesperson for Collier County, which includes Naples, told BuzzFeed News Saturday evening that shelters were packed.
“Most of the shelters are at capacity, if not all of them,” he said around 5 p.m. ET.
Fassold said that around 25 shelters were filled with over 15,000 people and that the county may try to open up some last-minute shelters.
These additional shelters will be “minimally staffed,” Fassold said, and evacuees will have to bring their own supplies. Pets will not be allowed.
