As Hurricane Milton takes land on Florida’s West Coast, its effects are felt far beyond the storm’s immediate path.
Temple’s student government chief of staff, Madeline Sterner’s mother, Rachel Gerhard-Sterner, is left displaced until December after the back-to-back hits from Hurricane Helene and Milton.
“I’m like actually grieving for the life I had, and what I’m gonna go back to, and how to rebuild it all over again,” Rachel Gerhard-Sterner says.
Located in evacuation zone A in St. Petersburg, Gerhard-Sterner decided to leave her home. She packed whatever she could into her car and stayed with her family at a hotel in Jacksonville, Florida.
She says, “You feel survivor’s guilt to like, oh, I’m the lucky one, yah know, I have a family to stay with, and so it’s just up and down all the time. It’s a rollercoaster.”
Hurricane Milton is a dangerous storm with 100 mph winds and over a 9-foot storm surge. More than 24 Florida counties have issued mandatory or voluntary evacuation orders.
Despite Gerhard-Sterner’s swift evacuation, other individuals struggle to leave with the closure of Tampa International Airport.
Some Pennsylvania residents could make it home, landing at Philadelphia International Airport on Tuesday before Hurricane Milton hit Wednesday.
Diana Bolio from Norristown, Pennsylvania, says, “Florida was just crazy. People going crazy, buying water, buying toilet paper. Everything is crazy. Gas stations, it’s a long line waiting to get gas. And uh, I mean, everybody’s scared over there. I mean, I was glad we made it home”.
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