A Calgary family was among the millions of people fleeing parts of Florida this week as Hurricane Milton barreled across the state.
It was supposed to be a relaxing vacation for Andy Row and his family, but it turned into two days of collecting supplies followed by a very long unexpected road trip.
They arrived in Orlando last weekend — just days before the storm of the century tore through it.
Row tells CityNews the incoming storm’s force was initially drastically underestimated.
“The forecast kept getting worse and worse and worse,” Row says.
The family decided to leave towards Atlanta on Monday, two days before Milton was expected make landfall on Florida’s Gulf Coast.
He says the freeway was jammed with vehicles that were filled with people who were desperate to leave.
“They actually opened the shoulders on the left lane to have an extra lane,” he says. “But you couldn’t go more than 10 or 15 miles an hour for long stretches.”
To make matters worse, they were travelling in an electric rental car.
“I don’t recommend having a long emergency evacuation in a car that you have to stop and charge,” Row says. “It took a long-time to find charging places.”
After 10 hours of driving and more than three hours still to go, the family decided to stay in a hotel in rural Georgia. Orlando to Atlanta is typically around a six hour drive.
“We got to our hotel at 4 o’clock in the morning. We were really lucky to even get a hotel,” he says. “Every hotel north of Orlando was full, all the way into Georgia.”
His family finally made it to Atlanta safely, and from there will be heading back to Calgary. Row says he’s just relieved to be away from the storm’s destruction.
“There’s a great big hole in the roof of the Orlando airport, so we are flying out of Atlanta now,” says Row.
Milton made its way into the Atlantic Ocean on Thursday after plowing across Florida, where it knocked out power to more than 3 million customers and whipped up a barrage of tornadoes. The storm caused at least five deaths and compounded the misery wrought by Hurricane Helene a week earlier.
About 90 minutes after making landfall late Wednesday, Milton was downgraded to a Category 2 storm. By early Thursday, the hurricane was a Category 1 storm with maximum sustained winds of about 85 mph (135 kph).
Millions of people had been ordered to evacuate across 11 Florida counties in preparation for the storm. The storm had also spawned multiple reported tornadoes, some killing at least four people in St. Lucie County on Florida’s east coast, according to local officials.
There are many Canadians who live in Florida seasonally, and Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly had urged them to leave Wednesday.
With files from The Associated Press and The Canadian Press