ROMULUS, Mich. – As Florida braces for Hurricane Milton to barrel into the state, many Floridians are evacuating to Southeast Michigan.
Read: When and where will Hurricane Milton make landfall in Florida?
On Tuesday, the flight boards at Detroit Metro Airport showed cancelations out of Tampa where the airport is closed while arrival flights from around the state had minor delays.
It appears Floridians are heeding the warning from emergency officials.
“It’s devastating. I feel so bad and I send prayers for everyone that’s going through it,” Emily Lake said.
As the Sunshine State braces for back-to-back hurricanes, cleanup from Hurricane Helene continues ahead of Hurricane Milton’s arrival.
Sprawling traffic shows the exodus of people leaving the state, however, some opted to fly out of the danger zone.
Dannie Coleman traveled to Detroit to seek shelter from Milton’s wrath. However, she like many evacuees know many who are choosing to hunker down.
“They’re just going to stay and a couple of them just couldn’t afford to go,” Coleman said.
She told Local 4 she avoided paying $1,200 for a flight leaving Monday but managed to secure a flight to Detroit the next day for more than $700.
Meanwhile, AAA tells Local 4 they’re busy helping travelers with not only canceled trips to Florida but other traveling hiccups.
“With [this] situation you can wind up having flights canceled even if you aren’t traveling to what is that hurricane territory or zone,” said Adrienne Woodland, a AAA spokesperson.
While people flee Florida, some Michigan groups are on standby to see if they’ll need to help in the aftermath of Milton.
DTE’s vice president of distribution operations said the utility company has already deployed crews to Virginia, the Carolinas and Georgia, who are currently still out-of-state for Helene.
“We have between our contractors and our DTE resources, we have 600 people who are down there between our trim tree crews,” Brian Calka said.
Other help includes overhead work and supporting local utility companies, he said.
It’s a wait-and-see game to know whether DTE will need to ship crews further south.
Following Helene, the Michigan Humane Society and Michigan State Police deployed teams. State police told Local 4 the task force MI-TF1 is not being deployed for Milton but could change as the situation evolves.
Coleman hopes her home will be standing when she returns. Also, that the people she cares about will be safe.
“Just happy I made it here this far,” she said.
Related: Here’s how you can help victims of Hurricane Helene, Hurricane Milton
