WARREN, Mich. (WXYZ) — Sandbags by doors, boarded up windows, tarps over glass: they're all images shared by Lisa Reinthaler during a FaceTime call with 7 News Detroit Wednesday afternoon, showing her Bradenton, Florida, neighborhood.
"I'm very anxious, very scared. I don’t know what to think," Reinthaler said.
The native Michigander moved to Florida three years ago.
She said Hurricane Milton will be her first hurricane, and she's right in the storm's path living in Bradenton.
"Walmart is shut down. They all closed down at 2 o'clock. The stores are decimated. There’s no gas," Reinthaler said.
Although residents have been urged to evacuate, Reinthaler said she is choosing to hunker down at home for the hurricane because she's caring for her mother who is on oxygen and disabled.
As she spoke to us Wednesday afternoon, winds were already picking up.
"It’s just really scary," Reinthaler said. "Everyone is leaving and I’m not."
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Some of the many residents who have evacuated Florida are fleeing to Michigan.
Linda Sue Dingel is one of them. She made the drive to Warren from Delray Beach.
"It’s very emotional. It creates anxiety because if it’s not coming toward you, it’s coming toward someone you know," Dingel said.
She showed 7 News Detroit photos of her home back in Florida that her neighbors shuttered up for her.
"So these are door walls that are shuttered up," Dingel said. "You can see we put bricks on anything we think might fly."
Dingel said she evacuated Florida during Hurricane Erma in 2017 as well.
She decisively did it again this week as the National Weather Service has warned that Milton could be the worst storm to hit Florida in more than a century.
"It’s going to be catastrophic and unimaginable," Dingel said.
Reinthaler said, "This is no joke. This is serious business. Lives can be lost. We are very scared. And please pray for us."
