Ruby Thacher didn’t have to be told twice, but she was.
First her daughter in South Carolina told the 78-year-old what she already knew: She couldn’t ride this one out.
Then, it was a Citrus County sheriff mandate that she and husband Rex, 80, and every other person living in a camper, trailer or manufactured home had to evacuate this Gulf Coast county north of Tampa by 8 a.m. Tuesday.
Hurricane Milton intensified in just a few hours Monday from a Category 2 to a 5, the National Hurricane Center said, before dipping to a Category 4 overnight.
Worried about Milton, Ruby’s daughter had searched the web and booked her parents a bargain on I-Drive in Orlando — the four-star Rosen Centre which not only offered “hurricane distress rates” but pet-friendly rooms so Ruby and Rex could bring Lulu and Zoey, their dogs.
The couple was among an estimated 1,000 families who opted to seek shelter from the monster storm at a Rosen Hotel, said Jennifer Rice-Palmer, director of guest contact. She said the hotel and convention center resort offered discounted rates to hurricane evacuees as low as $69 a night, not including taxes, and set aside blocks of rooms for stranded airline crews, power line workers, college students and residents of a nursing home in Naples.