RICHMOND, Va. — Virginia is both seeing residents from the Sunshine State arrive to avoid Hurricane Milton and sending people down to help out in the aftermath.
Iain Peters lives in Melbourne, Florida, a city east of Tampa on the other side of the state and drove up to stay with family in Chesterfield.
“Just the projected winds and rain in our area. We’re in a pretty big flood zone being so close to the ocean,” he said. “We only packed our car full of what we could and our most valuable stuff and came up here.”
He added that while some of his friends with homes in the area are staying down there, he lives in a first-floor apartment unit and is concerned about flooding.
Colby Tomasello, who lives in the Richmond area but grew up in Tampa, said many of his friends and family are still down there and moving out of the storm’s path if they can.
” A lot of my friends who live on the bay are going further inland,” Tomasello said. “My folks are going back up to Gainesville, which is great that they have the means, of the ability to get out of dodge. But, I also know there are people that have to stay for whatever reason, and so, I’m hoping they get the support they need because it’s dangerous. ”