Western Pennsylvania native now living in Florida shares Hurricane Ian plan with 11 News
Many western Pennsylvanians have ties to the Florida coast, or have vacationed there before.
Among those who recently moved there is Clare Westwood, formerly of Sewickley.
Westwood is now living in Bonita Springs, Florida, just north of Naples, which is currently under a mandatory evacuation order.
Channel 11′s Lisa Sylvester spoke to Westwood over Zoom.
“I just moved here from Sewickley,” she said. “I’m scared. I’m not a native Floridian so this is not my comfort zone. There are tornadoes people don’t talk about. There might be seven to nine tornadoes at any given time going on right now. They don’t touch the ground, but they are happening.”
Westwood and her family are packing up and heading for Miami. They would have left today, but there is bumper-to-bumper traffic on Alligator Alley, the main road that crosses the state through the Everglades.
Westwood told Channel 11 that staying was not an option.
“We are going to get seven to nine feet of storm surge here,” she explained. “Where I’m sitting right now in the lower level of our home will most likely be underwater in two days.”
Sylvester asked Westwood to tell us what grocery stores look like right now. She said there’s nothing to tell, and stores have been cleaned out by people stocking up on water, food and toilet paper.
Stay with 11 News as we continue to track Hurricane Ian.
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