Florida residents travel north ahead of Hurricane Milton’s landfall

WILSON COUNTY, N.C. (WITN) – Traffic was heavy for Florida residents traveling up north to get out of Hurricane Milton’s path.

Eastern North Carolina has become a stopping point for many Floridians leaving the state, as hotels are short on availability from Georgia to South Carolina.

Before Hurricane Milton made landfall as a Category 3 storm, state officials urged millions of people to evacuate and brace for destruction and flash flooding.

Jason Plucinik is an Orlando, Florida resident who packed up a trailer and left Tuesday ahead of Hurricane Milton’s landfall with his family to prevent getting caught in the storm.

He stopped in North Carolina on his way farther up north to refuel and pick up food.

“We just left ahead of time because of how the storm is going to impact travel,” he said. “With a trailer, wind is just going to roll that thing all over the place. Heavy rain, heavy traffic, trying to get out and find any accommodations whether that’s fuel. Food places probably getting packed up too, just wanted to get ahead of everything.”

Plucinik said he left Tuesday with hopes of beating traffic, but was caught up in heavy traffic jams leaving Florida, and even while driving through Georgia.

He said traffic finally started to slow down once he reached South and North Carolina.

With Hurricane Helene hitting parts of Florida, Plucinik said he is prepared for Hurricane Milton. Watching over his home through ring cameras even while he is away.

“I actually have one pointed directly at my pool because that’s the big concern is that the water will cause it to overflow,” he said. “Who knows how high that can get into our house, so we have that monitor with a pump inside the pool that’s controlled by my app just in case we need to turn it on.”

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