The scramble to higher ground on Florida’s Gulf Coast is expected to result in the largest evacuation since Hurricane Irma in 2017. But as reporter Katie LaGrone explains, with hotel rooms becoming fewer and fewer, the state is stepping in with an unconventional solution to shelter evacuees.
With Hurricane Milton churning closer to Florida’s Gulf Coast, the search for shelter far from the water is getting tougher to nail down.
“I came here to protect my son and to ride out the storm,” said Abdul Hashmi just after he was able to book a room Tuesday at the Holiday Inn near the University of South Florida.
Johanna Cordova wasn’t as lucky when she tried booking at the same hotel. She was told to evacuate from her Tampa neighborhood Tuesday morning when authorities knocked on her door.
“My family's staying here at the hotel, and they told me they might have a room, but nothing,” Cordova told us as she was walking back to her car.
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Palm Beach County hotels filling up as Gulf Coast residents evacuate their homes
As the major hurricane fuels mandatory evacuations and high emotions, inland hotels across Tampa Bay are going fast.
While state is working with several hotel chains to cut rates, there’s only so much room to go around.
At the LaQuinta Inn and Suites near the University of South Florida, all 109 rooms are booked with many occupied since Hurricane Helene made landfall two weeks ago.
“We have some construction crews from the previous storm, so we were kind of already booked at the same time. Now we’re sold out until Friday,” said General Manager Justin Craven.
With so much demand for hotels rooms and not enough of them, the state is now using warehouses as shelters that can temporarily shelter thousands of people.
“These are big Category 5-type warehouses, that can have thousands of people,” said Gov. Ron DeSantis during a press conference early Tuesday.
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SHELTERS: Where you can find hurricane shelters in our area
DeSantis described the warehouses as located along evacuation routes near I-4 in Polk County and I-75 in Pasco and Hillsborough counties.
The warehouses accompany 36 county-operated shelters for evacuees with nowhere to go. The state will begin by opening four warehouse shelters and add more if demand is there. A total of 14 warehouses have been identified, according to Gov. DeSantis.
“But these are designed to be shelters of last resort,” said DeSantis.
Cordova has her sights set on a hotel, hoping a room opens before it’s too late.
“I’m nervous, I freaked out this morning. We’ll keep shopping I guess,” Cordova said.
Find the status of shelters in your county by clicking here.
TRACKING THE TROPICS: Hurricane Center | Hurricane Guide
