As Hurricane Irma takes aim at Florida, thousands of people are evacuating the state, including some Connecticut residents who go to school there.
Brittany Chen and Shayna Rogers, who are both from Farmington, are college freshmen at Florida Gulf Coast University near Ft. Myers and they both caught a last-minute flight to Connecticut on Wednesday night to escape the storm’s path.
Chen said she realized how serious the storm was when her fellow Floridian classmates grew concerned.
“Even they were scared and I’m like, ‘Well they’re from Florida and they’re used to this and I’m used to blizzard storms,’” Chen said.
But getting a flight out of Florida was challenging.
As they scoured the internet and called all available airlines, they were experiencing the mayhem in Florida.
“We actually waited in a line for gas for two hours at Costco. It was crazy. Water ran out three days before I left,” said Rogers.
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Both Chen and Rogers said they are relieved they evacuated in time.
“I’m glad, I’m happy. We don’t even know if it’s going to hit us, but rather be safe than sorry,” Chen said.
But they are still worried about their friends in Irma’s path.
The university canceled classes for Thursday and Friday. Rogers said there is an arena on campus that many of her classmates plan on hunkering down in.
“Our arena is hurricane-proof so they can feed people up to two weeks so people can sleep in there and stuff,” Rogers said.
Florida Governor Rick Scott declared a state of emergency, as did officials in Georgia, North Carolina and South Carolina.
