While mounds of debris from Hurricane Helene still sit in front of many homes and businesses in Charlotte County, residents move quickly to do what they can to protect those homes and businesses.
Lorna Babock and her co-worker secure sandbags in front of the doors of Southern Design Living — a furniture shop in Englewood.
In 2022, Hurricane Ian pushed some water into the business — and they’re hoping their precautions for Hurricane Milton this time will be enough.
“We were just cleaning up,” said Babcock. “There’s some French doors here and French doors in the back and we’re just pulling everything from the walls that might get some water thru them depending on the storm surge.”
Babcock, originally from Colorado, lives nearby in Port Charlotte — her home is in the county’s orange zone — which is under an evacuation order but she likely won’t leave.
“I really think we’re kind of just going to ride it out at home since it did so well in Ian,” said Babcock. She is the store’s manager and is also a local artist. Babcock removed artwork from the Southern Design building hoping to protect her paintings from potential flood waters.
Down the street in a manufactured home community near Lemon Bay which is in the red zone of Charlotte County, residents are supposed to take the highest level of precaution and evacuate.
Phil Durand said he was heeding the warnings.
“I put everything away that I can and I batten down everything I can’t and I cross my fingers,” said Durand.
He and his wife, from Minnesota, say they’ll go stay with a friend inland. Despite doing just fine in Hurricane Helene they say Milton feels different.
“The reason we’re leaving is just because this is a different direction and this is higher winds and more Ian-type.
Their neighbor down the road, Roger Ruble, from Ohio, is changing his typical game plan. He stayed in his manufactured home for hurricanes Ian and Helene, but this time he’s listening to the county’s evacuation orders.
“This is imminent. It’s coming right at us. I feel I’m going to go by what they suggest — evacuate.””
Ruble says his wife has been struggling with anxiety over Milton.
“It doesn’t bother me. It does my wife. She gets scared. But that’s why I’m going, too. I wouldn’t mind riding it out here but there’s no sense being foolish.”
And so he inspects the sturdiness of the shutters of his home before he heads out — hoping it will be another storm his house will survive.
“It’s a lot about preparation and being blessed.
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