Floridians take shelter as Hurricane Ian makes landfall

 

WISCONSIN (CBS 58) -- Wednesday, Sept. 28 Hurricane Ian made landfall, reaching a Category 4.

An uncertain situation for a lot of people on the U.S. coast, people in the center of the storm said they're preparing for the possibility of going days without power and water.

CBS 58 spoke with two people in the center of the storm who say the community has shifted back into pandemic-buying mindset, with a lot of key essentials selling out.

"You know what to expect, but even when it comes, people are like oh boy, here we go," said Michael Scholl.

The storm brought with it heavy rain and strong winds.

"Palms are swaying and branches are coming off and it sounds like a thunder, you can feel the building shake from time to time," said Viktor Mitic of Siesta Key, Florida.

Along with the intense weather, in parts of the state, extreme precautionary measures were taken.

"So far we don’t have water, water was shut off by the county about 12 hours," said Mitic.

Meanwhile just 30 minutes south from Mitic, Michael Scholl, a native of Illinois now living in Bradenton, Florida, says this is a first for him and his family.

"We tried to fill up gas one last time, there was nothing left. They were limiting how much ice you can buy, how many bottles of waters you can buy," said Scholl.

Despite this being a first for Scholl, he said his family is ready to take on the storm.

"Making sure we have buckets of water because the toilets may not work. There are some processes that you are trying to make sure you check up on, but most of our prep work was yesterday, and now you just sit and wait and pray for everyone."

Residents in the area say after the storm passes comes the clean-up.

"It's going to be a reverse trend, it's going to be  unpacking for the next two or three or four or five days to put everything back together the way it was before," said Mitic.