Evacuees flee to Santa Rosa County ahead of Hurricane Helene
Santa Rosa County was one of three counties in Florida not under a tropical storm or hurricane warning on Wednesday.
Hotels were filling up with Blackwater Inn Milton at 50% capacity and expecting to be near capacity by Thursday morning. Best Western Inn on Highway 87 said Wednesday that they were out of reservations. Holiday Inn Express in Milton had workers staying later in their shifts to help with the incoming evacuees and has been booking and canceling reservations all day.
“When I came in this morning we were sold out, then I had five available, and then three,” said Jodi Stokes, Holiday Inn employee. “I’ve been telling them if you cancel now then you’re not going to be able to get it back.”
Stokes said people are unsure where to go because they are not sure how much the storm is going to impact their area. Therefore, many have had a difficult time deciding if they should go ahead with booking their hotel rooms.
Cancellation fees are being waived and normally they do not accept pets, but they are accepting them now due to the hurricane without a fee.
“It’s actually a state mandate to waive certain fees during a state of emergency. We are also accepting pets though we don’t usually. We don’t want anyone to leave their pets behind,” said Lori Gordon, Holiday Inn manager.
One 72-year-old evacuee from Tallahassee, who did not want his name published, checked into the Holiday Inn. When he evacuated from Hurricane Michael in 2018, he stayed in Crestview, but this time he couldn’t find an available room there and decided to stay in Milton.
Stuart King from Atlanta has been working at Boise Cascade in Milton since January and commutes back home for the weekends. King was at the Holiday Inn to see if he would be able to book a room for a few days, rather than driving back to Georgia, where the storm is heading after making landfall in Florida.
“If I’m not able to get a room right now I’m going to head straight back to Atlanta tonight,” King said. “I would rather hunker down at home but since the storm is heading that way as well, I figured I might as well try and see if they have a room open for the night.”
King was able to get a room Wednesday night, but the hotel informed him that they were booked for the following days.
Donald Weir, a Navy veteran from Carrabelle, said that he was able to make his three-hour drive to the Holiday Inn Milton relatively easily. Carrabelle is a coastal town that is currently in the direct path of Hurricane Helene. Weir was not overly concerned about the impacts of the storm but figured it was better to be safe than sorry considering the projected path.
Hurricane Helene became a Category 1 on Wednesday and is expected develop into a Category 3 storm hitting Florida’s Big Bend Thursday evening.