Some Florida residents stay home to ride out Hurricane Ian
Orlando resident Jeff Schwartz and Naples resident Emily Burke share their experience bunkering down for Hurricane Ian on ‘Fox News @ Night.’
As Hurricane Ian approached southwest Florida, officials issued evacuation orders for parts of the coastline. Some residents, however, chose to ride out the storm at home.
Naples resident Emily Burke joined "Fox News @ Night" early Thursday to share why they chose to stay and what they experienced as the storm unleashed nearly Category 5-strength winds.
"My family has been here for about 20 years. We've rode out every other hurricane. We weren't specifically told to evacuate," Burke told host Trace Gallagher.
"And my county, luckily, where I live, we weren't flooded the way that most of Naples was. We were very fortunate."
LIVE UPDATES: IAN DOWNGRADED TO TROPICAL STORM, FLORIDA WAKING UP TO DAMAGE FROM HURRICANE
Cities along the southwest coastline including Fort Myers, Cape Coral, Naples, Sanibel and Captiva Islands were hit with the full force of the storm.
"We were basically dug in at that point just because it was supposed to hit Tampa directly. That's what we were planning," Burke said. "And then last minute, it kind of just started heading directly towards us."
The city of Naples, FL during Hurricane Ian on September 28, 2022. The streets are flooded and wind strongly gusts the trees. (City of Naples)
Hurricane Ian battered the city of Naples, with recovery efforts underway Thursday morning.
"There was a photo you showed that showed a blue roof, and that's less than two miles down the street from my house," said Burke.
"A lot of condos and apartment complexes were just completely flooded. We were very fortunate. We didn't realize how bad it was until I started seeing stuff posted on Twitter, Instagram, TikTok and that photo as well."
The National Hurricane Center downgraded Ian to a tropical storm Thursday morning.
Tropical Storm Ian is still expected to cause life-threatening storm surges, flooding and damage as it moves to central and north Florida.
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The storm is also expected to continue north into Georgia and the Carolinas later this week.
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