NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WSMV) – Some Tennesseans stuck in the mix of Hurricane Milton evacuations break down what they have been experiencing as the storm approaches.

Some Floridians recently moved from Tennessee to areas directly in the path of Hurricane Milton and said they’re either hunkering down and staying in Florida or hitting the road and heading back to Tennessee.

Rain falling in Florida on Monday afternoon was the start of what former Tennessee resident Erich Gentry said could be his worst nightmare come to life.

“It has ramped up so fast,” Gentry said. “I knew I needed to keep an eye on it after last week’s storm. We’re just so over-saturated and trees are already trying to work themselves down.”

Gentry moved from Nashville to St. Augustine two years ago and said watching Hurricane Milton intensify was unlike anything he’d ever heard or seen before.

When asked about his evacuation plan, Gentry said, “I kind of drug my feet just a little bit, and within a matter of hours it strengthened to a category 5, even the gas station that’s just up the street from me is already out of fuel and people are going crazy.”

But crowds at gas pumps weren’t unique to St. Augustine, Jessica Beard who moved from Columbia, Tennessee to Fort Myers, Florida said she also saw busy gas stations when she and her family were headed north Monday morning.

Beard said they loaded up their car and started driving to Columbia, Tennessee at 7 a.m.

“We hit traffic coming out of Fort Myers around Sarasota,” Beard said. “It was stop and go all the way through Ocala.”

Beard said she and her family were following the progression of the storm for days. As soon as the meteorologist announced that Hurricane Milton upgraded from a category 3 storm to a category 4 and then a category 5 storm by Monday morning, Beard and her family started to panic. Beard said people started posting reports online of store shelves emptying and generators selling out.

“We’re not in the mandatory evacuation zone but, it’s just a few streets over that are, so we left, better safe than sorry,” Beard said.

Gentry said when he decided to leave, traffic was just too bad. He was worried he’d possibly run out of gas and not be able to find a station that wasn’t also out of gas.

“Unfortunately, anything heading north is pretty much already backed up,” Gentry said. “People are evacuating with their cars and things, so it seems like I may have missed the boat unfortunately.”

To prepare for the storm, Gentry said he was loading up his home with sandbags, food, and water.

“At this point, I think it’s just time to batten down the hatches and try to pray and hope for the best for myself and everyone around us,” Gentry said.

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