With mandatory evacuations in much of south Florida, residents are doing what they can to get out.
But some say it’s too late and they’re now bracing for what’s being called one of the most powerful hurricanes ever.
Like many, Patti Taub was hoping to hop on I-75 north roughly 1,300 miles south of metro Detroit down in Naples, Florida.
But her husband is terminally ill.
Right now she says gas stations have run out of fuel nearby and she’s scrambling trying to find a safe place to go.
Taub was born in raised in Ann Arbor. She’s been living in Naples for a few year.
Now she’s bracing for Hurricane Irma - she says it’s like nothing she’s ever seen.
Normally she says locals fill the beach every day of the week. With roughly 24 hours before Irma is expected to hit the east coast of Florida, Taub says the west coast is already a ghost town.
Taub says she wanted to drive back here to Michigan a few days ago, but her husband is terminally ill and bed ridden.
Instead first thing Saturday morning she’ll be driving 45 minutes north to safer ground.
Taub and about a dozen others are loading up the vehicles with their pets and valuables to an industrial complex in Fort Myers.
They say they are stocked up with food and water and say they're as ready as they can be for when hurricane Irma makes landfall.
Now they simply have to hope for the best.
