Hurricane Irma Evacuees Find Safe Haven in Middle Tennessee
Many Florida evacuees are making their way to Tennessee. but when they get here finding a hotel is a challenge.
“I wasn’t going to chance it one bit,” Jesse Montgomery who fled to La Vergne from Tampa told News 2.
Without hesitation he grabbed his two-year-old son, his cousin and his girlfriend and hit the road.
“I was so scared. I was ready to go because they actually said just stay in Tampa, but I’m like my life is way more important. I thought it was best to just get in the car and go,” explained Kiara Turner.
The couple had no destination in mind.
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“We literally were just looking at the map trying to decide where to go and we just decided to go to Tennessee,” said Turner.
Unaware if their home will still be intact when they return, the couple didn’t grab much for their journey.
“We packed our bags, there was no time to waste and it was getting faster and stronger as the hours went back so I was ready to haul tail when it was time,” said Turner.
“I got my family, that’s the only thing I care about,” Montgomery chimed in.
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On the way he said traffic was bumper to bumper while gas, water and hotels were hard to come by.
“The hotel, it was bad in Georgia. They had nothing, we had to come here. There’s a lot of people sleeping at the gas stations, the rest stops were full at a lot of places,” he explained.
They found a room at the Quality Inn in La Vergne.
“We found this place, thank God we found this place they gave us a good deal,” said Montgomery.
Now the couple is afraid Irma will hit Middle Tennessee so they are going to keep moving.
“Stay here for like a day and then we are heading back on the road, we are not going to stay here at all.”
The couple says they will likely move on to St Louis, while praying for their friends and family that chose to stay behind and ride out the storm.
News 2 called more than a dozen hotels in Murfreesboro that said they are full and are housing evacuees.
News 2 also reached out to the Nashville Convention and Visitors Corp, who said hotels were already busy, but have now picked up because of evacuees.
Courtesy of Nashville’s WKRN News 2 – by Stephanie Langston – Hurricane Irma evacuees find safe haven in Middle Tennessee
