New Englanders check on family, loved ones in Florida as Hurricane Ian hits

TAMPA  – Michael Petty has been sitting in his Jamaica Plain home, keeping a close eye on the next camera that shows the outside of his Tampa condo. 

“I see a lot of palms flying around the pool area, and I hear the wind,” he told WBZ.

He and his husband are safe in Boston and constantly checking in on loved ones as Hurricane Ian makes landfall on the gulf coast. 

“We have been not getting this for decades, and I just keep thinking and holding my breath, thinking that eventually all of the building of the condos and things in Tampa… [a hurricane is] going to come eventually,” he said.

Despite being in an evacuation zone, many of Petty’s Tampa neighbors chose not to leave. “They were warned: If you stay, there will be no elevators, the entire staff will be on lockdown, and they are leaving. You’re on your own,” he explained.

Others, like his neighbors, chose to ride the storm out at friends’ condos on higher levels in St. Petersburg. 

“Just listening to the folks who have been here for many years, that Florida mentality of ‘Heck, we’ve been through it, we can get through it again,'” said Marty Bory.

“I’ve seen storms before and this is the worst I’ve seen,” added Jack O’Halloran, as he waited out the storm at a friend’s house with his fiancée.

They tell WBZ the most frustrating part is how slowly the storm is moving, lingering in one area and causing so much destruction for so many hours.