Cindy Teamer — formerly of Windsor-Essex — lives in Lehigh Acres just east of Fort Myers.
She's one of the hundreds of thousands of people without power, but says for the most part the damage hasn't been too bad.
"The storm ended up being a category 2 when it was hitting us — so once I realized how we were in the worst I actually felt pretty safe because I could tell it wasn't going to break any windows or take off my roof or anything like that," says Teamer. "It was pretty dicey. I've lived through Hurricane Charlie and Wilma and it may have been that I was living in a different area but it was pretty intense for about 30 minutes when the eye of the storm was going over where I live."
Former south Windsor resident Kevin Hickling lives in the Tampa area with his wife and two young children.
He says they considered evacuating but eventually decided to stay put.
"The only reason we would've left had it been a category 4 or 5 with a direct hit to Tampa," says Hickling. "The house that we live in in Tampa was built 3 years ago so it's got the latest hurricane codes and everything else, so we felt safe in it and we wanted to make the best decision but it looked like it wasn't going to keep the strength and direct course so we felt safe here.
Hickling has lived in Florida for the past 13 years and says Hurricanes aren't uncommon.
"5 or 6 direct ones and this has been potentially the most catostrophic," he says. "I think you'll see as the morning pictures come up you'll see a lot of devastation throughout."
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