Ridin’ the storm out

By Editor | October 16, 2024 |

As Hurricane Milton barreled towards Florida, even residents of the state’s east coast found themselves in the path of the powerful storm. For Ringold County residents Bruce and Michell Ricker, who own a ninth-floor condo on Ormond Beach, the experience was both terrifying and eye-opening.
Located about five miles north of Daytona Beach in Volusia County, Ormond Beach sits on a long barrier island reachable only by a bridge that connects it to the mainland. Due to the prospect of excessive storm surge, a mandatory evacuation order was issued for the entire county.
The Rickers had been monitoring the storm’s progression across the Gulf of Mexico but initially failed to heed the evacuation advisory.
As the storm moved closer to landfall near Tampa, and fearing they may end up stranded if the bridge became impassable, the Rickers reconsidered their choice.
“When they started talking about it being a Category 5, we actually looked to evacuate,” Bruce said. “”It’s still considered to be a Category 1 storm by the time it hit east coast even though it hits as a Cat 3 on the other side.”
Once the Rickers made the decision to evacuate, the question then became – To where?
“I couldn’t find any rooms until you either got to Atlanta or north,” said Bruce. “That’s like six or seven hours away. Even people from Tampa were coming to places like Daytona, There were no hotel rooms anywhere.”
With hotels fully booked for several hours north, the Rickers considered heading south, but the authorities warned against that decision as well.
“They told everybody to go north because south had the bigger wind – 25 tornadoes, or something, biggest tornado outbreak ever performed in one day.”
On Wednesday, the couple traveled the short distance to the home of their daughter, Lindsay Flickinger, her husband Cory and one-year-old son Noah. However, being located less than two miles inland from the ocean, they too had come under the mandatory evacuation.
Once united on the mainland, the Rickers and Flickingers decided to travel to Atlanta, but they soon learned that plan was no longer an option.
“Cory got on his phone, and [Interstate] 95 was already gridlocked,” said Bruce.
To make matters worse, many service stations had already run out of gas.
“Even on Monday, I went to fill the car up with gas, all the regular gas was gone,” Bruce said.
Left with no other choice, the family resigned themselves to sheltering in place in their block home.
Milton impacted Ormond Beach around midnight Wednesday with winds reaching 98 mph, nearly a Category 2-level storm.
“”It was loud,” Bruce recounted. “Like people talk about, I guess I’ve never heard the train of a tornado. It was like, loud, loud!”
“Midnight to 2:00 a.m. it was so loud we couldn’t sleep,” said Michell. “We couldn’t watch TV because it was too loud.”
As the storm intensified, so did the Rickers’ anxiety.
“We were thinking we were hearing the shingles come off the roof, which we were. From 12 to 2, we knew it wasn’t even there yet. We knew it was outside of Orlando coming our way. We’re like, ‘Why did we stay in a mandatory evacuation area? We’re gonna die!’ Because that’s what it sounded like, but once it starts, you can’t leave. So, you what we did, we said a prayer and went back to sleep.”
“Well, I didn’t sleep as much as you did,” said Bruce.
Besides the wind, the storm dumped 23.45 inches of rain in less than 24 hours, triggering emergency flash flood notifications throughout the night,
“We were more concerned as much about storm surge, too,” said Bruce. “Our phones kept going off, beeping real loud. We tried to shut them off so that Noah wouldn’t wake up because of the flash flood warnings that continually happened.”
“We were surrounded by water on three sides,” said Michell. “The backyard was full of water from the inter-coastal. Remember, they [the Flickinger home] are only four houses away from the inter-coastal waterway, Halifax River. So it came up to the house, but it seeped in the house in only two rooms.”
Meanwhile, water was knee deep in the backyard.
The power flickered but never went out for long, unlike their neighbors who may still be without electricity.
“Many people had roof damage,” said Bruce. “Fences were blown down. There’s just tree limbs, signs, standing water everywhere. Water’s coming out of the storm sewers as well as sanitary sewers.”
Once the bridge across the inter-coastal waterway reopened, the Rickers found their condo building had sustained damage to the roof and pool deck. Storm surge there had reached five feet.
After having ridden out one hurricane, the Rickers agree they learned an important life lesson.
“If you don’t leave early, you’re not going,” said Michell. “That’s the moral of the story. We might choose to do things differently next time. You shouldn’t stay in a mandatory evacuation area.”
“I wouldn’t recommend it,” added Bruce.