Hurricane Irma has been downgraded to a tropical storm as it blows into Georgia,
leaving Florida reeling from the second major hurricane to hit the United States in two weeks.
About six-and-a-half million people in the state were ordered to evacuate ahead of the storm,
but most Floridians are hurricane veterans,
and many made their own decisions about whether or not to leave.
In the city of Homestead,
which was destroyed by Hurricane Andrew 25 years ago,
the Olvera family decided to ride out this latest hurricane at home.
— My parents are coming over because they’re in a flood zone,
so they’re going to be coming over with us—
which is my mom, my father,
and my mom’s mom, which is my kids’ great-grandma.
And she’s 80.
And the fact that we’re going to be all together,
I think it’s what’s going to help us,
you know, survive it and stay sane and be okay with what’s going on.
— Good morning, everybody.
— We couldn’t escape it no matter what we did.
I mean, it’s going to be going all the way up.
Where can we go?
We’re on a peninsula.
There’s, you know… there’s only north.
But now, it’s traveling north too.
So I just thought of the traffic and trying to get my kids loaded up into a car,
being somewhere where we’re not familiar with.
At least here we know where we’re at.
We know where things are at,
and in the case of an emergency, we know where to go.
We know where the hospital is.
Being somewhere where we’re not familiar with,
trying to Google everything—
and if the cell towers are down,
there’s no way for us to find out anything.
So I think that was the scariest part.
My dad built this house, it took us about six years to build.
And thank God that my dad,
you know, he’s been in construction for so long,
he was able to build us a nice, sturdy home.
And I’m really proud of his work.
Being that it’s, you know, cement concrete with rebar,
I think we’ll be okay.
— We’ll be back!
— They’re reporting tornadoes about 10 miles from where we’re at right now.
We’re under a tornado watch.
They’re extending it until 8:15,
and other tornado warnings have been issued to the Redlands,
and that’s where my mother-in-law lives right now.
We all just screamed!
I think because he built this home,
going through Andrew, he built it stronger.
So that’s why I was more confident to stay.
And just the experience of having to come back—
as a kid, I remember having to come back and it was really bad.
The devastation of what he built was no longer what it was.
— Strong winds…
— We were so sheltered here throughout the storm
that it didn’t feel like it was that much.
Of course a couple of debris,
but just driving around town…
it’s like, you really did see, it’s bad.
I guess because we didn’t have as much damage and we had a couple of trees down,
it didn’t feel as bad.
But now thinking about it,
it was really bad and I’m happy that people were able to leave,
the ones that did leave.
I think for us, we lucked out on that,
where we know and we’re safe.
And having just to come back in,
it’s going to be a really, really, really hard time—
running out of gas, not having food, having babies—
on the road, it’s not easy traveling at all either.
So to me, I think we made the best decision to stay.
I could just imagine how scary it was for these people that had the trees fall down.
I mean, we didn’t have any of that.
Look at them—those have been there for years.
We used to play in those trees.
And now look at them.
Oh my God, it fell on their house.
You guys are good, though?
— Yeah, yeah.
— Oh, awesome. The boys?
— Doing good. You guys?
— Yeah, we’re good.
You guys don’t have power then neither, right?
Do you guys have running water?
Oh, okay. So that’s good.
— You still got liquor?
Okay, that gives me a reason to come back.
— How you are you, honey?
— Look how lucky we were.
— I know!
It looks like—
we were asking if you guys had any leaks or anything in it,
but he says no, nothing.
And you guys have the generator—
yeah, we don’t have power either.
This weather will always be what it is.
You’re living in paradise,
but it comes with some consequences.
And some downfalls.
But if I can only deal with this once every 10 years,
then I’m good.
I’ll stay here.
This is my house.
A storm’s not going to chase us away.