TAMPA, Fla. — Residents on Florida’s west coast are bracing for the worst, as forecasters warn them of Hurricane Idalia’s potential wrath, dubbing it a once-in-a-lifetime storm — a term we’re all too familiar with here in Buffalo.
Just like with blizzards in Western New York, there are two types of residents down in Florida - those who have been through this before, and those who have never seen anything like it
“You can almost tell how long somebody has lived in Florida by how they react to scares like this,” said Ray Collins, a former Channel 2 News reporter originally from Amherst.
Collins has lived just outside Tampa for three decades now. He says he and his wife are planning on staying put.
“We tend to hear that expression once-in-a-lifetime storms more than once in a lifetime,” Collins said. “Here in the Bay Area and in Sarasota, we’ve been very lucky here. There really hasn't been a direct hit here.”
Raymond Kreuzer, a former Buffalo resident of 34 years and now a recent Tampa resident, says his family, like many, are stocking up — hitting the grocery stores and gas pumps preparing to flee at a moment's notice.
“If we have to evacuate 100 times and it never hits us, great,” Kreuzer said. “But it only takes one time, and you never want to be caught unprepared.
Forecasters are predicting Idalia to make landfall at Florida's Big Bend Wednesday morning as a Category 3 hurricane with wind gusts of 125 miles per hour and record storm surges up to 10-15 feet — leaving residents like Collins and Kreuzer in a position they say they never thought they be in: thankful for their winters in Buffalo.
“You worry about power going out. You worry about having enough food on hand. Some of the same components. There's different times of year,” Collins said.
“We’re very calm or collected. And I think that's how people really should take this if they tell you to evacuate,” Kreuzer said.
RELATED: