Boston locals dealing with Florida hurricane from a thousand miles away

Boston -Travel in and out of Tampa is shutting down as a hurricane moves in. Most of the flights out of that area are now canceled. Many people got on the final flights out of Tampa to avoid dealing with the storm all together. But some decided to stay down there and their loved ones back here are monitoring their progress as they get to a safer location.

Janet Jimenez’s daughter, Angie, is a junior at the University of Tampa. The past few days have been a learning experience.

“Everyone was scrambling to find places to go because the school is shut down and it was mandatory evacuation,” said Angie Jimenez. “We are all panicked, we are thousands of miles away from our kids,” said Janet Jimenez. “We just saw houses boarded up and people like scrambling to leave and get things done. It was just crazy. This is your first one? Yeah it is my first one so I don’t really know what to do,” said Angie Jimenez.

Angie first drove to her friend’s home in Cape Coral but when that area started reporting potential issues they re-routed to Fort Lauderdale. “You can’t wait it out because then you won’t have time to evacuate,” said Janet Jimenez.

Stasia Kacprzak is checking in on her sister who is driving from the Tampa area to Destin, Florida to get out of the way of the storm. Boston 25 asked her what helped her make the decision to leave.

“Well, everybody else talking it was going to be very bad on TV and on the radio,” said the sister.

It has been slow going for Angie and her friend but they are road tripping like pros showing us the bags of snacks they packed. And even thousands of miles away her mother is doing what she does best, being motherly. “I hope you are feeding the driver,” Janet Jimenez said. “The driver is eating good. Take good care of her,” her daughter said.

Right now it is not clear when flights to and from the Tampa area will resume.

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