Bobbie Pecev, 47, and her family moved from Sydney to Tampa in 2016 when her husband got a job there.
Right now, Pecev is sheltering in a storage area in her home with her husband, their 14-year-old son and their daughter, 20, who came home after Hurricane Helene passed through her university town two weeks ago.
Bobbie Pecev and her husband in their storage room in Tampa waiting for Hurricane Milton to pass.Credit: Bobbie Pecev
Tossing up between staying and leaving, the family booked a hotel in Tallahassee that fell through. When Pecev tried to book another, there weren’t any rooms in any hotels left.
She said they “talked to other friends and neighbours and decided to stay and hunker down if needed”.
“We have a few storage areas which are safe so we knew we could hide there,” she said.
They moved their pool furniture indoors, bought extra drinking water and non-perishable food, filled their bath with water and charged their phones and torches. Now it’s a waiting game as warnings of flash flooding continue.
Pecev’s son, she says, is being a “typical teenager” playing games until his parents made him move to the storage room, where he’s swapped one screen for another to watch a movie.
“He’s been talking to friends, keeping in touch with how they are doing,” she said. “Some are getting flooded, some have lost power.”