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10 09 24 Sarasota Fla resident Jim Lenz talks about preparing for hurricane Milton
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Hurricane Milton is still unscheduled to hit the Tampa Bay area later tonight, as tens of thousands of people are evacuating the storm's path. Government officials continue to warn anyone still in that path to get out, as Milton is now back as a category 5 hurricane. And joining us now from Sarasota, he could be our official hurricane correspondent in that region. Also happens to be my brother. It's Jim Lenz. Hey, brother Jim, Gene asked me a question off the air that I have forgotten. But how long have you lived in Florida now? Sixteen years. Sixteen years, so as close as I said, 15. Have you seen anything at all quite like this since you've been there? Nothing for like a direct hit. We've had a couple that of either A, kind of come through Southwest Florida that kind of skirted us or not direct it. But what we're looking at for this storm is it's going to impact the Braydenton Sarasota area based on what they believe, where the eyes going to come through. So in terms of the severity and like a direct impact, never since we've been down here. Jim, where are you currently? Are you in an evacuation zone? And what is your game plan for the days ahead? Yeah, we're pretty fortunate, Gene. We do not live in an evacuation zone. So we have a pond across the street from us, but we are not enough flood zones. The flood zones, they call them level A, B, and C. Those have all been evacuated because they're biggest concern is storm surge. I think storm surge can get up to 15 feet high, which is basically the equivalent of a one-story house. So where we live is we're about 10 miles away from the coast. We've made the determination to stay here. If we had kids, we'd probably, obviously, evacuate both of our kids up to Florida State. So we made the decision to stay here with our two dogs. It's always a tough decision because the question is where do you go to, right? And then when would you be able to get back to your house? Because everyone's evacuating, so it could take two to three days to get back to your house. And then you also have the concern about gas and not having enough. That's been the challenge that a lot of people have faced when trying to leave is a lot of the gas stations are completely out. So there's not great decisions either way, so you have to determine what's one of the best for your family. Is it literally right now at this point in time, at 7.21 in the morning, the calm before the storm, Jim? What are you seeing at least at the moment? Yeah, I mean, I'm just sitting outside our bedroom and it's just rain and it's light rain. I mean, ironically, yesterday, it was blue skies. So it is, the analogy I can think of, and I haven't been in a car accident, but you're waiting for a car accident to happen. You just don't know how bad it's gonna be. We know that we're starting to get the tropical force winds probably later on this afternoon. And then they expect gusts to be consistent at about 110 to 120 miles per hour, starting around probably 11 or 12, going into the morning hours. So the storm that we had before where we had the strong wind, it was probably a consistent price, 70 to 80 miles per hour. And everyone has pool cages here. So the wind just howls. It's an eerie feeling, but you can't get good sleep. And since this one's gonna be hidden overnight, I expect both my wife and Ida to not be sleeping very well. I know our one dog has anxiety. So I'm sure he's gonna be, you know, on top of us hoping to ride this out with us. - Jim, what preparations have you made ahead of tonight? I only lived in Florida for a couple of years, but I remember the filling up of bathtubs and putting ice in the freezer and making sure things are ready to go. - Yeah, I mean, we had the generators, which are good. And then, you know, to your point, we've got tons of water. You know, we have ice in the, you know, the ice in the freezers. We have the water for the tubs. I mean, a lot of it's just moving furniture out of any kind of, you know, wind field and, you know, charging everything. You know, we have everything charged as much as you possibly can get. And then just, you know, making sure that anywhere where you feel like you have vulnerabilities in your house, you have them sealed. We did put in hurricane front doors and back doors, which is good. We still probably have a little bit of vulnerability, but, you know, we don't have any major trees in front of us, which is always a big hazard, you know, having a tree fall through your window. I mean, both my wife and I have kind of come to terms that we're going to have damage, whether it's to our pool cage. But that's minor in comparison, obviously. You know, those folks that have to deal with flooding and all that. - What kind of notifications? That's always the current, and obviously Florida's not immune to hurricanes. So people are woefully, you know, very much aware we talk about what happened with Helene hitting Western Carolina and how ill-prepared they were. But what kind of notifications do you see on the news? I'm assuming you just get constant updates and it's just non-stop information about the hurricane. - Yeah, I mean, they started to really notify people Sunday evening when we were coming back from Tallahassee. They had already kind of let people know that they believed this was going to be a hurricane. So, I mean, they've been early and often, you know, your phone gets blown up from, you know, the county officials, you know, letting people know when there's evacuations or when it's mandatory evacuation. So, you know, unless you live completely off the grid, you would know, obviously, that there's major, you know, major storms coming. So the communication has been really good. It's whether or not people heat it, but I would say this, just watching the local news this morning, it sounds like the evacuation centers are filling up pretty quick. So people are taking this, you know, serious, especially because we haven't had anything like this, that Tampa Bay area, Tampa Bay area in over a hundred years. So that's the uniqueness of the storm. We've not seen a direct hit in the history of at least a hundred year history of this area. - Do you ever contemplate Jim of thinking, do I want to stay here and deal with this now that you've had backpack hurricanes? Obviously, one going to impact you or impact you less than the other, but just the nerve-racking reality that you have to navigate these things. - I mean, yeah, I mean, our window of hurricanes is basically, you know, June 1st through December 1st. So, I mean, you know, living in this area that this is the potential. So in the 16 years we've been down here, I think, Stacy and I were talking about, I think it's been roughly about price six storms that we've really kind of contended with. The very first one we fled and then the rest of the ones that we've stayed here, it's nerve-racking, you know, especially as you get closer, it's, you know, the impending doom is going to occur. Now, I mean, depending on the severity of this, I think you always contemplate how many more times can I deal with this, you know, because obviously there's psychological scars that come with it, but also there's economic scars that come with it, more than likely if there's damage to our house, you know, as much as I believe that our insurance will cover it, you hear the stories all the time that insurance won't cover or won't fully cover, you know, a lot of the damage. And so your premiums go up and you start to kind of question is it really, you know, worth living here long-term from an economic standpoint, as well as a quality of life standpoint. So where we are in our lifespan, I think we have a little bit more of a decision to make 'cause both of our kids will be graduating college soon, and we're not beholden to this area, but there's a lot of psychological thought that comes with it, but also the economic considerations that you have to make. - Personal question, brother, the kids you mentioned, AK and Braden, they okay? - Yeah, they're fine. I mean, we had them evacuate for Helene because it looked like it was gonna be a direct hit up there. So they evacuated West, but yeah, they're good. So, I mean, that's why if we had small kids, I think we would have made the determination that we do. But since they're in college and live in their best lives, they're just gonna watch from afar. - Reporting live from Sarasota, just south of Tampa, Jim Lenz, Jim, thank you so much for your time. This morning, stay safe, keep us posted on the updates as we see Hurricane Milton make landfall later today. Love you, brother. - All right, love what you do, bye. - Bye. (upbeat music) - Head over to NFLShop.com today for the largest collection of officially licensed gear from all your favorite brands. NFLShop is your ultimate destination for the official NFL sideline collection worn by players and coaches on game day. Explore the same sideline and on-fuel gear worn by your favorite players and coaches at NFLShop. To shop now, go to nflshop.com. - It can get lonely climbing Mount McKinley. - So to entertain myself, I go to chummacassino.com. At Chumma Casino, I can play hundreds of online casino style games for free, like online slots, bingo, slingo and more. Plus, I get a daily login bonus. 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