JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Residents in Jacksonville's Ortega neighborhood woke up to flooded streets and their backyards underwater after Hurricane Milton swept through Florida Wednesday night.
Six hours is how long it took Susan Pattillo to drive from Tampa to Jacksonville.
"We came Monday night," Pattillo told First Coast News. "It took a very long time. We stayed with our son at the beach at his house.”
It provided a safe haven for Pattillo as the Category 3 hurricane ravaged several southwestern and central counties in the Sunshine State.
"We normally don’t leave for storms, but because it was so bad and coming off of Helene, we thought it was best to leave," she said.
Now that Milton has passed, Pattillo got an update from a neighbor on her Tampa home Thursday.
"We fared very well with our house," said Pattillo. "We don’t have power, but there was no damage, no flooding, no trees down, so we’re pleased."
While Pattillo's home back in Tampa might not be flooded, it's a different story for her friends who live in the Ortega neighborhood.
Beeb Johnson grew up on Pirates Cove Road and now lives right across the street from her parents.
"It’s pretty typical for this road," Johnson said. "It’s kind of notoriously famous for flooding all the time. We’re sort of use to it by now, but [with] the tidal situation, you kind of have to watch that."
Being no stranger to the flooding, Johnson's family put out markers in the road to stop fellow neighbors from driving on the street they can't see.
"We’re on a curve and if you don’t know where you are going and there’s not a marker, people will have a tendency to go in the ditch right there," she said. "We’ve gone through green post, white post, the white ones seem to be the most noticeable in the night time."
Throughout the Ortega area, streets are flooded. On Lakeside Drive, a house is completely surrounded by water and at the Yacht Club on Yacht Club Road, water in the street is almost knee-high.
