Live Updates: Hurricane Milton’s storms reach Florida

As Hurricane Milton barrels toward Florida, Mary Wojciechowski can’t escape the vivid memory of her neighbor’s roof collapsing on her partner, 74-year-old Mitch Pacyna, as he disappeared in Hurricane Ian’s storm surge in 2022.

“Every day, every night you think about it,” Wojciechowski told CNN. “You dream about it. You wake up and think about it.”

Wojciechowski, 66, swam to safety with her dog Lulu as the storm destroyed her Fort Myers Beach home and all of her belongings. She and Lulu now live in a townhouse a few miles away in Fort Myers.

Just two years after Hurricane Ian killed at least 148 Floridians, Wojciechowski is preparing for another powerful storm that could hit the Fort Myers area. She stocks up on food and water and prepares her home as best as she can. She hopes she can make it safely to the second floor.

“I have to stay strong,” Wojciechowski told CNN. “I don’t have a choice, do I? You survive or you die. That’s it… I think Mitch will take care of me. He’ll make sure we’re okay.”

Alison Rodney’s aunt, Marti Campbell, drowned in the same Fort Myers Beach neighborhood as Mitch Pacyna. She and her aunt were texting just hours before the storm surge swallowed the 74-year-old’s house.

Rodney, who lives in a higher part of Seminole, Florida, less than a mile from the Gulf of Mexico, is hosting at least six family members fleeing nearby evacuation zones as Hurricane Milton approaches.

They stocked up on food and supplies. She expects the family will lose power and likely hear evacuation sirens on the coast, as was the case during Hurricane Helene last month.

And she expects they will talk about both Marti and the vulnerable seniors caught in another brutal storm.