COLUMBUS, Ohio — Hurricane Ian made landfall Wednesday evening, pounding the state of Florida with high winds and powerful waves.
About 2.5 million people were ordered to evacuate southwest Florida before Ian hit.
Just 26 miles outside of Orlando lives David Bynum, who just moved to Florida from Columbus three months ago.
He said the storm got worse through the evening. The wind was so powerful it shook his home.
“It's a little unsettling cause, being that I’ve never been through one,” said Bynum. “You kind of don't know what to expect you hear the stories you hear all the warnings you hear the news trying to prepare.”
Bynum said grocery stores were packed since Saturday. "The shelves have been empty, not a lot of water, not a lot of things,” he said. He told 10TV stores closed Tuesday night ahead of Ian’s arrival.
Bynum decided to hunker down and brace for the storm, but other Ohioans didn’t have that choice.
Alyssa Hertz lives in Ohio but has been in Tampa for the last several weeks for work. She said at first, her job let them go home and prepare for the storm.
Then suddenly, they were told to pack up and were relocated to Orlando.
"It's never been anything that, I feel just like this impending doom coming towards me. just because we don't get massive storms like this,” said Hertz.
She said traffic has been backed up longer than usual as they tried to escape the storm.
"Usually, it would take like an hour, hour and a half maybe from our apartment complex in Tampa to get to Orlando, but it took about four hours just because of the amount of people that were trying to get out of the Tampa area because we were under a mandatory evacuation,” she said.
Orlando is next in the storm's path.
Bynum is accepting this as a part of being a Floridian and not rethinking his decision on moving.
"So, there's going to be something to deal with no matter where you're at so, I’m prepared. I’ll take the good with the bad. Cause when everybody's out there digging out snow I’m going to be on the beach,” said Bynum.