Why Arent You Running For Your Life? Anton Talks To Tampa Residents Staying For Hurricane Milton
Summary
➡ The speaker is currently in Tampa, Florida, where it’s raining. He lives in Columbia but is in Tampa to handle some business and visit his parents. His mother is in a shelter due to health issues, but his father refuses to leave their home despite the impending storm. The speaker is worried about the potential damage from the storm, especially from falling trees. He also discusses the expected flooding in various parts of Florida, particularly in Pinellas County, which he predicts will be the hardest hit. He expresses concern about the high death toll if people choose to stay in their homes during the storm.
➡ The speaker describes Tampa as a ghost town due to closures of schools and government offices. He mentions the traffic and the fear of staying in shelters as reasons why people are not leaving. He also talks about the lack of insurance coverage for homes, which he believes are not built to withstand hurricanes. Despite these issues, he still recommends moving to Tampa, but suggests considering areas outside of the city due to congestion and potential flooding issues.
➡ The speaker plans to live in Florida during the winter, after hurricane season, and leave before it gets too hot. He appreciates the advice from his friend, Losman, and plans to stay in touch. He also intends to document any hurricane damage, believing it’s better to share this information through alternative news sources rather than mainstream media.
Transcript
Well, well, part of it is my job because I haul fuel. So it’s like, I don’t kind of want to be close as soon as the hurricane pass over to be able to get back and, you know, get back to hurry up and, you know, loading up all the gas stations and stuff. That’s part of it. And the second part of it is that I just got family and like my girl pregnant and stuff. So I just didn’t want to, you know, up and dip like that. So why you didn’t take her, like why y’all not going to an evacuation shelter that’s on high ground? Well, well, honestly, I just felt like, you know, the Kissimmee area, I just felt like it was just, you know, as far as not being so far, it was definitely better than, you know, being a tap.
I’m not going to say it’s the best though, but honestly, I think it just was better than where we was at. So you got these storms that’s about to come in, and these surges that’s about to come in, and you think you’re going to be all right, you’re just going to risk it, you’re going to risk you, your girl, and your unborn kid’s life. I mean, in all honesty, yeah, it’s bad, but I mean, well, I’m going to say this, I grew up in Florida and when I was down in West Palm Beach where I grew up at, we had like four of them come back to back and like, you know, a few of them, category four, and I’m kind of just looking at it like, you know, if we stay inland, maybe we just, you know, at the brunt of it, probably hit Tampa and stuff, and we’ll probably, you know, probably weekend to get to like a category three or two by the time it reaches us, that’s kind of how I’m looking.
But why risk it? Why even take a chance? Okay, so I get it, you’re not in Tampa, you’re not by the coast or whatever, but why risk it? Why risk the high winds and the debris and the water and the flooding and all of that stuff? Why not just, hey, listen, we’re going to take these next two or three days off, we’re going to dip out, and we’re going to come back. Why risk it? Honestly, I really don’t really got an answer to it. I don’t know, maybe part of it, part of it is I’m hard headed.
I don’t know, but just kind of, I don’t know, just came to Kissimmee, tried to, you know, wait it out to see how things go. I don’t understand, man. I just don’t get it. I don’t get it. No matter what happens, I got to make sure that my people are straight, bro. My people can’t stay nowhere. They can’t do that. Honestly, being real with you, like, I’m not feeling like try to downplay the hurricane or nothing like that, but just being from Florida and just, you know, just dealing with it my entire life.
Now granted, it’s not too many category fives that came through, but just dealing with it, you know what I’m saying? My entire life, it’s just like, you know, it’s just another one, you know, just got to weather the storm and just, you know, pick up the pieces after the fact, you know, this is one of the things, you know, you just can’t control. I get that, you know, I could have left and probably, you know, I don’t know, maybe went down to West Palm of Miami, but I don’t know, maybe it’s just, I’m hard headed.
I just, I just leave it like that. Yeah, but it ain’t just you is also your kid, you know, I’m born kid and your girl. Well, we over here with her family. So, I mean, I don’t think that make any better though, but I think she wanted, cause she’s from Alabama. So she wanted just to be around family. So, you know, we came over here to her family and stuff. Well, why y’all didn’t go to Alabama? I don’t know. I don’t think she, she wanted to go over there. I don’t know why, but well, you don’t have a choice.
When did women start getting a choice over what’s best for the family, especially when it comes to provision and protection? No, it ain’t that. It was really kind of, it was really my decision. Cause I was, we was in Tampa and then I came over here just cause, you know, she wanted to be around family stuff and she wasn’t going to leave in five, if I didn’t leave Tampa. So that’s why I wound up coming to Kansas City. Listen, man, God bless you. I hope that everything is straight. Keep me posted.
All right, man. And I’ll be taking calls afterwards for people to find out how people are affected. All right, man. Yeah. Just, you know, quote the chat, pray for us and stuff like that. And, you know, have a blessing, man. All right. God bless you, bro. I know, I guess we all different. I guess that’s what makes us individuals. My family, my people, minds that live with me, they don’t have choices when it comes to certain things. They got choices on what they want to eat for dinner. All of that. They got choices on where they want to go shop and they even got choices on where we’re going to go on vacation.
They don’t have choices when it comes to safety. They don’t have choices when it comes to, because everything has to be an executive decision at some point, right? All right. I give, I delegate certain things, but then when it comes to making the best decision for my family, you don’t have no choices. I don’t really care how you feel. You can go kicking and screaming, or you can go willingly, but you’re going. You can go kicking and screaming, or you can go willingly, but you’re going. There is no level of risk that I’m willing to put my family into.
Zero, zilch, nada. You got to come. You got to come home. Time to go. Time to go. So I know that y’all all are in partnerships and stuff like that, but keep me posted on what’s happening out in these streets because I genuinely do not understand. I don’t. I just don’t. I don’t understand it. A sheriff Chad Chronister of Hillsborough County saying that this is the 11th hour. Please get out. This is your shortening window of time to leave the area. Another matter of concern here is once these winds reach about 40 miles per hour, this is a community of bridges.
You’re going to start seeing the Sunshine Skyway, the Howard Franklin, the Corny Campbell Causeway. These bridges beginning to shut down. Also, first responders not as willing to go out. If you are a person that’s directly in Tampa or in the Tampa area, I know it’s a lot of people that live there that watch the show. We got thousands watching right now. Make sure to try to hit a like for the algorithm. Let me know. I’m gonna put a link in the chat for y’all to be able to call in and help me to understand why y’all stand.
There you go. Let me know. Help me to understand how y’all stand. All right. Safety. Shout out to my dog Orlando Minor. I love you, bro. I love your content. Over in Treasure Island in Pinellas County, one of the barrier islands. Residents heard this. Listen. A local emergency currently exists. Quickly securing your home or business and safely evacuate the area. Listen to local media and authorities for additional information. And one of the major concerns has been debris. All of this debris piling up here from from Helene still out in the streets. Those could become flying projectiles very serious and very dangerous.
Los. Can you hear me, Los Carlos? Okay. Is it Carlos? Yeah, that’s Carlos. Los. You called it, right? Yeah. What up? What up, big dog? You mind if I call you Los? Man, that’s what everybody called me anyway, man. All right. That’s what’s up. You, where you at? Where you located? Directly smack in the middle of 10. All right. So I got a question for you, Los. Why are you deciding to stay? Well, let me step outside or whatever. I don’t know. Because if you want to put it on camera, just so you can see exactly what it’s looking like right now.
I mean, you can do that. I’m just, I just came out. I don’t know if you can flip it around or if I can flip my camera around or whatever. If you want me to put you on camera, I just want to make sure that I don’t ever want to put nobody on camera that don’t want to be on camera. Yeah, this is just so people can actually see, like I live in, well, right now I’m in Tampa. All right, cool. All right. All right, you on. There it is, man. So, you know, I’m showing, I’m just showing y’all a little bit, like in Tampa now is raining.
You can see that. And I picked the absolute, one of the absolute worst times. Cause I actually live in Columbia. That’s where I live. But I’m here cause I had to, I had to come back and handle business, but also I got my parents, my dad and my mom, which live eight blocks down the way. We got my mama out. We got my mama out in a shelter. That’s where I’ll be at in one of the shelters later. You know what I’m saying? And then my dad, you know, he don’t want to leave or trying to convince them it’s just not working.
You know what I’m saying? So, you know, but we in a non evac zone and then the reason why you have people to answer your questions is the reason why you have people making decisions to not leave the area is because of the zones that they’re living in. Some where the zone where I live in is, is a elevated area. You know, there’s not a lot of flooding when they, when we do have tropical storms or rain, a bunch of rain going on. There’s not a lot of that that goes on. It’s in certain parts of Hillsborough County.
You know, cause I want to make that distinction. The Hillsborough County is Tampa, you know, and then you have the surrounding counties, Manatee County, Pinellas County, Polk County, Pasco County, and then a little bit more inland. People that’s going to Orlando. I don’t know what the word they went over there for. They going to get it just as bad as the people that’s getting the brunt of it. You know what I mean? That’s what I’m saying. Because if you look at the news reports and you look at the path of the storm, it literally has an Orlando right there.
That’s why I was asking my man. That’s why I was asking my man, what’s the difference? What made you think that just because you’re a little, you ain’t kissing me, which is literally right next to Orlando, what makes you think that it’s going to be any different for you? Yeah, it’s, it’s, it’s pronounced kasimi, but is that what it is? Yeah. Okay. Yeah. It’s kasimi. A lot of people say kasimi and all that, but you got to be from here. You wouldn’t know that, you know what I’m saying? But anyway, yeah.
Cause I was having this discussion with my mom the other night when we was trying to decide on what, what our plans are, what we’re going to do. Cause my mom had got a little bit of health issues or whatever. That’s why we had to get up out of there so she can get in the shelter. You know what I’m saying? So that part’s done. I’m next. And then I’m trying to. What is that? What dad saying? What are you saying? Man, my man, my dad, 73 years old, man, he, I’m writing it out.
That’s what he said, man. You know what I’m saying? So, but I’m right here. This is what I’m scared of right here. The damn trees. This is our problem over here where I live at, you know what I’m saying? And then if you look in the back, back there, you can see those trees back there. That’s what the hell I’m, that’s what the hell I’m scared of right there. One of these damn old ass oak trees are getting, getting the brunt of that wind and breaking down and hitting over the top of the damn roof.
You know what I’m saying? And busting the roof in or whatever. Fortunately, we got a, I’m not over here where I am. You know, now when you go about maybe two miles or three miles down the road, four miles down the road, then parts of this, parts of the road in Hillsborough County where based off of where I’m located is going to be flooded. So like, I stay very, very close to university, South Florida, behind university of South Florida, you’re going to see flooding. You know what I’m saying? Um, uh, just, uh, Northwest of university of South Florida, you’re going to see flooding.
Um, then you’re going to have, uh, downtown, downtown, anybody, I’m going to tell you like this when the news come on tomorrow and y’all start seeing the devastation. Pinellas County is going to be the worst County of all counties. That’s St. Pete, Clearwater, all that stuff over there across the Howard Franklin, Courtney, Campbell Causeway and the Skyway, all of that over there, that’s going to be the hardest hit worse because it’s hitting that first and everything over there is basically going to be underwater. Everything. I don’t care where you at in Pinellas County, everything’s going to be under at minimum 10 feet of water.
The bands from the bands from the last hurricane messed up past a grill beat. A lot of these beaches that a lot of people come to Florida to travel to is messed up now and they had, they didn’t even have enough time to clean all of that stuff up over there. So now you have a much larger hurricane with more force, you know what I’m saying? And basically what the mayor said on television yesterday, if you choose to stay over there, you’re going to die. And that’s, then that’s the truth. She was not lying.
You know what I mean? I’d look that, uh, what do you call one of those, um, hurricane tracker, like if the type of the level of hurricane that hit and they talk about category four, five landfall, that guarantees everybody who lives over there is going to be dead. You know, I don’t expect to not have a high depth toll considering, you know, if anybody stayed over there. So Pinellas County, I’m telling y’all that now, because I, I’ve been, I grew up here all my life, man. I just recently vacated the country, you know what I’m saying? To go live outside the country for a few years.
You know what I’m saying? That’s the only reason why I’m back here right now is, you know what I’m saying? For this and a couple other things I had to take care of, before I go back, you know, um, I kind of wish I could have known about it, but there was no way for me to know about it before I came back. But, you know, when I got here, you just have to prepare. I do agree with the other brother, the last one on the caller. If you live in Florida, you from Florida, like I’m talking about you like from Florida, dealing with these hurricanes, you know what I’m saying? You get used to the, you know, boarding up the houses and packing up and moving, uh, moving everywhere, some hurricanes, but Tampa been dancing, been in a ballerina dance with a lot of these hurricanes for the last 20, 30 years, man.
You know what I’m saying? We had a direct hit. This is going to be one of the worst ones in a hundred years though. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And this is not, I’m worried about this one and I’m, and I, and I’ve been living here, you know what I’m saying? For a large portion of my life, man. And this one here is just, it’s just not a good feeling about this one right here, man. But, uh, you know, with, with my father, if you’re saying it’s not a good feeling. Yeah. I know. That’s why, that’s why I’ll be in the shelter.
I know you’re going to be, but dad, what do you got to, he got to, uh, he got to dance with the devil or something you want to, man. I don’t know, brother. I can’t, I can’t answer that for you. You know what I’m saying? All I can say is, you know, you know, you know how you got the older you get, the more stuck in your ways you get, you know what I’m saying? My dad is a man, man. You know what I’m saying? You know, he, man, is that, is probably going to be not possible, you know what I’m saying? For me to make that happen, for me to make that happen.
But you know, I’m going to be, I’m going to be here with him, be here with him until it’s time to go. You know what I’m saying? Cause I’m, cause the shelter is just down the street around the corner. So, you know what I’m saying? Cause we got USF, we got two elementary schools. You got no reason to stay there. He ain’t gonna have no power, probably. Ain’t nobody going to have no power. That’s everybody. Is it a lot of people that’s evacuated that’s over in that area right there? Brother, man, this is like a ghost town right here right now.
I’ve never seen Tampa and it’s been this way since I got back here Sunday morning, man. You know what I mean? A lot of people are not out on the streets. I think a lot of the schools, the schools in the government office has been closed since, um, since basically, well, whatever was be open on Sunday, those were closed and then Saturday, uh, yesterday, I mean, excuse me, Monday, cause the day Wednesday, everything was closed as far as schools and government offices is concerned. And you know, I think another reason why a lot of people is not getting out of here is because of the traffic, man, the track.
Like I looked at that man, you had gridlocks on the highway going north. You know, you got to really go all the way down with the shelters though. No, no, no, no. But every, you know, a lot of, I thought about the shelters along their heart. You know what I’m saying? Cause you don’t know what type of people you’re going to be around when you need shelters. You know what I’m saying? And how people sleep. I’m sure a lot of people thought about a lot of things before making that. But for me, it just comes down to safety, man.
You know what I’m saying? You want to, if you’re not going to leave the area, you need to be in a brick structure somewhere safe, away from, I mean, that could tolerate the high winds and you know what I mean? And I’m away from a flooded situation. Cause those really the two things that most of the Tampaian is going to be dealing with, um, who didn’t leave his floods and high winds. So, um, if you go and be here, then I think you need to be in a brick shelter somewhere. You know, we got, man, yeah, I don’t know if people knew this, but Hillsborough County is the eighth largest school district in the country.
As far as I’m great school is concerned eighth largest. So that means we have over a hundred and 180 school structures here. And I’m probably about maybe 30 to 40% of those are shelters. You know what I’m saying? And then like I said, I stayed close to university in South Florida, which is also a shelter. So, you know, you have options in places to go. It’s just a matter of people wanting to do it. You know what I mean? It’s a lot of people that, um, that moved to Tampa over the last, over the last few years.
Um, and they not from there. They’re not even from Florida. Yeah. Is the, is the insurance companies tolling out the way that they’re reporting about it on the news and stuff like that? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. They pulling out of here, man. It’s like maybe, maybe two or three insurance companies that are covering, um, covering the homes down here, but like the state farms and the liberties and all of those places that you see on, you know, sponsored in football games or whatever, they pulling up out of here, bro. You know what I’m saying? Because they don’t want no parts of it, man.
They don’t want no parts of anything down here. So like people coming down here, buying houses. Um, the reason, another reason why it’s taking so long for houses to sell is because you can’t get insurance to cover them. You know what I’m saying? Because a lot of these, a lot of these homes, in my opinion, my opinion are not built hurricane safe. You, you got plywood and two by fours holding up a lot of these new houses in the, um, in these new areas and those right there, you know, just like the three little pigs, you know what I’m saying? Huff and puff and blow your house.
This is going to blow a lot of communities down. You know what I’m saying? Even, I mean, they have a whole apartment complex, like, uh, towards the, um, central part of Tampa that they building, man. And it’s nothing but plywood and board that if we get the direct all that’s going to be on the ground, all of it, the entire structure, all eight buildings that they got over there going to be on the ground. I don’t even know why would anybody want to live in that anyway? You know what I’m saying? To be honest with you, you know, but, uh, yeah, man, that’s a truth.
That’s a true story, man, about the insurance companies, man. Cause I know several realtors. I know several people that’s from Tampa that I was trying to buy homes and it got really, really difficult for them because, because they can’t get insurance coverage. Would you, uh, you know, knowing what you know, being raised there and stuff like that, would you suggest that people after this is over actually, would you ever suggest that people move into Tampa or the Florida area like that? Um, you know, and seeing how things are starting to play out.
Well, I’ll say this, you know what I mean? This is just my belief. I don’t think that this storm is natural. I think it was manufactured, you know, this is just my personal belief. And because, uh, for them, the way that they’re describing it and you know how fast it got to a category five, but to answer your question directly, I would say, um, I would say yes, but you still have to consider, I would say consider the outside parts of Tampa of Hillsborough County or go to a surrounding County. I would say that, you know, saying Tampa has become over the last 10, 12 years.
So congested with the people that’s moving here, like they’re, they’re building in areas, former swamp land areas, you know what I’m saying? So those homes, in my opinion, don’t have solid, they wouldn’t have solid foundations. And then on top of that, you have, when you have, it rains pretty frequently here, you know, Tampa’s the lightning capital of the world. You know what I’m saying? So, um, you know, you still have to deal with, you know, flash floods from tropical storms and, and, you know, any type of wet weather here in Hillsborough County and Pinellas County specifically.
But then when you start, you know, expanding out, because I own three and a half acres of land in the County, East of us in Polk County, you know, behind, you know, we’re going into the track of Disney world. And, um, you know, and I bought there specifically because, you know, I could see the, or the path of growth in that area because it’s all inland, you know, but one, one of the acres that I did buy happens to be in a, like a, or my swamp land. Yeah. Here in Michigan, we, uh, if you buy, uh, land, like you actually have to do a survey.
And if you buy land, you don’t have to, you can’t know if you buy land in the swamp land area, they won’t let you build on it. Yeah. Yeah. That’s what I was scared of. Yeah. That’s what I was scared of with the one acre. That’s, that’s how I know about it. You know, but, um, for right now it’s not like that, you know, um, it’s just in the dense, it’s dense, it’s a dense swampy area, but I, the way they building stuff around in Florida, man, they don’t, they don’t find a way to get around all that.
So, um, because there’s too many people moving here, man, and it’s getting, it’s becoming landlocked. So it’s difficult. It’s actually difficult to buy, uh, plots of land. And if you can find anything that’s available, it’s going to be super expensive. I was fortunate enough to get my, um, get my three and a half acres that I have, you know, uh, about nine, 10 years ago, man, when the prices were still kind of low before all of this, um, movement boom started happening. But you know, I mean, the short, the shorter your answer is yes, you can move here to this area, even after the fact, it’s probably going to be some opportunity to purchase and, um, re fix and flip or rebuild or whatever for sure.
That’s going to happen. Um, you know, if you, if you, um, insurance adjuster, you might want to go ahead and get your license renewed, you know, because there’s going to be a lot of work down here. You know what I’m saying? For you, for sure. You make you a lot of money real quick if you use the insurance adjuster. Um, but you know, at the same time, you know, look at opportunities to invest. So, um, I wouldn’t say directly in Tampa. I would just say look on the outside of Tampa because those are where the best opportunity is going to be.
Um, you know, for investment, if that’s the case, if that’s how you looking at it, but, um, you know, I wouldn’t move to Tampa unless you have family or you have, uh, you know, experience here. If you coming from Kentucky or somewhere in the Midwest or something like that, and all you’ve been dealing with is snow and tornadoes and stuff like that, man, this is a whole different beast for you down here, man. You know what I’m saying? So you might want to consider other areas that’s more conducive to how you live in first in Florida, you know, North part of Florida, North where Helene hit all that area right there before it.
I’m going to come down and visit during the, during the winter time after hurricane season. And I’m gonna leave around March before it gets too high. You know what I’m saying? We ain’t got no win around here, brother. No, I’m talking about when it’s the winter here. Oh, okay. Yeah, I got a snowbird type of, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. When it’s the winter here, I go down there after hurricane season, and I’m gonna come back here and win a warm back up. I appreciate you, Losman. Hey, stay in touch, man, because I want to, I want to find out what it’s like afterwards.
Yeah, it’s up for your father and prayers up for your family, man. I got you. And I appreciate that, brother. Yeah, I’ll tap back in with you, man, because more than likely, I’m gonna be running around here taking videos, you know what I’m saying? Um, you know, in showing damage, trying to get people close up damage because, you know, it’s, I think it’s better to get it on alternative news type of source rather than, you know, these CNN’s and NBC’s and stuff of the world. My on the ground source, bro. No doubt, man.
But yeah, straight and tempo, but I’ll tap back in with you. You know what I’m saying? I watch you every morning, man. So, you know what I’m saying? I’m gonna talk to you. [tr:trw].
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