WFLA

Hurricane Harvey survivors almost stuck in Miami-Dade County before Irma

MIAMI-DADE COUNTY, Fla. (WFLA) – A mandatory evacuation was ordered Thursday morning for 650,000 people, including downtown Miami and Miami Beach, the largest evacuation ever attempted by Miami-Dade County.

Businesses are boarded up, sand bags in place and many have already left. Storm Team 8 Meteorologist Ian Oliver spoke to one couple who never expected to be evacuating the city.

“We live in Houston. We got three feet of water in our house,” said Rui Sosa. “We’ve never had water in our house. Never. My daughter got five feet of water in her apartment! Then we said, hey what the heck – lets go on a cruise. We went on a cruise, they dropped us here early, dropped us here. We have nowhere to stay. Just found a hotel at the last minute and try to get out of here and our flight was cancelled!”

“So you guys literally live in Houston, endured Harvey, got on a cruise ship and now you’re stuck here?” asked Ian.

“Yup! Exactly. We could never believe it was going to happen that fast,” said Sosa.

Rui should probably buy a lottery ticket first thing when they get back to Houston.

He and his wife Monica were able to find a car to rent and now they plan on driving all the way back to southeast Texas to avoid this storm.

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HURRICANE IRMA COVERAGE –

BE HURRICANE-READY WITH STORM TEAM 8