CHICAGO (WLS) — As Hurricane Ian moves toward another landfall in the Carolinas, a Chicago native in the storm’s path has hunkered down Friday.
The storm returned to hurricane strength and warnings are in effect, although there was no evacuation order in place. President Joe Biden declared emergency hours ahead of the storm.
“It was a bit of a surprise,” Amy Langstone, a Chicago native now living in South Carolina, said. “We knew a tropical storm was coming, but we didn’t know it would build back up to a category one, so everyone here is hunkering down it’s too late for any evacuation orders.”
Langstone is originally from Chicago, and moved to South Carolina 20 years ago.
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She and her family live about 15 miles from the shore near Charleston.
While speaking with ABC7, a flash flood warning went off and the winds picked up.
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“I am worried about trees falling on the house,” Langstone said. “That is my main concern.”
Officials are warning of life-threatening flooding, storm surge and strong winds in the Carolinas beginning Friday afternoon.
Winds could reach 85 mile-per-hour. Residents didn’t have much time to prepare, so they are doing the best they can.
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“Everybody puts in the lawn furniture, secures as much as they can outside, we don’t want anything blowing in projectile,” Langstone said. “We do get water. We tend to fill up water bottles, just to have them and we buy some water…we fill
bathtubs, not necessarily for drinking but in case we lose water and power.”
South Carolina schools switched to e-learning Thursday to get ready for Friday.
In the meantime, recovery efforts continue in Florida, where stranded pets are expected to arrive at local Chicago shelters starting Saturday.
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