The two-story brick warehouse that Luisa Meshekoff calls home in Tampa’s Channel District has stood for nearly 100 years. She’s banking on it standing tonight and many more nights to come, as she, her partner David Head and their eight cats hunkered down at the home near the Port of Tampa.
“I have never seen it flood down here. And for a hundred years, we can find no information, … but that doesn’t mean that it couldn’t happen,” Meshekoff said.
“We wanted to protect the building because it’s a historic living entity,” Head added. “And we wanted to protect our kitties.”
The couple’s home is in a mandatory evacuation zone. They considered leaving, but felt that carting their eight cats to a shelter wasn’t an option — and they worried that getting stuck on the roads could be more dangerous than just staying put.
“We could’ve gone to Lakeland, but that could’ve been worse, right?” Meshekoff said.
For now, they plan to try to rest while they can.
“I think if you have water and batteries, everything’s OK,” Meshekoff said. “I could be singing a different tune by two in the morning.”
