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Jamiles Lartey is in Marianna, Florida, which was hit by the hurricane earlier today. He has this dispatch from one of the shelters where people are riding out the storm.

The primary shelter for Jackson County is at the Marianna high school where some 550 had filed in the lead-up to the storm.

Many, like Teangelia Sims came as early as 5am Tuesday morning.

“We’ve never had a category 4 and I’ve seen what [weaker storms] have done in previous years so I wasn’t going to take that risk,” Sims said.

She came here with her two children but was preparing to go to work just after the intense winds of the eye wall passed over.



“We have to be there, we can’t not show up. Don’t really have a choice,” said Sims, who is a sergeant at the Jackson county prison in Malone, Florida.

Administrators told her to prepare to be at the prison for up to 24 hours.

The shelter is bustling. There’s a faint smell of wet dog everywhere, one aisle has been cordoned off for evacuees’ pets.

A group plays cards to pass the time at the shelter at Marianna high school in Florida. Photograph: The Guardian

As for the humans, some people lounge in the hallways, fidget with smartphones and chat eating hamburgers. There are blankets and air mattresses scattered all around the school hallways, in addition to the formal sleeping quarters in the gymnasium.

In the cafeteria one impromptu group plays a card game based on DC comic characters. The lights flicker on and off.



Pauline Thompson said she initially planned on staying home “but it started getting to category four, and the said it might strengthen I was like ok let’s go.”

She also wanted to make sure her mother and her niece, who live in a mobile home, got to the shelter as well.

Pauline Thompson brought her mother and niece to the shelter. Photograph: The Guardian

As we chat, shelter personnel announce over the PA that it is no longer safe for residents to be outside.



I ask if they are concerned about their homes or possessions and how they will fair. “A little bit,” said Thompson’s mother Eva Holland. “All that material stuff I can get back, though I just wanted to get us here.”

Mike Childress didn’t want to come to the shelter and planned to ride it out at home but his childhood friend Matt Davis ultimately convinced him to head over Tuesday morning. “I didn’t come prepared, I didn’t bring nothing to sleep with besides one pillow,” Childress said.

They both live in trailer homes surrounded by tall, skinny Florida pine trees- a very dangerous place to be with the type of winds Michael dished out.

“It’s hard being in here but at least I know we’re safe and secure behind some solid walls. At least I don’t feel like i’m in a cardboard box anymore,” Childress said.

Mike Childress (left) was convinced to come to the shelter by friend Matt Davis (right), rather than ride out the hurricane in their trailer homes. Photograph: The Guardian

Davis arrived Monday morning to set up his spot, better prepared than his friend, he brought an air mattress, blankets, pillows, and snacks “to hold me over till at least Friday.”

His diligence was mostly due to a strong dislike of sever weather. “I hate weather so my stomach has been in knots for the past three days,” Davis said.

The two were hopeful they could leave Thursday to survey any damage and maybe begin to get back to normal.

Cornelius Smith said she was planning on going back home as soon as soon as the worst had passed the area.

“To me, weather people hype the weather and it just makes me not even want to listen to it,” said Smith who lives just about a mile away from the shelter.

She and her husband William live in a sturdy brick house with a generator and only came to the shelter because they were concerned about about an oak tree in their yard. As long as it weathered the storm they planned on riding out the rest of the aftermath at home.

“I know I’m going to be going back home today!” she said emphatically.