As Hurricane Milton bears down on Florida, those who safely evacuated and came to New England are watching nervously.
Donna Sheinberg of Tampa is staying with her daughter in Sudbury, Massachusetts, but she is on pins and needles with concern for her husband.
"I'm worried for our neighborhood, our city, our state. My husband is still there," she said. "It's hard. You have to stay busy. I feel like I can't breathe."
Sheinberg evacuated on Monday. Her husband hunkered down 30 miles inland from their home in Tampa to keep an eye on the damage.
"We're the first to be evacuated," Sheinberg said. "Before the orders were even given, I knew that I had to leave, that I couldn't watch the storm surge rising."
Just two weeks ago, during Hurricane Helene, a storm surge swallowed their cars and left several feet of water in their garage.
Now, another natural disaster has made landfall.
Sheinberg says she's afraid they'll be left without their home.
"That's a very realistic possibility," she said. "We were really spared two weeks ago, but this time, if the storm surge is higher, it'll take our neighborhood, take our city."
The Red Cross is recommending that people like Sheinberg set specific times to check in with loved ones throughout the storm.
"Especially after Helene, there was a lot of connectivity issues," said Kelly Isenor, director of communications for the American Red Cross of Massachusetts. "If you try to call during off hours when there aren't as many people trying to make the same calls at the same time, text messages sometimes get through when a full phone call won't."
She added that there are resources if you can't make contact with someone.
"The Red Cross does offer reunification services as well, post-disaster," she said.
Sheinberg says she and her husband are considering moving further inland or leaving Tampa altogether because of how strong these hurricanes have gotten.
