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Hurricane Michael evacuees settle into Jacksonville

As a major hurricane heads straight for the Panhandle, several families who live there are now heading straight to Jacksonville for safety.

Many evacuees got into town Tuesday afternoon and we were there as they were checking into Jacksonville hotels.

After seeing the devastation that Hurricane Opal left behind in 1995 when it hit Panama City as a Category 4 storm, Glenn Perry said he wasn’t going to take any chances in his home.

“The trailer will not hold up the way it should,” Perry said.

First Alert Chief Meteorologist Mike Buresh said the path, timing and intensity of Hurricane Michael is comparable to Hurricane Opal.

“It flooded the entire downtown area, knocked a bunch of trees down,” Perry said of Opal.

Shakonda Beamer and her family also hit the road Tuesday, headed for Jacksonville.

“We just want to make sure that we’re safe in case something happens,” Beamer said.

They live in Crawfordville about 20 minutes from the beach.

“They told us to get out,” Charles Beamer said.

There is a mandatory evacuation in place for them, and flooding is the primary concern.

“And not being able to get out, so we have a lot of friends who decided to stay. We are just worried about them,” Beamer said.

It was a last-minute decision for Julio Sixto and his family to get out of Tallahassee.

“A week without power with little ones --  it wasn’t worth it for me,” Sixto said.

“They’re making a grave mistake. If it’s anything like Opal, they are making a big mistake,” Perry said of those who decided to wait out the storm..

First Alert Chief Meteorologist Mike Buresh said it’s not too late to evacuate.

If you have loved ones still in the path of the hurricane, you can tell them to hit the road first thing in the morning to get to safety.