As Hurricane Florence approaches, SC man will ride it out in his boat. He isn’t alone.
As Hurricane Florence nears landfall, some people are opting to ignore evacuation orders and stick out the Category 2 storm.
Officials have urged more than one million people in the coastal regions of North Carolina and South Carolina to evacuate, according to CNN. North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper told residents that “you put your life at risk by staying.”
On Thursday, Hurricane Florence is expected to make its way over North Carolina, then make “a slow motion over eastern South Carolina” starting sometime after Friday night. The storm is currently 300 miles wide and has winds between 74 to 95 miles per hour.
But Maaike Brandis, a bar owner from Wilmington, North Carolina, says she’ll “ride it out” and “stand my ground” instead of leaving. In an interview with The Boston Herald, Brandis said that she is “staying for my business” — the Cape Fear Wine & Beer, which she has owned for 15 years.
“I’m going to be prepared. I’m going to be vigilant and I’m going to be safe,” she said, according to The Boston Herald. “I’m not really scared of anything. I’m a pretty fearless lady. I’ve beat cancer. I’ve beat injuries. I almost lost my leg.
“At this point, I’m not afraid of anything. I’m just ready to take everything head on. I like a challenge, too.”
She spoke about her decision with CNN’s Chris Cuomo, who asked her “why is it okay that you’re staying when you’ve been told it’s time to go?”
She responded that she is just under a voluntary evacuation.
“I’ve weathered out several serious storms, and I’m not jumping ship,” she said on CNN. “I’m going to go down with the ship if I have to.”
Another man from South Carolina is also refusing to evacuate — and instead will try to ride out the storm on his boat.
Masten Cloer says he plans to find shelter in his boat while its docked on a marina in Little River, South Carolina, according to The Greenville News. “We’re pretty far from the beach,” Cloer told the newspaper. “But all water rises together.”
On Facebook, he shared The Greenville News’ story about his decision to weather the storm, writing in a caption that “when you come from Hudson your balls are so big they cant be sunk. not even by a big a-- hurricane.”
Not all of his friends seemed impressed with the idea.
“My friend Masten Cloer is a determined man, but I am fearful for him, nonetheless,” one person wrote on his Facebook page. “Thoughts & vibes & love & luck & prayers & love to all y’all over there. Hang on, it’s gonna be a bumpy ride.”
“Masten, please change your mind,” another wrote. “You are important to so many. Get to safety OK.”
A mom and her three young girls talked to an MSNBC reporter about why they are going to stay for the storm in Wilmington, North Carolina. One girl said they planned to stay behind and color, while another said “we are just going to do everything normally.”
The mom offered her explanation why.
“We have several neighbors staying put. We feel like there is strength in numbers,” she told MSNBC. “We’re just going to band together and make it through.”
Jeremy Tominack, 40, said that he will stay in Wilmington, North Carolina, while his wife and children evacuate to a safer area, according to USA Today. He said he isn’t worried about the power of Hurricane Florence.
“I’m not worried. I’m just hanging in there,” he told USA Today. “What can I do? I think it would be more trouble to leave.”
And Jon Wright, a retired firefighter who moved to Wilmington from New York, said his previous job experience prepares him to survive the hurricane, USA Today reported. He told the outlet that, “I’m not going to panic.”
“I was a firefighter for 42 years. I believe in preparation,” he said, according to USA Today. “It is what it is. We live in a wonderful place but that’s the cost of living here.”
So why aren’t these people leaving?
Cara Cuite, a Rutgers psychologist, said that no matter how hard emergency officials try to warn people, “there’s a certain population that’s never going to leave,” according to Vox. Some reasons include being afraid to leave behind pets, having a disability or fearing that your house will be burglarized while you are gone, Vox noted. A 2009 study of Hurricane Katrina survivors also found they viewed it as selfish to leave their hometown during an emergency.
Instead, Cuite told Vox that first responders find that fear is the best way to get people to heed an evacuation order. One example is to use a permanent marker to write a person’s social security number on their arm in case they die and need to be identified.
“It’s trying to make people scared,” she said, according to Vox. “But the issue with scaring people is that you want to make sure they have the information they need to evacuate: Here’s how you evacuate, here are the best roads to take, here’s where the shelters are.”
This story was originally published September 13, 2018 at 9:41 AM.