Irma Evacuees In NC: Now, You’re Running With Your Life

Charlotte, NC — More evacuees keep showing up to Charlotte Motor Speedway and shelters in our area.

Five children packed into a camper with Franklin Henry and his wife, watching Hurricane Irma hit their home near Tampa on security cameras while they seek safety in Concord.

“Now we are on limited resources. Whatever we had right there right then, it’s all that we have,” said Henry.

Across the Charlotte Motor Speedway campgrounds, Michael Henderson pulled in with his wife and three kids.

“Now you’re running with your life,” said Henderson.

They left their Florida home before midnight. He says the wind was so strong before Irma, they had to stop.

“It was pushing us all over the road,” said Henderson. “We had to stop and pull off the interstate, get in between two buildings with the motor home because that thing was rocking and rolling.”

Evacuees from Florida, Georgia and South Carolina, all here.

“There was people on the sides of the road running out of gas. They were so desperate to leave,” said Henry.

Others stop at American Red Cross shelters to rest as they drive north.

“You got to make a mad dash to get away from the storm,” said Henry. “It’s difficult because your job and everything else is back there, and you come here and you don’t have really nothing.”

The Red Cross says shelters south of Charlotte are full. Signs on the side of highways direct people to the Huntersville location.

To see a full list of locations and addresses, click here.

Volunteers expect it to fill in the coming days.

The five shelters across the state can take in more than 1,400 people.

These families don’t know when or if they can ever go home.

“That’s another issue, if we have homes to go back to or our jobs to go back to,” said Henry.