BOYNTON BEACH – More than 900 people used Palm Beach County’s five shelters Wednesday evening as Hurricane Milton cut a devastating path through Florida. Howard Foster was one of them.
The Riviera Beach resident was one of about 100 people who braved tropical storm force winds at the shelter at Park Vista High School along Jog Road in suburban Boynton Beach. By 10 a.m. on Thursday, almost everyone had left.
Foster was waiting for a friend to take him to the mobile home park where he lives. It’s not far from the Intracoastal Waterway, and Palm Beach County sheriff’s deputies urged residents of its community to go to a shelter.
Many didn’t, but Foster said he left because he didn’t want to take any chances. As it turned out, Foster’s community suffered minimal damage.
“I’d rather be safe than sorry,” he said Thursday morning. “You never know what could happen with these hurricanes. I was very concerned about losing power.”
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Seven locations in Palm Beach County provided shelter from Hurricane Milton
The province used four other schools as shelters: Palm Beach Gardens High School, Forest Hill High School in West Palm Beach, Palm Beach Central High School in Wellington and Lake Shore Middle School in Belle Glade, where 228 people were living as of Wednesday evening. The Glades area saw heavy winds and rain from Milton in the early hours of Wednesday.
“It’s a pretty good amount,” county spokesman John Jamason said of the people hosting the Belle Glade school. “A lot of times the shelter in Glades doesn’t have that many people. I think maybe it’s because it could be a little worse there, or maybe it’s a little worse rather than here on the coast.’
The county also had a pet-friendly shelter at the West Boynton Recreation Center and a special needs shelter at the South Florida Fairgrounds.
The only problem Foster had with the shelter at Park Vista High was that there were no beds or even mats for people to sleep on. “It was hard to sleep on the bare floor,” he said.
But both Foster and Berneal Garnett, who is homeless, said they were satisfied with the way the shelter was run. “No complaints,” Garnett said.
James Green, director of the Palm Beach County Community Services Department, said anyone staying in a shelter is being informed that bedding will not be provided.
“We specifically tell them to bring that along with other items,” he said.
Some shelters in Palm Beach County housed people from other counties
Other shelters saw a mix of local residents and evacuees from other counties who chose to drive here from Milton.
Palm Beach Gardens High is the county’s largest shelter, with a capacity for more than 5,200 people. Liz Rivera of Fort Pierce arrived first. She arrived an hour early with her three children: three-year-old twins whom she pushed in a double stroller and a teenager who helped carry their suitcases.
Rivera, 33, decided to evacuate because she felt safer in the high school’s main gym than in her home. She saw many homes flooded in Puerto Rico when Hurricane Maria hit in 2017. She didn’t want to risk being stuck in a flooded house with her children.
“I’m scared,” said Rivera, who is sheltering in Palm Beach Gardens because her husband works nearby. “I don’t want to drown, especially because I have my children. I think it will be safer here.”
Shaharazade DeCorday also decided to weather the storm from the shelter because she feels safer there. She lives in a cottage in Riviera Beach, surrounded by large trees that tilt forward when the wind blows.
Over the years, the high school has become her refuge during storm threats. This is the fourth time she has sought shelter there. DeCorday only brought a few tote bags and used her jacket as a pillow Wednesday evening. She doesn’t mind because it’s worth it to feel protected, she said.
Still, she hopes this is the last time she will take shelter there. After living in Florida for twenty years, she wants to move to Missouri.
“I’m tired of hurricanes and the heat,” DeCorday said. “Twenty years is enough, right?”
Mike Diamond is a journalist at The Palm Beach Postpart of the USA TODAY Florida Network. He covers Palm Beach County government and issues affecting homeowners associations. You can reach him at mdiamond@pbpost.com. Help support local journalism. Subscribe today.
This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Hurricane Milton: More than 900 people used shelters in Palm Beach County
