Irma's Ripple Effects Felt in Vermont

Ripple effects from Hurricane Irma are being felt all the way up the East Coast, in Vermont.

"I cried when we flew out of town this morning," said Kathy Lewis, a resident of Orlando, Florida, who traveled to Vermont Friday as Irma was approaching her state.

Lewis and her husband, Roger, said they were already looking forward to celebrating their fortieth wedding anniversary in Vermont, and didn't cancel their plans when the storm approached. Their scheduled trip would also get them out of Florida in time to dodge Irma, they pointed out.

"We're pretty confident we'll be all right," Roger Lewis said, noting that neighbors and relatives will be regularly checking on their property and giving them updates.

"We're just praying for everyone — that we come through this as good as we can," Kathy Lewis added.

Larisa Moon, a resident of Savannah, Georgia, was also among the storm evacuees necn met at the Burlington International Airport.

Moon is from Vermont originally, so came home to stay with family while Irma pounds the South.

"My husband wanted our son and myself to be a little safer," Moon said, explaining she was concerned about taking care of a baby if there happens to be a lengthy power outage. "Hopefully nothing's wrong with the house — that everything's fine—but, better safe than sorry."

Steve McQueen, the former police chief of Winooski, moved from Vermont to Florida for a job near Orlando with the Disney Vacation Club.

He said he and his wife do not plan to evacuate their home in the city of Davenport, Florida.

"We have enough water to get us through probably two weeks," McQueen told necn. "Enough food for at least a week, a camp stove, lanterns — we're anticipating we’re going to be without power for a while more than anything else."

National Weather Service meteorologist Robert Deal used to live in Florida, and has many friends and relatives there.

From his Vermont forecast center, Deal is keeping one eye on Irma, and the other on text messages and social media posts from his loved ones.

"This is a terrifying storm," he observed. "Most of my friends who are in the area have either made plans to evacuate — so they're already gone — or they work for the National Weather Service so they've already barricaded up their house and they're now going to be doing work just the same I would for any winter storm here."

We checked in with several Vermont organizations that lent support to Texas following Hurricane Harvey. They said they're now watching Irma closely, to see if more aid is needed and if they will be able to help.

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