By John Johnston, Associate Editor
November 2017
It’s about 900 miles from The Villages, a community in central Florida, to FMCA’s campground in Cincinnati, Ohio. That’s how far David and Sandy Fuller, F331444, traveled in their 2004 Monaco Holiday Rambler to escape Hurricane Irma, the powerful storm that pounded the southeastern United States in September.
“A motor coach is an absolutely perfect thing to have when you want to flee somewhere,” David said. “You just get in, turn the key, let ’er rip, and go.”
And go they did, along with millions of other evacuees. At 10:30 p.m. September 7, the Fullers headed north from The Villages, where they have owned a home since 2009. By driving overnight, they hoped to encounter less traffic.
“Wrong,” David said. “We got on I-75 and it was a parking lot,” with traffic, at best, moving at 10 mph. So the couple soon exited the interstate and plotted an alternate course on routes that turned out to be much less congested.
Their destination, initially, was Auburn, Alabama — nearly 400 miles north of home — because they felt it probably would be a safe place. While en route, “We saw lots of cars off the side of the road, broken down or out of gas,” Sandy said.
With David and Sandy taking turns driving, they arrived in the Auburn area at 10:00 a.m. on September 8. They had reservations at Spring Villa Campground in nearby Opelika, Alabama. It was delightful, and so was the weather. But Sunday morning, they learned Irma was still stalking them; a tropical storm warning had been issued for Auburn, with wind gusts up to 60 mph.
“The only place we knew to go was FMCA, because everything was booked,” David said. “All the hotels, motels, all the campgrounds — everything was booked with all those millions of people who were evacuating Florida.”
They pulled out of Auburn at 10:00 a.m. Eastern Time on Sunday, September 10, and arrived in Cincinnati at 10:30 that night. At the FMCA campground, every space on the blacktop was occupied, but they found a place to park on the grounds until a spot opened the next day.
The best news of all: Even though Irma caused flooding to occur and sinkholes to appear in The Villages, the Fullers’ property was not damaged.