Snowbirds arrive in SWFL as Eta eyes the region

Many in Southwest Florida are storing up supplies and getting ready for whatever Eta could bring, and some shoppers we spoke to say they normally don’t have to deal with a storm like this.

We spoke to snowbirds Wednesday who recently arrived in the region during the start of the busy season and what is still hurricane season.

A couple says they just got here and never have to prepare for storms because of the time of year they usually come down, but this year is different.

We saw many shoppers leaving stores with things including cleaning supplies and water. Others said they’re playing the waiting game.

Jim Kenaga lives in Fort Myers seasonally. He arrived recently from Iowa.

“If the forecast starts to get worse, then, we’ll look at hunkering down more,” Kenega said.

He normally never has to stock up on storm supplies and neither does Mike Swift.

“We’re not prepping for it at all,” Swift said.

Swift admits he hasn’t followed the storm much because of the election.

“To be honest, I’ve been fixated on the election a little bit,” Swift said.

We heard that from many shoppers walking out with their supplies.

“I think it has taken our thoughts away from anything else, especially yesterday,” Susan Greene said.

We also talked with one woman who works for a grocery delivery service. She shops for multiple people every day.

“You’ll see people getting today five gallons of water, I did, and two gallons of other waters,” said Gillian Hathorn, who works for Shipt.

We heard people say they still have many of their storm supplies that they got at the beginning of the hurricane season, and they think that should last them well beyond this storm.

Hathorn isn’t sure if it’s all been for storm preparations but expects to see shopping lists with storm supplies on them in the coming days.

“With the storm coming, there may be a lot of people ordering a lot more items come the end of the week,” Hathorn said.