SCOTT SIMON, HOST:
Authorities said evacuate, and hundreds of thousands of Florida residents did before Hurricane Milton whirled ashore there this week. Officials say that's a major reason the death toll is more than 10 people so far, but far more were expected. NPR's Adrian Florido talked to people who left and some who stayed. He joins us now from Sarasota, where the hurricane made landfall Wednesday. Adrian, thanks for being with us.
ADRIAN FLORIDO, BYLINE: You're welcome, Scott.
SIMON: Residents who left are now returning home, and what did they find?
FLORIDO: Well, some are finding damage and destruction, others that their homes were spared. I visited Debra and Stephen Lortz at their house yesterday. As soon as the storm passed on Thursday morning, they rushed out of the shelter that they'd evacuated to. They were eager to see if their house had survived. They drove around downed trees and power lines.
DEBRA LORTZ: Then we came around the waterway and mixed our way through and got here, and she was here.
FLORIDO: Their house was fine. The roof lost just one shingle.
STEPHEN LORTZ: One little piece of shingle...
D LORTZ: Yeah.
S LORTZ: ...Which is just a miracle.
FLORIDO: The Lortzes are both Floridians in their 60s, Scott. They have lived through a lot of hurricanes, but they had never evacuated for one, they told me, until now.
D LORTZ: Because this looked different than any of the others.
S LORTZ: It had a beautiful eye, and the eye wall was, like, thick. And we saw that, and we said, we're not staying.
SIMON: Adrian, how do they feel about their decision to leave?
FLORIDO: Well, they said they would not have changed it.
S LORTZ: Because you got to be a realist...
D LORTZ: Yeah.
S LORTZ: ...And I'll always run if it's looking like it could kill us.
FLORIDO: Scott, officials are saying that the fact that so many other people evacuated, just like them, is one reason that there weren't more deaths because a lot of homes were flooded in this storm. They were damaged or destroyed.
SIMON: And, of course, you also spoke with people who chose not to leave their homes, despite the warnings.
FLORIDO: Yeah, in fact, I spoke with the Lortzes' neighbors who live just a few doors down. Osa Atoe and her partner, Joey, decided to ride it out.
OSA ATOE: Everybody's situation is different, and everyone needs to make the best decision for themselves.
FLORIDO: Now, Osa said that she and her partner did a detailed assessment of their house. It's made of concrete. It's got a brand-new metal roof. They weren't worried about flooding because they're 16 feet above sea level.
ATOE: Which sounds like nothing to other people, but that's like the - one of the highest points in the city (laughter) of Sarasota.
FLORIDO: People they know gave them flack for deciding to stay.
ATOE: But we, also, as a family, made decisions and felt safe staying in our home, in our particular situation.
FLORIDO: Osa says that she knows that for some people, though, you know, even for some of her neighbors with different types of houses or at slightly lower elevations, this would not have been the right choice.
SIMON: Of course, the worst did not come to pass with this hurricane. Are experts...
FLORIDO: Yeah.
SIMON: ...Worried, Adrian, that this might affect how people respond in the future when storms come ashore?
FLORIDO: You know, I asked Ioannis Zisis that. He's an engineer at Florida International University. He researches how to build more hurricane-resistant homes.
IOANNIS ZISIS: I'm concerned, I'm a bit afraid that the average homeowner - the next time they ask them to evacuate, they might think of, you know, last time, nothing happened. No, it doesn't work like that. We should keep taking seriously these extreme events.
FLORIDO: Especially, he says, because these storms are getting stronger, and people's houses might have structural weaknesses that they're not even aware of.
SIMON: NPR's Adrian Florido in Sarasota, thanks so much.
FLORIDO: Thank you, Scott. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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