Some anxiously watch Florence from hundreds of miles away
WILMINGTON, N.C. (WPVI) -- Some people in the Delaware Valley are closely watching the impact of Florence as it hits the Carolinas.
That's because there are family, friends, and neighbors in the path of the storm.
The Wagner family lives in Quakertown, Pa., about 500 miles away from Hurricane Florence. Still, they are glued to the coverage on their mobile devices and TV.
They recently bought a home in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina and hope to one day make it their permanent residence.
Just days ago, Bobby Wagner was at their home in South Carolina but made the important decision to evacuate before the storm hit.
"We had already mapped out that the storm was supposed to hit us Thursday night into Friday, so my neighbor offered that we would go into their house and just sit there and have wine and beer and see what happened," Bobby said.
His wife Debbie was home watching the path of the storm and told him staying to ride it out was not an option.
"I finally called and I woke him up and said, 'GMA said it is going south.' I said, 'You need to get those boards down, board up and come home. Just come home," Debbie said.
Bobby Wagner is now happy he made that decision to come home ahead of the storm, but he still worries about his neighbors who decided to stay put and hope Florence will spare them.
"Most of my neighbors, that is their home and the ones that were staying, they didn't want to leave. And some of them were saying, 'Well, where am I even going to go?'" Bobby said.
The Wagners stay in touch through texts and phone calls with those in their Myrtle Beach neighborhood. Most of the homes are empty and boarded up. Now, they just wait and see what Florence will do.
"We are fortunate that we have a residence here, you know, people down there that don't have it. They are the ones I think about, everything they have could be gone," said Debbie.
"When you really sit down and think about it, that if the water came in and it forced you to go up on your roof, I couldn't imagine," said Bobby. "I certainly wouldn't want to be there."
The Wagners said one of their first investments after the storm will be a set of hurricane shutters.
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