Florida evacuees scramble for Georgia hotels as Hurricane Milton nears landfall

HENRY COUNTY, Ga. - Some call it the hurricane hotel headache. No matter the property or type of room, Floridians have nearly snatched them all up in parts of Georgia after packing up and heading out ahead of Hurricane Milton.

"It was difficult because there was a swarm of people trying to come in," said Jennifer Blackmon from Clearwater, Florida. "If somebody did not call and communicate with the reservation, then they actually handed it over and canceled it and gave their room to somebody else."

Blackmon and her family said the normal six-hour drive from Clearwater took over 12. On their way up, they worried about getting a hotel room. But as luck would have it, they snagged one. Others, however, were not so lucky.

RELATED: Milton evacuations: Atlanta Motor Speedway, other Georgia locations opening to evacuees

"The people that were in front of me, they were very upset," she said. "They had children and everything else, and so they said that they were just going to wait in the parking lot overnight, and hopefully something opens up at 11 a.m. that they can get into."

The Georgia Emergency Management Agency has monitored hotels. It says room availability is severely impacted in southern parts of the state by Hurricane Helene relief efforts. Officials are telling people to look north of Atlanta.

"If you plan on staying somewhere in Georgia, south of Atlanta, it's going to be difficult to find," said GEMA Director Chris Stallings.

Floridians who escaped the path of the storm and got a hotel room say they do not regret leaving.

"I'm just glad me and my daughter [and] my grandson are safe," said Deena Harris of Bradenton, Florida. "But, I have family and friends that just stayed."

"All we can do is just pray that we come home to something," Blackmon said.