FORT MYERS, Fla. — Another West Virginia native is checking in after Hurricane Irma passed through their Florida home. Dr. Robert Pritt, a Monroe County native and graduate of the WVU School of Medicine, watched Irma pass by the windows of his home in Fort Myers, Florida last weekend.
“It was very windy, with lots of rain,” Pritt told Hoppy Kercheval on Wednesday’s MetroNews Talkline. “We had a safe place in the house we were going to go to in our laundry room if it got bad, but it was very mesmerizing to watch the trees blow back and forth, so we stayed out.”
Pritt’s home was spared any major damage from the storm, but some of his neighbors weren’t at fortunate. He reported a lot of roofs gone and trees into homes with leaking from the intense rain.
“We have no electricity at our house. Our generator worked for two days and then conked out,” Pritt explained. “We ran the generator for two days and go the refrigerator and freezer cooled down and charged the cell phone, but then it died and for the last 24 hours we’ve had nothing.”
Pritt has lived in Fort Myers since 1994, but said he didn’t believe Irma was the worst storm he’s endured. He commented Hurricane Charlie in 2004 was possibly a worse storm for the area.
Pritt’s home is among the millions across the Sunshine State still struggling with no electricity. The power outage, according to him, is also impacting travel on area streets.
“The stop lights are not working, so all of the stops are four way stops,” he said. ‘We have some that respect that and some that don’t.”