PALM BEACH COUNTY, Fla. — As people living on the west coast of Florida are facing mandatory evacuation orders ahead of Hurricane Milton's landfall, hotels are starting to fill up in Palm Beach County as residents from Tampa, Orlando and other cities begin to leave their homes.
The Best Western in Palm Beach County has seen its rooms reach near capacity since the evacuation orders were announced this weekend. Nearly all of their 130 rooms have been rented through Saturday morning.
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"You can hear it in their voice—the desperation and panic, and we have to be calm when people get here because they're panicked," Rick Netzel, director of sales at Best Western Palm Beach Lakes, said.
The pet-friendly hotel only has around 10 available rooms left as of Monday afternoon.
Several other hotels in the area say they are also gearing up to reach total capacity over the next week. Gov. Ron DeSantis said in apress conference Sundaythat this could be the biggest evacuation order the state has seen since Hurricane Irma in 2017.
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