Fayetteville Today

The Fayetteville Area Convention And Visitors Bureau created a website to offer a helping hand to those who fled their homes to get out of Hurricane Ian's path.

This website will provide information about hotels that will accept evacuees, including the number of rooms available and the person to contact for emergencies. Nearly 30 hotels have signed on to the project, and the site is being updated regularly each day.

"This community is such a caring community, to begin with,” Randy Fiveash, interim president and CEO of Fayetteville Area Convention and Visitors Bureau, said in a WTVD report. “It goes back to our roots of taking care of the soldiers, embracing the soldiers and embracing the soldiers. So I think that this is just an offshoot really of us saying, ’We just want to be of help.’" 

Floridians who left their state ahead of landfall said the days leading up to a major hurricane typically are very stressful. 

“You expect people to start hoarding,” Florida evacuee Bryan Delaney said in the report. "That’s what we saw (last) weekend at the supermarket, at the gas station."

Evacuation is hard for everyone, but for those dealing with ongoing health issues, it makes things that are already difficult seem impossible.

Alex West, a Floridian who requires dialysis and who recently had open heart surgery, left his state when the alerts became serious because he has a critical need to be someplace that has electricity so he can get his medical care.

“I understand the desire to want to protect your home, but your life is much more important,” he said. “If you're in an evac zone, evacuate. It's mandatory. Don't fight the law enforcement. Don't fight the system." 

The Fayetteville Area Convention and Visitors Bureau website has the link to the hotel updates in a banner at the top of its page.