CHINCOTEAGUE ISLAND, Va.- Some areas on Chincoteague Island were under a voluntary evacuation as remnants from Hurricane Ian moved towards Delmarva on Monday. Some neighbors chose to stay behind.
"As far as the high water... if we get a foot, everybody will be fine. So I think this storm isn't gonna hurt us too bad," said Lou Dibartolomeo. Yeah my daughter also has a place down here and it scared her, but as far as this storm I don’t really see it hurting us any” Dibartolomeo and his wife have lived in Bunker Hill for a few years now, and was one of the areas under a voluntary evacuation. Fellow neighbor Eric Weimer also stayed behind.
"We've stayed in previous storms... it'll be alright it'll come up a little bit but nothing life threatening or anything like that. We feel that it'll be ok," said Weimer. “The ocean is very powerful. It will kill you any time it wishes. We have respect for that. So we’re not being obtuse or unintelligent about it. We think we’ve made calculated decisions. And we’ve been through this before with this type of stuff.”
Todd Cotherman was playing fetch with his dog Captain. Cotherman says he is not too worried about the storm.
“It really isn’t nothing we haven’t been through before… this ain’t nothing but another day,” said Cotherman.
By Monday evening, the town had called off the voluntary evacuation, but warned residents that there would be similar flooding the next four tide cycles.
