North Carolina, Virginia, South Carolina residents head north to escape Hurricane Florence

Newark, Del. (WTXF) - North Carolina, Virginia, South Carolina residents are heading north to escape Hurricane Florence.

Melody Myers packed everything she could fit into her van with her two daughters Tuesday morning and headed north from her home in south port North Carolina. She made the long trek up I-95 and away from the power-packed and approaching Hurricane Florence.

"We were gonna ride it out and yesterday morning. I was like, No, I gotta go," Myers told FOX 29 at a rest stop along I-95 in Newark, Delaware. "I didn't want to see my kids have to sit through that and get scared, then not know if our house would stay in place."

Melody boarded up the home she just moved into back in May and headed out.

Melody hadn't slept much in the past three days and still had hours to go to reach her family in New York City. Traveling alone with her kids has been tough and she's worried about Florence and the possible damage the hurricane could do to her new home.

"I'm just scared. I don't know if our house is still gonna be there," she added.

"So far, it's been an 8 hour drive because of the traffic," Joanna Bertucci, who left her Hampton, Virginia, home with her husband and their child, said.

The Bertucci's were headed to Philly to get away from Florence, but they're looking in the rearview mirror hoping their home won't be damaged by the huge storm.

"Thought we should evacuate because you never know what's going to happen," she said.

Army veteran Steven Gregory is on leave so he packed up his family in North Carolina and turned their SUV towards Bohemia, New York. He's lives a few hours from where the storm could hit the hardest.

Melody Myers was planning on stopping at a hotel in the Philadelphia area Wednesday night to get some much needed rest for she and her girls before finishing her trip to New York on Thursday.